
Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques
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Narrated by:
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James Hynes
About this listen
Whether you're huddled around the campfire, composing an email to a friend, or sitting down to write a novel, storytelling is fundamental to human nature. But as any writer can tell you, the blank page can be daunting. It's tough to know where to get started, what details to include in each scene, and how to move from the kernel of an idea to a completed manuscript.
Writing great fiction isn't a gift reserved for the talented few. There is a craft to storytelling that can be learned, and studying writing techniques can be incredibly rewarding - both personally and professionally. Even if you don’t have ambitions of penning the next Moby-Dick, you'll find value in exploring all the elements of fiction.
From evoking a scene to charting a plot to revising your drafts, Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques offers a master class in storytelling. Taught by award-winning novelist James Hynes, a former visiting professor at the famed Iowa Writers' Workshop, these 24 insightful lectures show you the ins and outs of the fiction writer's craft. Get tips for developing believable and memorable characters, explore how to craft plausible dialogue that serves the purposes of your narrative, compare the advantages of different points of view, and more. A wealth of exercises will inspire you to practice the many techniques you learn. Professor Hynes is an able guide, showing you what has worked for him and other novelists, and pointing out pitfalls to avoid. Writing Great Fiction is truly an exceptional course for anyone interested in storytelling.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
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- Narrated by: Michael Shelden
- Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins
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In George Orwell: The Man and the Mind Behind 1984, Professor Michael Shelden will show you how 1984 presents a plausible reality of thought control and totalitarian power that feels contemporary even as it reflects its own time.
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Creating Big Brother
- By Gilbert M. Stack on 04-19-24
By: Michael Shelden, and others
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Serial Killers: Real and Imagined
- By: Emily Zarka, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Emily Zarka
- Length: 2 hrs and 56 mins
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Monster stories aren’t just meant to entertain. They’re meant to inform, even educate. Above all, they ask us to question our own humanity. Nowhere is this truer than in stories of serial killers. What are the origins of this monstrous archetype? Why are we so fascinated with such gruesome terror? What do they reveal about our fears and anxieties? Explore these and other questions in Serial Killers: Real and Imagined, where public scholar Emily Zarka looks at the serial-killer trope across history, from murky 17th-century legends to 21st-century true-crime obsessions.
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Layers of smug self-contradiction
- By Michael Scully on 12-11-24
By: Emily Zarka, and others
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Screenwriting 101: Mastering the Art of Story
- By: Angus Fletcher, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Angus Fletcher
- Length: 12 hrs and 44 mins
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Whether you want to write your own scripts or simply gain a deeper appreciation for the great stories you see unfold on the screen, Professor Angus Fletcher is here to show you the way in Screenwriting 101: Mastering the Art of Story. Professor Fletcher, Professor of English and Film at The Ohio State University, brings both a personal and scholarly perspective to this craft. As a screenwriter himself, he has experienced the ins and outs of the process first-hand.
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Screenwriting 101 - Angus Fletcher
- By Siobhan Sands on 04-14-18
By: Angus Fletcher, and others
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Writing Fiction, Tenth Edition
- A Guide to Narrative Craft
- By: Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French, Ned Stuckey-French
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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A creative writer's shelf should hold at least three essential books: a dictionary, a style guide, and Writing Fiction. Janet Burroway's best-selling classic is the most widely used creative writing text in America, and for more than three decades, it has helped hundreds of thousands of students learn the craft.
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Great content!
- By Noa on 09-20-19
By: Janet Burroway, and others
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Writing Down the Bones
- By: Natalie Goldberg
- Narrated by: Natalie Goldberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
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Here is a new collector's edition of this modern classic as you have never heard it before, read by Natalie Goldberg herself and then infused with her most personal reflections about this "magic manual" for all writers. Try these ingenious, Zen-based exercises to expand your writing skills - or just for fun.
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The Substance
- By Krissy D. on 07-09-10
By: Natalie Goldberg
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Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills
- By: Steven Novella, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Steven Novella
- Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins
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No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever. These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.
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Same Material Different Title
- By rkeinc on 09-21-14
By: Steven Novella, and others
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Law School for Everyone: Constitutional Law
- By: Eric Berger, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Eric Berger
- Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
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Americans wage many of today’s fiercest policy debates and culture wars over constitutional meaning. It’s because constitutional law is so fundamental to our democracy that law schools across the country teach the subject. It's the area of law that determines what federal and state governments are permitted to do, and what rights you have as an individual citizen of the US. Here, you'll get the same accessible, well-rounded introduction to constitutional law as a typical law student - but with the added benefit of noted constitutional scholar Eric Berger's brilliant insights.
