Who Says Mastering Point Of View In Fiction

A thorough, illuminating, and entertaining guide to crafting point of view, a fiction writer’s most essential choice. Who is telling the story to whom is the single most important question about any work of fiction; the answer is central to everything from style and tone to plot and pacing. Using hundreds of examples from Jane Austen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Leo Tolstoy to Stephen King, novelist and longtime MFA professor Lisa Zeidner dives deep into the points of view we are most familiar with—first and third person—and moves beyond to second-person narration, frame tales, and even animal points of view. Engaging and accessible, Who Says? presents any practicing writer with a new system for choosing a point of view, experimenting with how it determines the narrative, and applying these ideas to revision.

A thorough, illuminating, and entertaining guide to crafting point of view, a fiction writer’s most essential choice. Who is telling the story to whom is the single most important question about any work of fiction; the answer is central to everything from style and tone to plot and pacing. Using hundreds of examples from Jane Austen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Leo Tolstoy to Stephen King, novelist and longtime MFA professor Lisa Zeidner dives deep into the points of view we are most familiar with—first and third person—and moves beyond to second-person narration, frame tales, and even animal points of view. Engaging and accessible, Who Says? presents any practicing writer with a new system for choosing a point of view, experimenting with how it determines the narrative, and applying these ideas to revision.

Shows readers how to create the most effective point of view and how to control and manipulate it to create conflict, depth and suspense.

"Based on the true story of Henry "Box" Brown's amazing escape from slavery"--Cover.

An inventive, mordantly funny novel about love, marriage, stalkers, and the indignities of parenthood In quaint Haddonfield, New Jersey, Tess is about to marry Gabe in her childhood home. Her mother, Helen, is in a panic about the guests, who include warring exes, crying babies, jealous girlfriends, and too many psychiatrists. But the most difficult guest was never on the list at all: a woman in a wedding dress and a gas mask, armed with a rifle, a bomb trigger strapped to her arm. Lisa Zeidner's audacious novel Love Bomb begins as a hostage drama and blossoms into a far-reaching tale about the infinite varieties of passion and heartbreak. Who has offended this nutcase, and how? Does she seek revenge against the twice-divorced philanderer? Or is her agenda political—against the army general? Or the polygamous Muslim from Mali? While the warm, wise Helen attempts to bond with the masked woman and control the hysteria, the hostages begin to untangle what connects them to one another, and to their captor. But not until the SWAT team arrives does "the terrorist of love" unveil her real motives . . . Critics have praised Lisa Zeidner's prose for its "unforced edginess and power"; her fiction "shines with humor, wisdom, and poignancy." In her most masterful novel yet, Zeidner gives us a tough yet tender social comedy, a romance with guts, a serious frolic written out of deep affection for all that it skewers.

To write well, you must reach beyond the classroom basics of composition, get a grip on the more complex concepts, and learn how to create books, articles, and stories that move—not only from the editor’s desk to the bookstore, but also in the minds of your readers. In this book, accomplished writer Gary Provost helps you tackle that tough task. Here you’ll touch the soul of fine fiction and nonfiction. You’ll explore the intangibles: the relationships between form and content, proportion and pacing, slant and theme. And you’ll gain a new perspective on how words work together. In that newfound knowledge you’ll find power—power Provost helps you transfer to the page. In candid, conversational style, he shows you: • how to balance event and dialogue to keep the pace lively • why unity is essential to a story—and how to maintain it • how to make the written word pleasing to the ear • the value of fresh, strong imagery • how startling originality will keep your readers interested • how to make your story credible—even when it’s fiction • how subtlety allows your reader to participate in the action • how to tighten up the tension at every level of your story Provost makes no promise that the work will be easy. He promises only that your books, articles, and stories will get better. There are, after all, no magic words—except those you put on the page.

From the bestselling, critically acclaimed author of Man in the Woods and Endless Love, a stunning, stinging portrait of class and creativity-and the double-edged sword of success Thirteen parties over the course of two decades-an opium infused barbeque, a reception for a doomed presidential candidate, a fund-raiser for a blind child who speaks in tongues, a visit to one of New York’s fabled sex clubs-brilliantly reveal the lives of two couples, one hoping to be admitted to the kingdom of Art, the other hoping for a small share of the American dream, both driven by forces of history they rarely perceive or acknowledge. Thaddeus Kaufman, the son of booksellers, and Grace Cornell, raised in a basement apartment she longs to escape, meet at a neighborhood art fair in Chicago. Soon after, they head to New York, aloft on the wings of young love. Jennings Stratton, the son of a caretaker, and Muriel Sanchez, the daughter of a cop, meet in a house he is refurbishing in New Mexico, and they, too, head for the big city. In a vast Hudson River estate, the lives of the two couples ultimately intertwine. Thaddeus has made it big in an unexpected way, setting off a chain reaction of envy among his friends and peers and forever changing the dynamic of his marriage with Grace, for whom success has been elusive, and art, once a source of solace, has become a font of bitterness. And Jennings, hoping to transcend his reputation as the local Casanova, a man suited only for menial tasks, has ventured into a cycle of theft and betrayal that threatens to destroy the fragile life of his family. Funny and cutting, affecting and expansive, River Under the Road is Scott Spencer’s masterpiece of all that lies beneath our everyday lives-a story about the pursuit of love, art, and money, and the inevitable reckoning that awaits us all.

Peterson's Master the GED: Mastering the Language Arts, Reading Test offers readers a complete look at the GED Language Arts, Reading Test. Readers will learn all about the GED Language Arts, Reading Test, including Understanding fiction (elements of fiction, prose fiction, poetry, and more) Understanding nonfiction (information and opinion texts, literary nonfiction, oral history, critical reviews of the visual and performing arts, workplace and community documents, and more) General test-taking strategies to score high Master the GED: Mastering the Language Arts, Reading Test is part of Master the GED 2011, which offers readers 3 full-length practice tests and in-depth subject review for each of the GED tests-Language Arts, Writing (Parts I and II); Language Arts, Reading; Social Studies (including Canadian history and government); Science; and Mathematics (Parts I and II)-as well as top test-taking tips to score high on the GED.