The Technique of Fiction Writing

The work is a practical manual for aspiring fiction writers that lays out technique from conception through execution, prioritizing the writer's viewpoint and preplanning over literary analysis. It explains story types, plot and situation, constructive narration, and the executive tasks of telling, then treats description, dialogue, character portrayal, and atmosphere. Comparative chapters distinguish short-story and novel forms. Emphasis falls on devising a justly ordered whole, arranging incidents to serve a dramatic problem or plot, and on manipulating elements of storycraft rather than on general rhetoric or stylistic ornament.