Items related to Turning Life into Fiction

Hemley, Robin Turning Life into Fiction ISBN 13: 9781884910005

Turning Life into Fiction - Softcover

 
9781884910005: Turning Life into Fiction
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
With lively style, good humor and insight, Robin Hemley helps you turn all that you experience into fresh and powerful fiction.
By learning to "reimagine," you'll focus on translating real-world people and events into characters and scenes that happen on paper for the first time. You'll think "what if" instead of "what is" in order to take control of your material and cut loose the inhibitions of real life.
In these pages, you'll learn how to hone your observation skills and fill your journal with rich and vivid details. (Because, as Hemley writes, "Life is in the details, and so is good fiction.") You'll see how to decide which ideas to bring to fiction and which ones to let go. And you'll learn how to: find the right form - novel, short story, vignette, memoir - for the story you want to tell; use "triggers" to start your reader's imagination rolling; keep your fiction emotionally honest by making the right choices between "the way it happened" and what the story dictates (ask "Is it believable?", not "Did it happen?"); create composites of real people and places that fit the unique needs of your story and empower your imagination; focus your fiction. Make sure everything, every character counts - and eliminate "people who sit at the end of the bar without a role to play"; fictionalize - ethically and legally - other people's stories. Learn your rights as a writer versus their rights to privacy. (Can you use actual names? When do you need to get permission?)
To illustrate how writers feed their fiction with reality, Hemley uses examples from his own work and from fiction masters of yesterday and today. At the end of each chapter, challenging exercises help you apply the basic theories and push them even further.
An adventurous read, Turning Life Into Fiction will help you create fiction that's just as strange and wonderful and "real" as the life that inspires it.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
If you've got friends who are fiction writers, watch out: "Writers are spies, liars, and thieves," writes Robin Hemley in Turning Life into Fiction, and your words, deeds, and character--benevolent and malevolent alike--could be immortalized in print some day. If you write fiction, listen up, look around, and take note. Why strain your brain making things up when you can transform real life into stories worth telling? Hemley recommends keeping a journal ("It's akin to an artist's sketchbook"), writing down your dreams (the unconscious is a great source of free material), and mining all those crazy stories your grandmother used to tell. Then combine bits and pieces from these sources, take one great mind leap (and many drafts) and--voila--you've got fiction. Warning: even though it really happened, it might not be believable. Second warning: while it's hard to know when something you write will offend the person it's based on, says Hemley, "above all, don't mess with male pattern baldness."
About the Author:
Robin Hemley teaches creative writing at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherStory Press
  • Publication date1994
  • ISBN 10 1884910009
  • ISBN 13 9781884910005
  • BindingPaperback
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages193
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781884910371: Turning Life into Fiction: Finding Character, Plot, Setting and Other Elements of Novel and Short Story Writing in the Everyday World

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1884910378 ISBN 13:  9781884910371
Publisher: Story Pr, 1997
Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Hemley, Robin
Published by Story Press (1994)
ISBN 10: 1884910009 ISBN 13: 9781884910005
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
GF Books, Inc.
(Hawthorne, CA, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. Book is in NEW condition. 1. Seller Inventory # 1884910009-2-1

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.86
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Hemley, Robin
Published by Story Press (1994)
ISBN 10: 1884910009 ISBN 13: 9781884910005
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
Book Deals
(Tucson, AZ, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New! This book is in the same immaculate condition as when it was published 1. Seller Inventory # 353-1884910009-new

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.87
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Hemley, Robin
Published by Brand: Story Press (1994)
ISBN 10: 1884910009 ISBN 13: 9781884910005
New Softcover First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
Ergodebooks
(Houston, TX, U.S.A.)

Book Description Softcover. Condition: New. First Edition. With lively style, good humor and insight, Robin Hemley helps you turn all that you experience into fresh and powerful fiction.By learning to "reimagine," you'll focus on translating real-world people and events into characters and scenes that happen on paper for the first time. You'll think "what if" instead of "what is" in order to take control of your material and cut loose the inhibitions of real life.In these pages, you'll learn how to hone your observation skills and fill your journal with rich and vivid details. (Because, as Hemley writes, "Life is in the details, and so is good fiction.") You'll see how to decide which ideas to bring to fiction and which ones to let go. And you'll learn how to: find the right form - novel, short story, vignette, memoir - for the story you want to tell; use "triggers" to start your reader's imagination rolling; keep your fiction emotionally honest by making the right choices between "the way it happened" and what the story dictates (ask "Is it believable?", not "Did it happen?"); create composites of real people and places that fit the unique needs of your story and empower your imagination; focus your fiction. Make sure everything, every character counts - and eliminate "people who sit at the end of the bar without a role to play"; fictionalize - ethically and legally - other people's stories. Learn your rights as a writer versus their rights to privacy. (Can you use actual names? When do you need to get permission?)To illustrate how writers feed their fiction with reality, Hemley uses examples from his own work and from fiction masters of yesterday and today. At the end of each chapter, challenging exercises help you apply the basic theories and push them even further.An adventurous read, Turning Life Into Fiction will help you create fiction that's just as strange and wonderful and "real" as the life that inspires it. Seller Inventory # DADAX1884910009

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 11.90
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Hemley, Robin
Published by Story Press (1994)
ISBN 10: 1884910009 ISBN 13: 9781884910005
New Hardcover First Edition Quantity: 1
Seller:
BooksByLisa
(Highland Park, IL, U.S.A.)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. 1st Edition. STORED NEW. Book. Seller Inventory # ABE-1680283910844

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 21.00
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: FREE
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds
Stock Image

Hemley, Robin
Published by Story Press (1994)
ISBN 10: 1884910009 ISBN 13: 9781884910005
New Softcover Quantity: 1
Seller:
BennettBooksLtd
(North Las Vegas, NV, U.S.A.)

Book Description Condition: New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title! 1. Seller Inventory # Q-1884910009

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 95.57
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.13
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds