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| Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway | |
 Reviewed by Brian Fogt Giving in to the Urge
to Write
Janet
Burroway creates a valuable resource for aspiring writers of fiction with
her book, Writing Fiction: A guide to narrative craft.
Burroway instills the interested reader with the curious but effective
desire to actually stop reading her book to begin the process of
creating self-made literature. Due to the book’s specializing in
writing fiction, it is obviously most practical for college level students
in fiction writing workshops. However, because of the book’s
expansive scope and text book layout, this handbook becomes a tool for not
only aspiring writers, but all writing teachers and their students.
Aspects relevant to all forms of writing, such as audience, mechanics,
drafting, and revising are explored in a comprehensive manner. The
chapters of the book are enriched with relevant and powerful examples from
numerous famous works of literature, and each chapter ends with at least
one full version of a short story followed by suggestions for discussion
topics and writing assignments. With the use of these stories to
serve as models for writing students, the important aspect of learning by
imitation comes into play, and the intelligent activities that Burroway
lays out service teachers who want creative ways to get students into the
act of writing by thinking about what goes into good fiction and then
crafting works themselves. Each
chapter of this book begins with Burroway’s description of, and colorful
personal commentary on, specific aspects of the fictitious story.
These sections overflow with helpful tips for the writer, supported
constantly with a skeletal frame of reference to specific works of
literature. The first chapter deals with what actually makes a
story, with the necessary ingredients of conflict, crisis, and resolution.
The second chapter looks at the actual process of writing; how to begin,
revise, and suggestions for what to do when the dreaded “writer’s
block” occurs. The third chapter deals with the need to show
action in stories by using detail, active voice, prose rhythm, and
mechanics. Character development, setting, and point of view are
then discussed in following chapters. Burroway finishes the book
with one chapter devoted to metaphor and symbol use, and a final chapter
on issues related to a story’s theme. The author creates an amusing analogy for the reader in the first chapter, relating the necessary parts of a story to the necessary parts of a face (eyes, nose, mouth, ears, etc.). She says, “If a face is missing one of these features, you may say, ‘I love this face in spite of its lacking a nose,’ but you must acknowledge the in spite of,” (Burroway 3). Likewise, she says one must acknowledge a story missing one its key features even if it is well liked. Interesting comments like this abound in her book, maintaining a playful tone while examining what could otherwise be a boring breaking-down and labeling of the constituents necessary in a story. Keeping the text fun allows Burroway to avoid the dreaded “autopsy” where “we can dissect and sometimes almost destroy Shakespeare or Robert Lowell” that Donald Murray speaks of in his article, Teach Writing as a Process and not Product (3). Burroway
holds what I feel to be a necessary middle-ground between teaching product
and process with her book, looking at pieces of literature and breaking
them down as a model, but maintaining that this will be used in the
process of the reader’s own writing. Burroway tells the reader how
the writer accomplishes the elements necessary in a story and then applies
that to pieces of literature that can be discussed as a class, succeeding
in the suggestions given by Spandel and Stiggins in their book, Creating
Writers, “Encourage students to respond to a piece of literature as
writing…Responding orally and in writing to many texts builds assessment
skills” (285-286). The book sustains focus on actually getting
readers to engage in their own writing by utilizing writing assignments at
the end of each chapter, assisting the writing teacher in the classroom.
One such assignment that would benefit a class and their assessment skills
is listed on page 76: 3. A class project: Spend about a half-hour in class writing
a scene that involves a conflict between two characters. Make a copy
of what you write. Take one copy home and rewrite it. Send the
other copy home with another class member for him or her to make critical
comments and suggestions. Compare your impulses with those of your
reader. On the following day, forgive your reader. On
the day after that, rewrite the passage once more, incorporating any of
the reader’s suggestions that prove useful. The
aspect of peer review in the revision process is an important aspect that
Burroway comments upon, and one that is fundamental in the group work of
the process technique. She states, “Once you have thought your
story through, drafted it, and worked on it to the best of your ability,
someone else’s eyes can help refresh the vision of your own” (39).
