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“A splendid book for journalists (new or old), fiction writers, essayists, and critics. But it could also be of great use to the intelligent common reader, the man or woman who wonders why it’s impossible to finish reading certain stories and why others carry the reader in a vivid rush to the end.”
—Pete Hamill, author of A Drinking Life
In the spirit of Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style, comes The Elements of Story, by Francis Flaherty, longtime story editor at The New York Times. A brilliant blend of memoir and how-to, The Elements of Story offers more than 50 principles that emphasize storytelling aspects rather than simply the mechanics of writing—a relentlessly entertaining, totally accessible writing guide for the novice and the professional alike.
The bulk of writing books address grammar, style, and other line-by-line topics. However, Francis Flaherty believes that complex story-level matters—how to make a story move and how to use description to buttress your theme—pose equally common and far more formidable problems for writing students.
Drawn from Flaherty’s long experience at the New York Times, this book shows how Times articles read the way they do. “Sometimes, say things sideways,” Flaherty writes. “The reader will be grateful.” “White is whitest on black,” he observes. “Let contrast work for you.” Through these and other hard-won story-level insights, sprinkled with examples from real stories and leavened with a good dose of newsroom memoir, The Elements of Story fills a large gap in the long shelf of writing books.You may also like
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