Narrative Design: Working with Imagination, Craft, and Form

With clarity, verve, and the sure instincts of a good teacher, Madison Smartt Bell offers in this book a roll-up-your-sleeves approach to writing. Focusing on the big picture as well as the crucial details, Bell examines twelve stories by both established writers (including Peter Taylor, Mary Gaitskill, and Carolyn Chute) and his own former students. He shows how to analyze the use of time, plot, character, and other elements of fiction and guides the reader to see each story's flaws and strengths. Careful endnotes bring attention to various writers' different ways of shaping language.