The integral importance of the revision process is strongly emphasized in
the text. Burroway describes revision as being more resisted by the
writer than even the difficult initial step of starting to write, but
maintains “you must revise” (39). She gives the reader a helpful
list of questions to aid in the revision process, as well as some
suggestions given by other famous authors. The
importance of the product created by beginning fiction writers is never
overlooked by Burroway; she in fact writes the book as if speaking to a
reader seeking to become an accomplished writer, saying, “Poor mechanics
read instant amateurism to an editor” (92). She describes the
importance of mechanics as being “a kind of magic; their purpose is to
be invisible” (Burroway 92). She continues to describe how the
reader will be “irritated at the author” if “the reader’s focus is
shifted from the story to its surface” (Burroway 92). Indeed, the
complete ignorance of the evaluated finished product is impossible to
maintain, as Lee Odell stated in an interview, “It’s simply an untruth
to let students think their work will not be evaluated” (7). With
its constant reference to what the editor will be expecting in fiction,
Burroway’s book can be used by English teachers to emphasize the concept
of audience to students. By having students write for publication
before a group of readers, whether it be by an actual company in the real
world, or simply in front of classroom peers, they can attain what Tom
Romano describes in his article, Prior to Publishing: Word Work,
“It can be empowering and exhilarating to hear our own voices while
others are listening” (17). In
describing the writer, Burroway says, “You share with most—and the
best—twentieth-century fiction writers a sense of injustice, the
absurdity, and the beauty of the world; and you want to register your
protest, your laughter, and your affirmation” (1). Writing about a
topic that is personally important to students can sometimes be best
achieved through writing fiction. In
fiction, the student is able to express strong ideas in a creative manner
by weaving a story around them in an attempt to capture the emotions of
the reader. If students choose their own topic and think that their
audience is larger than just the teacher in the classroom, they can
achieve what is described by Spandel and Stiggins, “When the writer’s
passion for the topic and concern for the audience are strong, the text
virtually dances with life and energy, and the reader feels a strong
connection to both writing and writer” (54). Based
upon my own inclination to want to begin writing my own fiction while
reading this book, I feel it is a definite success. An important
aspect of the book is that it serves to familiarize readers with the
aspects necessary in good fiction, and how successful writers create their
craft. Knowing the elements of fiction, with different character
types, points of view, and the like, will benefit students by
familiarizing them with what they might use in their own writing.
Furthermore, this knowledge shows students how to become critics of
literature. Writing teachers can find many uses for Burroway’s
book, whether it is by picking out creative writing assignments from her
many suggestions, or by discussing the excellent examples of short stories
within the book. Because some students are more interested in the
fiction genre than others, this book could be used effectively by giving
it to individual students who are interested in writing their own fiction
and having them do a book report on it. I
find difficulty in expressing any shortcomings I found in this book; the
only possible drawback is that the book covers so much that it could not
be entirely covered in a normal high school English class. While
reading the book, the only minor aspect I found troublesome was that the
sections written by Burroway were so informative and interesting that I
found myself wanting to skip over the short stories. Perhaps then
the book could have been improved by cutting a few of the model short
stories the author includes. Otherwise this book can serve both the
writer and the teacher as a guide to continuously refer back to for
suggestions and motivation. Works Cited Burroway,
Janet. Writing Fiction: A guide to narrative craft. Murray,
Donald M. “Teach Writing as a Process Not a Product.” Cross
Talk in Comp Theory. Ed. Victor Villanueva. Odell,
Lee. “Interview with Lee Odell.” <http://www.wow-schools.net/interview-odell.htm>. Romano,
Tom. “Prior to Publishing: Word Work.” Voices from the
Middle. 8.1 (2000) : 16-22. Spandel,
Vicki, and Richard J. Stiggins. Creating Writers. |
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