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Read with this Neil Gorsuch!
- By Amazon Customer on 02-03-20
By: Eric Berger, and others
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How to Write Dazzling Dialogue
- The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript
- By: James Scott Bell
- Narrated by: James Scott Bell
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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There is one sure-fire way of improving your novel fast...You may know the fundamentals of how to write fiction. You may be more than competent in plot, structure and characters. But if your dialogue is dull it will drag the whole story down...Don't sabotage your chances of selling your work to readers or publishers because the dialogue is unexceptional. Dazzle them with what the characters say. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue will give you the tools to do it.
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Good course, subpar audio quality
- By Andrew Wadsworth on 03-21-20
By: James Scott Bell
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Writing for Emotional Impact
- Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader from Beginning to End
- By: Karl Iglesias
- Narrated by: Karl Iglesias
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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There are three kinds of feelings when reading a story: boredom, interest, and wow! To become a successful writer, you must create the wow feeling on as many pages as possible, and this requires writing that engages the reader emotionally. In his best-selling book, screenwriter Karl Iglesias explored the working habits of A-list Hollywood scribes. Now, he breaks new ground by focusing on the psychology of the reader.
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Best audiobook by far for writing screenplays
- By FilmmakerSuperNova on 07-04-20
By: Karl Iglesias
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Push Back: Assert Yourself in Relationships
- By: Monica Johnson, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Monica Johnson
- Length: 2 hrs and 30 mins
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Holding boundaries and asserting yourself are crucial skills for maintaining healthy relationships and a sense of self-respect. In Push Back: Assert Yourself in Relationships, professional clinical psychologist Dr. Monica Johnson teaches you how to clearly define your limits, communicate those limits to others, and foster mutual respect and understanding in your everyday interactions.
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Fantastic Course
- By Happy Hiker on 07-10-24
By: Monica Johnson, and others
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The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
- By: Louis Markos, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Louis Markos
- Length: 6 hrs and 5 mins
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What can we still learn from C.S. Lewis? Find out in these 12 insightful lectures that cover the author's spiritual autobiography, novels, and his scholarly writings that reflect on pain and grief, love and friendship, prophecy and miracles, and education and mythology.
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Basically a collection of sermons
- By Richard on 11-20-13
By: Louis Markos, and others
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The Story of Human Language
- By: John McWhorter, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: John McWhorter
- Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
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Language defines us as a species, placing humans head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators. But it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries, allowing us to ponder why different languages emerged, why there isn't simply a single language, how languages change over time and whether that's good or bad, and how languages die out and become extinct.
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You'll Never Look at Languages the Same Way Again
- By SAMA on 03-11-14
By: John McWhorter, and others
Time to get writing!
Time to get writing!
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Some great tips.
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Specifically, I understand that flashbacks are deliberately placed in the story at specific points.
Great course for authors and readers alike.
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Great pace, insightful, and humble.
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I certainly learnt a lot from them and I recommend every budding writer to read these.
Insightful and Comprehensive
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Thorough and Concise!
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Great "read"
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James Hynes Just Made my List…
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Interesting from start to finish
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If you could sum up Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques in three words, what would they be?
One of the best audio books I've listened to. Prof. Hynes provides well-organized, thorough, and fascinating lectures. He is a pleasure to listen to. Like reading a great novel, I felt sad when the course was over. A bonus is that he provides reading lists of fiction and how-to for each lecture. He illustrates his talks with examples and analyses of great works of literature. I read these along with the course to enhance the experience.What other book might you compare Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques to and why?
Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer because it is another excellent book on how to write fiction. In some ways Prose's book is more thorough, has more sections, breaks it down into more detail, but Hynes, to me, is more lively and engaging. Though Prose is a truly great read also.What does Professor James Hynes University of Iowa Writers' Workshop bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His enthusiasm for writing fiction comes through in his voice, tone, expression, and sense of humor. He is just as good as my best college, and grad school professors were.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No, it takes time to absorb these lessons. I liked doing some of the readings along with the lectures. Also, he has exercises that take some time and deepen the material, though since I'm already taking a writing class I did not do the exercises.Any additional comments?
This book alone makes my subscription to Audible worth it. His lectures are masterpieces of teaching (and I have been a college lecturer for 43 years).Excellent Instruction on How to Write Fiction
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