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Craft in the real world : rethinking fiction writing and workshopping / Matthew Salesses.

by Salesses, Matthew.

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Catapult, 2021.

Authorship -- Study and teaching.

Fiction -- Technique.

Multiculturalism in literature.

9781948226806 (pbk)

xxiii, 228 p. : ill. ; 21 cm.

"Versions of some of these chapters were first published in: Pleiades Magazine, Gulf Coast, Necessary Fiction, and Electric Literature"--T.p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [217]-225).

Part 1. Fiction in the real world. "Pure craft" is a lie -- What is craft? 25 thoughts -- Audience, theme, and purpose -- Redefining craft terms ; ...Tone ; ...Plot ; ...Conflict ; ...Character arc and story arc ; ...Characterization ; ...Relatability ; ...Believability ; ...Vulnerability ; ...Setting ; ...Pacing ; ...Structure -- An example from East Asian and Asian American literature -- Part 2. Workshop in the real world. "The reader: vs. POC -- Who is at the center of workshop and who should be? -- Alternative workshops -- Syllabus example -- Workshopping incomplete drafts -- Against page limits -- Four things to grade -- Appendix: Exercises. Purpose-oriented writing exercises -- 34 revision exercises.

"A groundbreaking resource for fiction writers, teachers, and students, this manifesto and practical guide challenges current models of craft and the writing workshop by showing how they fail marginalized writers, and how cultural expectations inform storytelling. The traditional writing workshop was established with white male writers in mind; what we call craft is informed by their cultural values. In this bold and original examination of elements of writing -- including plot, character, conflict, structure, and believability -- and aspects of workshop -- including the silenced writer and the imagined reader -- Matthew Salesses asks questions to invigorate these familiar concepts. He upends Western notions of how a story must progress. How can we rethink craft, and the teaching of it, to better reach writers with diverse backgrounds? How can we invite diverse storytelling traditions into literary spaces? Drawing from examples including One Thousand and One Nights, Curious George, Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea, and the Asian American classic No-No Boy, Salesses asks us to reimagine craft and the workshop. In the pages of exercises included here, teachers will find suggestions for building syllabi, grading, and introducing new methods to the classroom; students will find revision and editing guidance, as well as a new lens for reading their work. Salesses shows that we need to interrogate the lack of diversity at the core of published fiction: how we teach and write it. After all, as he reminds us, 'When we write fiction, we write the world.'"--Publisher.

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