Josip Novakovich's "Fiction Writer's Workshop" - if you have time and money for just ONE writing book, this is it

As always, click on the title here to take you to the post directly on the Substack site, instead of reading as an email—your choice.

Thank you for your patience while I’ve been off hiking up and down and around a mountain.

(Manning Park, BC—trail from Mowich Camp)

In the Index 2021 you’ll find a number of reviews of books about writing. It wasn’t until last week, writing about POV, that I went through my shelves (in disorder since my move from UBC office last year), remembering and looking for this one.

Josip Novkovich’s chapter on POV is something I used to photocopy—back when Canada’s institutions used to contribute to Access Copyright—and hand out to students for discussion. It has to be THE most thorough examination of the subject. You can only go deeper by actually writing and discovering your own, and your project-specific Good Questions. (You know how this writing thing works: you learn by doing it. And the Unschool here is about trying to sort through that. It’s labour of the best sort.)

Apparently there is now a more recent edition of this work, so look for it when you order. (Order info below.)

A photo of the TOC will reveal a deceptively simple approach, but each chapter dives in, and the lengthy sub-title to the work is all about the exercises at the close of each chapter. (You’ll see several examples of these in the POV post last week—maybe you tried them. If so, please share. I’d love to see, and we can discuss.)

The sub-title to Fiction Writer’s Workshop:

The key elements of a writing workshop: clear instruction, illustrated by contemporary and classics works, innovative exercises and methods to gauge your progress.

The opening line:

To be a good writer, you must have the paradoxical trait of being a gregarious loner.

Further:

… write any way that gives you a sense of freedom…

Novakovich speaks of simply writing, “a hundred pages, let us say” before seeking any instruction. And to look for the patterns in your work (seek out those ‘Good Questions’) but then he speaks also of not going too long without “advice and workshops.” So to find the balance, between where you are, and what you might need from others. The “gregarious loner” learning.

He suggests you spend about half an hour with each exercise, writing for perhaps an hour each day, and working through the book. He believes in the physical act of writing to draw story from self.

Fingers pull your thoughts forward. Fingers are in some ways an extension of your brain, with a lot of cortex associations… Get them going!

He begins, after an intro, with thoughts on “sources” for your work and stories—a logical place to open—and moves to “Setting,” one of my “critical three” (story, character, setting; both story and character can be drawn from setting).

Setting is a Story Builder too

Each chapter has no less than twelve exercises, including the final chapter on “revision.”

“Voice” is the penultimate chapter—possibly because voice is an advanced piece of our work. It’s easy to get discouraged if this is your starting place, or an early explore. (And too often, it is.) Give this element time. I so appreciate that “character” is early on, and “voice” later.

Which leaves you with 120 exercises. You could do one a day; four months to make your way through the book, the length of a school term.

And of course, writing being what it is, you could then work further on your project—another hundred pages or so—give yourself some time to make mistakes and get messy. And start all over again with the exercises with renewed curiosity and growth.

You’ll note that the title is not “writers’” but “writer’s.” It’s an individual’s path. But you are not without an elder’s voice and guidance, and the words of other writers from whom to learn. His choices of example are so useful. A quick glance through the index, and it is filled with names and titles, and creates a solid reading list.

Use this ISBN to order from your local and beloved bookstore:

9781582975368

Penguin Random House Canada link:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/630917/fiction-writers-workshop-by-josip-novakovich/9781582975368

Post your thoughts here on this book—what you take from it, what you feel is missing, what you are so pleased to have stumbled over; maybe an exercise that worked particularly well, or one you played with, twisted a bit with new ingredients, and want to share.

Share!