The making of a story ebook

Hart then set about typing up more texts to make them electronically available. What he created was far more than an electronic text document, what he created was an idea. The idea of not just using computers to crunch numbers and deal with data, but to get computers sharing text and literature.

It was a long time before the next development came along in from the computer games creators East Gate Systems. It was around this time that the company published the first hypertext fiction work. The first hyper textbook was titled Afternoon by Michael Joyce and was available for purchase on a floppy disk.

This book was created as the first demonstration of a new online program called Story Space. Story Space was a software program available for Personal computers for creating, editing and reading hypertext fiction.

BiblioBytes launched a website to sell ebooks over the internet, the first company to create a financial exchange system for the net. Oxford University Press offered a selection of its books over the internet through netLibrary. Dick Brass of Microsoft declared that ebooks were the future of reading.

Christmas is still a huge time for selling books, recipe books, picture books, design books, coffee table books and picture books for newborn babies. This market of bookselling has not been affected by Ebooks and ebooks and still have not tapped into this market. Pages do not exist in E-Books, and the orientation of the reader within the text can be altered depending on adjustments made to the font size and layout. Therefore, the location of the reader throughout the text is displayed as a percentage of the whole text.

The rise of e-readers has prompted speculation about the ways the mind processes words on a screen compared to words in paper books—the concern that holding a physical book promotes understanding in a way that staring at a screen does not. The physicality of the book, sparks the reader to see the text not only for its content but as an object as well. A recent study by Sara Margolin suggests that e-readers do not hinder reading comprehension, at least in short passages of text.

As research like this gains ground, the use of e-readers will only increase, and with it, new ways of conceiving of and talking about reading will surface in the language, and in turn, enter dictionaries. While eBooks are unlikely to ever totally replace the physical books, their continued development will surely create new and interesting ways for people to consume content. Despite making some poor choices, I did try very hard to do right by this unexpected reversal of fortunes.

The school where my husband taught had a financial planner that offered services to teachers, so we met with him and his partner, but it was obvious they only wanted to sell us life insurance. Our tax guy told us what to write off, but we had no idea what we were doing. No writer I knew had someone they trusted for financial advice, and our unconventional earnings made getting clear advice very difficult.

I lived in Brooklyn, a borough of one of the most expensive cities in the world. While I was buoyed by the very small, very occasional foreign book deal, this was it until there were more books in the pipeline. What could I have done differently? I could have opted to move to a city that was less expensive, certainly. I could have chosen not to quit my day job, but it would have been tough. I had five books under contract at once, plus the enormous task of building and maintaining an author brand.

I had no idea and was not told upon entering the program how nearly impossible it is to find work as faculty in any college or university, regardless of how qualified you are.

I could have and now wish more than anything that I had paid off my student loans. I could have put myself on a strict budget — one that assumed I was never going to get big payouts as a writer again. I could have saved a down payment for a house. And I could have put money aside each year for retirement. As the royalty statements came in, and a foreign book contract was dropped due to low sales, my worry began to grow. One sent me on tour, which is about as luxe as it can get for an author, but very few people showed up at the events, and that was that.

Fast-forward to my third book deal, for a contemporary novel. Bloom Discovery Award , garnered several starred reviews, had multiple books on important lists, and worked hard on author-branding and social media. What other job would lower your salary after getting such great performance reviews?

But no one tells you your numbers, so I really had no idea where I stood. Never mind that the book was critically praised and had made some of those nice lists. It is a business, after all. Which is fair… to a point. In reality, they were paying me less than half the salary of a local public-school teacher.

I do more marketing than most marketing professionals, including loads of promotional work such as interviews, guest posts, and podcast appearances. My publishers have never made so much as a bookmark for me though twice they agreed to design them if I paid for the printing.

If I wanted to go to a book festival or important industry conference out of town, I had to pay, unless the festival organizer covered the costs, which they rarely do.

I have a book coming out next year that is getting more marketing attention already, but I know better than to get my hopes up. None of the people in the room so to speak warned that the next time around the advance might be lower. At the end of the day, I decided that this book deal was better than no book deal.

We signed the papers, and made a wish. In retrospect, I should have taken that two-book deal. The smaller the advances got, the more strain I began to experience. What makes LaPlante's book such a great resource? Primary, I think it's the clarity in which she explains the mechanics of story writing, coupled with her choices of examples. Her input made me reassess and fine-tune my writing.

I realize as I'm writing this review, I sound like some sort of writing snob. I'm not and maybe my Fiction won't get published, however I know that there was personal improvement with use of LaPlante's book and I want to pass that on! LaPlante divides her chapters into three sections. The first is the lecture component, which is filled with small examples.

She follows with writing exercises, some of which I tried during the last few months, but many I didn't have time to do while taking classes. LaPlante's exercises are going to be a resource that I can pull on as needed. Each chapter finished with a couple of published short-stories to support the lecture. I'd like to make a suggestion with the short stories, read them aloud.

With the shorts in LaPlante, plus others that came with my classes, I've probably read about fifty short stories in the last quarter.

Reading them aloud can be a pain, but it allowed me to get the cadence and pacing of the story. Also, I'm a very fast reader and I tend to skim, reading aloud forced me to slow down and really absorb every word and more deeply understand the mechanics.

Some of the stories in LaPlante are tried and true classics, like Hemmingway's Hills Like White Elephants, but LaPlante also picked more modern pieces, many of whom I had not encountered previously. It's a great mix. I feel like reading such a variety of shorts may be the biggest contributing factor to my personal growth as a writer. In this chapter, she uses two different published versions of the same Raymond Carver story to show growth in revisions.

