Literary suspense and psychological thriller author
Frederick Barthelme’s The 39 Steps: A Primer on Story Writing, begins:
Step one in the great enterprise of a new and preferable you in the house of fiction is: Mean less. That is, don’t mean so much. Make up a story, screw around with it, paste junk on it, needle the characters, make them say queer stuff, go bad places, insert new people at inopportune moments, do some drive-bys. Make it up, please.
Expect more of the same plainspoken, excellent advice in the following 38 steps, which range from the enigmatic–#9)Grace Slick (yes, people, that’s the entire entry for #9)–to the fundamental: #11)Be sure there’s a plot for the reader to grasp; while not necessarily the center of the story, it’s key to lulling the reader into that comfort zone where he’s vulnerable.
Learn how to write a short story in the online fiction writing course Master the Short Story.
a serial novella By the time you read this I will be unreachable. I will…
an audio story, exclusive to subscribers I recently published an audio story for subscribers to…
You'll find a brief and mostly true story, Les Oeufs: A Mystery on Quai de Grenelle,…
Cafe Kitsune Paris, with book from Librarie Galignani When I go through a dry spell…
Is your book club reading THE WONDER TEST? Here are a few questions to kick…
Join the newsletter to stay in the loop