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Fiction Workshop | Reviews

Fiction Writer’s Workshop – Josip Novakovich

Story Press - 250 pages

Fiction Writer's Workshop

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'In Fiction Writer’s Workshop, Josip Novakovich, himself a teacher of creative writing, has devised a portable writing class to encourage the writer working on her own. Its format is simple yet effective.'

 

 

'It concentrates fair and square on the business of creating a story, exactly what a workshop ought to do.'

For many aspiring writers, writers’ workshops and classes are a vital source of inspiration and advice. Those who don’t have access to such classes must rely more heavily on their own resources and on textbooks. 

In Fiction Writer’s Workshop, Josip Novakovich, himself a teacher of creative writing, has devised a portable writing class to encourage the writer working on his or her own. Its format is simple yet effective. 

In ten ‘classes’ Novakovich tackles many of the issues that are important to those new to the craft of writing, and each ‘class’ is followed by a series of exercises for the writer to tackle. True, there is no ‘teacher’ to discuss things with at the end of the class, but Novakovich anyway encourages his writers to be independent, and it may be that by inviting them to question and consider their own writing, the process of analysing one’s own work is more swiftly inculcated. On the other hand, those who value personal feedback may find themselves at a loss.

Nevertheless, the ‘lessons’ themselves are valuable, with or without direct feedback. Novakovich begins at the beginning, with finding the seed of an idea, and leads his class through the process of working out a story, from setting to character to plot, before considering how to establish a point of view and a voice, how best to begin or end a story, and most important, how to revise the first draft. 

His advice is clear and useful to anyone taking their first tentative steps in the craft of writing. He demands initiative from his ‘class’ and encourages them to make their own choices and decisions about what they write.

This isn’t a book which advises on perfect grammar or on how to choose an agent or promote a book. It concentrates fair and square on the business of creating a story, exactly what a workshop ought to do.

© Maureen Kincaid SpellerMaureen Kincaid Speller a reviewer, writer, editor and former librarian, is our book reviewer and also works for WritersServices as a freelance editor. 2002 Reviewed by Maureen Kincaid Speller

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List price: £13.99
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
2008-07-10
Paperback
Sales rank: 457,140