Novel Ideas: Contemporary Authors Share the Creative Process

Novel Ideas provides a substantial introduction to the elements of fiction followed by in-depth interviews with successful novelists who speak with candor and insight into the complex process by which a novel is made. This edition includes new and updated interviews as well as writing exercises to enhance its use in the writing classroom.

Dorothy Allison recalls "deliciously self-indulgent" days of writing in her bathrobe, wrapped in misery and exultation; Peter Cameron explains how he made the move from short fiction to the novel with the aid of a music composer's notebook to track the movement of his characters. Writers as different as Ha Jin, Jill McCorkle, Richard Ford, and Michael Chabon describe their unique approaches to their work while consistently affirming the necessity of committing to the hard effort of it while also remaining open to surprise.

Aspiring novelists will find hands-on strategies for beginning, working through, and revising a novel; accomplished novelists will discover new ways to solve the problems they face in process; and serious readers of contemporary fiction will enjoy a glimpse into the way novels are made.

Includes interviews with: Dorothy AllisonLarry BrownPeter CameronMichael ChabonMichael CunninghamRobb Forman DewRichard FordHa JinPatricia HenleyCharles JohnsonWally LambValerie MartinJill McCorkleSena Jeter NaslundLewis NordanSheri ReynoldsS. J. RozanJane SmileyLee SmithTheodore Weesner

Author: Barbara Shoup, Margaret-Love Denman
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 03/01/2009
Pages: 334
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.00w x 0.89d
ISBN: 9780820332796

About the Author
Barbara Shoup (Author)
BARBARA SHOUP is the author of six novels, including Everything You Want. She is associate faculty at Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis and program director for the Writers' Center of Indiana.

Margaret-Love Denman (Author)
MARGARET-LOVE DENMAN is the author of two novels, including Daily, Before Your Eyes. She is the coordinator of off-campus writing programs at the University of Mississippi. Denman was the director of the creative writing program at the University of New Hampshire for twelve years.