If you read nothing else in this book, make sure to read this chapter. The Carver stories are such a keen example of how a story can grown between drafts and also illustrates my favorite aspect of writing, discovering possibilities in your story. The two stories are the same, but with a few shifts and added scenes, the entire meaning is changed.

I was blown away. Method and Madness is a comprehensive manual for both the beginning and experienced fiction writer. I'm positive that it will be an invaluable resource for me for many years to come. Like my review? Check out my blog! Feb 12, Aleksandr Voinov is currently reading it. Finally reading this after having owned it for years. It is so down-to-eath, deep, practical.

I had signed up for the three-day event because there were small sessions for writing critique, and more importantly, Natalie Goldberg was keynote speaker. While that's ancillary information as she was not the one who recommended the book , it set the stage for this "journalist" turned "writer" to purchase the page paperback copy in a local bookstore to get on the literary pat This book was recommended while I was attending the Writer on the Sound writer's conference in Edmonds, WA in While that's ancillary information as she was not the one who recommended the book , it set the stage for this "journalist" turned "writer" to purchase the page paperback copy in a local bookstore to get on the literary path.

To date, I've picked up the book only a handful of times, making my famed notes in the margins to return to at a later date for inspiration. It sits on my shelf, glowing yellow cover blaring at me as a reminder to explore my storytelling devices rather than stick to my usual, dependable "just the facts ma'am" approach to journalism.

In other words, it's an amazing, jam-packed resource book that has been described as a master's degree in creative writing, book form. View 1 comment. Jan 03, Rilkepoet rated it really liked it.

It's engaging and practical, an excellent text for an intro to creative writing or intro to fiction class. If I didn't give this five stars, it's because the nonfiction sections it's marketed as both a fiction and nonfiction writing guide feel extraneous; it's really a fiction text that wants to encompass fiction and nonfiction, though the latter gets a bit of a short shrift. This has been "corrected" with the paperback "edition," Method and Madness , which focuses solely on fiction, adds more short stories, but unfortunately is more expensive.

Feb 18, Rose rated it really liked it Shelves: writing , reference , non-fiction. This is a nice writing referential guide all in one place - addresses many aspects in the realm of creative fiction as well as creative non-fiction, with a plethora of examples and citations.

Much of the material I already knew, but it was interesting to gain insight on the usual story components. Overall score: 3. May 07, Ev. I thought this book did a good job of laying down some "ground rules" for fiction writing. I mean, most seasoned authors would know them, but LaPlante provides a good refresher on how to craft characters, beginnings, ends, scenes, settings, etc. That's not to say her words are the be all and end all to writing.

It was simply nice to see some solid advice laid out in an organized manner, backed up by some really cool short stories. Feb 07, Traci rated it it was ok Shelves: on-writing , library , learn-something. The problem with this book is that so little of it is written by LaPlante. Rather, probably 75 percent of the pages are filled with excerpts and full reprints of short stories.

I don't mind examples to illustrate the element of writing being discussed, but it would be helpful to have more than a couple of sentences from LaPlante before Joyce Carol Oates shows up again.

This is a writing text book. It feels like it's directed towards writers of high brow literary fiction which is great. Unfortunately that's not me. Most of this book simply went right over my head. This may have worked better for me if I used it in a fine arts class or writing workshop but it's not a writing book I'd recommend.

I think there are better out there. Really great reference book for aspiring writers. Oct 05, William Schram rated it really liked it Shelves: textbooks , writing.

A blank page can be uncomfortable. Some people can delve deep into the well of creativity and come up with anything: a word essay on mollusks, for example.

The rest of us require help sometimes, though. The Making of a Story is a Noton Guide to creative writing. It has several short stories as examples and questions to elicit understanding. The book is for a classroom setting.

There are some old favorites in this collection. This book did A blank page can be uncomfortable. This book didn't stand out too much, but it works for what it is. Aug 05, Kim Timmermans rated it it was amazing. Very comprehensive, so encouraging and not prescriptive at all, just the perfect guide for me. There are maybe a bit too much examples complete short stories and stuff but I enjoyed reading everything! Shelves: writing-instruction , non-fiction , writing-related , i-will-reread.

In The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing , Alice LaPlante delves into the subject of creative writing with great detail; this book is layered, and has a lot of information to absorb—too much to be sufficiently learned with just one reading.

This book will require many revisits, and many re-reads to get everything out of it. This is not a bad thing. For readers and budding writers who are looking to get a lot of bang for their buck, purchasing The Making of a Story: A Norton In The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing , Alice LaPlante delves into the subject of creative writing with great detail; this book is layered, and has a lot of information to absorb—too much to be sufficiently learned with just one reading.

For readers and budding writers who are looking to get a lot of bang for their buck, purchasing The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing will definitely be money well spent. The one criticism I have is that the text of this book does not flow well. There are very many writing examples that the author includes, perhaps too many. This can inspire instances of information overload and perhaps confusion for one trying to figure out style and voice.

The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing would be best suited for a classroom, or workshop setting, rather than a solo venture. Nonetheless, if one does have a lot of patience, time and desire to go solo to master his or her writing, than this book is a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf. I know I will be revisiting it in the future as I develop as a writer and wish to partake in some of the exercises and lessons available in The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing.

Also, one of the best chapters is at the end of this book, and it is on revision. There are some very good insights provided, as well as cautionary advice to help a budding writer not lose faith.

In essence, what is said is that the revision process is the most important part of the writing process, and where a piece truly gets its shape and meaning. A writer should therefore not give up on a rough first draft, but simply plough through to completion. Very inspiring stuff indeed.

May 29, Theresa rated it it was amazing. Are you a writer?