Quote of the Day
Runners of the hundred-yard dash do not take off in the same way runners of the marathon do. If the opening pages of a thousand-page novel would serve equally well as the opening pages of a short story, the likelihood is that the novel-opening is wrong.
—John Gardner, The Art of Fiction
Alec Nevala-Lee 
I’m reading Gardner’s chapter on plotting right now–is it just me or does his approach seem a bit, um, mathematical? If A then B, etc. etc. Perhaps in a future post you can provide some examples of novels that you think are well-plotted and why. Great blog btw, I’m subscribing!
Samantha Rajaram
January 20, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Honestly, the plotting process is so specific to each novel, especially a literary novel, that any general description of it is going to seem a little reductive. The best guidance I’ve found has been in books on popular fiction. Some of the most useful ones include:
Writing to Sell by Scott Meredith
Writing the Novel by Lawrence Block
Writing Popular Fiction by Dean Koontz (or, if you can find it, How to Write Best-Selling Fiction)
Glad you’re enjoying the blog!
nevalalee
January 20, 2011 at 7:57 pm
I’m enjoying the blog.
the writer of the blog currently lives in Chicago … with his wife and a frighteningly large number of books.
Would they kill a small pet?
The books that is…
Glenfinial
January 20, 2011 at 11:28 pm
If they fell on it? Yes.
(Glad you like the blog!)
nevalalee
January 21, 2011 at 8:31 am