By Cunning & Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for Fiction Writers

by Peter Selgin

Book Overview

Writing successful fiction is a balance between trusting one's own instincts and making the right conscious choices. In by Cunning & Craft, award-winning novelist and short-story writer Peter Selgin... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1582974918
• ISBN13: 9781582974910
• Release Date: January 2007
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 261 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.1" x 7.3"

Customer Reviews

Sound advice, simply stated

I had the pleasure of attending a workshop hosted my Mr. Selgin some months ago and it was the best and most educational hour I've ever spent as far as the craft of writing is concerned. His teaching style was matter-of-fact and down to earth and entertaining and informative all at once. It's with that in mind that I bought By Cunning and Craft and I was not disappointed. Mr. Selgin's book joins Ray Bradbury's Zen and the Art of Writing and Stephen King's On Writing as the best books on the craft of writing I've read to date. Mr. Selgin offers practical, easy to understand advice that I was able to put to use right away. Far from being a cut and dried instruction manual, By Cunning and Craft uses passages from work you've heard of and some you haven't but each example clearly illustrates his point. I also enjoyed his use of personal experience to drive home his points. If you're a writer, novice or otherwise, then do yourself and your work a favor and read this book.

This book is fun to read

This book is fun to read. Better than that, it will teach aspiring writers, practicing writers, and people who just love to read a lot about the machinery beneath a novel's surface that makes it go. The author shares his considerable wisdom about characters, point of view, structure, dialogue, description, style, and, most challinging of all, revision and publication. "Good dialogue isn't realistic," he warns; the author must control the release of information, he reveals, and "keep your notebook handy," he advises. This book's great charm and readability speak for itself.

CUNNING, CRAFT and KINDNESS

THIS IS A BEAUTIFUL BOOK, outside, with its exquisite cover of the fox and the crow and its allusion to the slave who wrote, Aesop. Clarity could be added to the C's of the title, and, inside the covers, Consummate organization. Examples are well placed throughout the discusion of how to write so that transformation from draft to finished work is documented not merely explained. Above all we can feel the respect not only for this obsession of so many, but for the practitioners of the art in the face of that obsession. The intensity of wish is not dismissed but guided, surely, fearlessly, and without a trace of patronizing so common in books about how to write. Grace abounds, as does wit, and the writing itself is so cogent and fluent that it, too, becomes an example of the art it is trying to make possible for us to achieve. bravo! buy it! There are some b's. I could do an alphabet of Praise but it is time to stop.

The Real Thing

This is one of the best books I've ever read on fiction writing. I think even for non-writers it would be a fun read. I'm an aspiring novelist and as I read this book I started sticking post-its on the pages with ideas and points to take straight to my writing. But I stopped doing that since almost every other page was getting a post it. Selgin's writing is rich and full of detail and makes you feel like you're hanging out with someone who's really excited about his subject -- writing fiction. Here's what he wrote about authentic details when writing description: "Think of those shots in movies when the camera lingers on a broken windowpane...or does a slow sweep of someone's dresser top, showing us the cufflinks a character wears, the brand of cigarettes he smokes, and how he treats loose change. These are authenticating details. Consider lingering on such details yourself, if only for a sentence or two." The "10 Lessons" are entertainingly documented and supported with lots of excerpts from established writers. One of my favorite parts is when Selgin dissects one of his own stories and takes you through his thinking and creative process. This book gives you great inspiration every time you pick it up.

A trustworthy path throught the forest

The cover of By Cunning & Craft promises us "sound advice and practical wisdom for fiction writers." Author Peter Selgin makes good on this with a lively and insightful book that respects its readers' intelligence while offering clear, crisp guidance. With the opening Fitzgerald quote of "All good writing is swimming underwater and holding your breath," Selgin plunges right in. His style is both scholarly and playful (referencing The Wizard of Oz, James Joyce and Hamburger Helper within lines of each other) and never looses sight of its purpose. As clever and colorful as Selgin's presentation is, he is obviously respectful of his subject matter. The abundance and variety of his literary references keep things moving at a good clip and make for a fun journey. And, as all instructional books make claim to (but not all deliver) By Cunning & Craft leaves us feeling that we actually gained something of value along the way. Selgin knows his stuff. And, as a happy aside, the volume itself is a very nice physical specimen -- compact in size with a rather old-fashioned cover. Pleasant to hold and peruse.