Writing Stories: The Nuts and Bolts of Writing Fiction

Elizabeth St Jacques is the author of Echos All Strung Out, Dance of
Light, and Around the Tree of Light.

A professional writer and writing instructor, Ken Lewis has written this
book mainly to help students learn the fundamentals of writing fiction,
but also to help more experienced writers improve their skills,
“regardless of the stage of (their) writing career.” I’m not so
sure.

While the basics are here—show-rather-than-tell, elements of a story,
characters, and the like—the author merely brushes the surface in some
of the briefest chapters I’ve seen in a book of this kind. Instead, he
uses quotes and excerpts (many quite lengthy) from famous authors to
fill out the volume. The appendix also consists of lengthy excerpts from
works by several authors, including John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of
Wrath, and includes a complete short story by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.; each
story is preceded and/or followed by Lewis’s brief comments. This
reader felt cheated.