Synopses & Reviews
"Butler's method offers a door into the unconscious where fiction lies....His lectures exhilarate." Janet Burroway, from the Introduction
Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, has been praised as "the best living American writer" (Fort Worth Morning Star-Telegram). During his prestigious career, he has taught graduate fiction at Florida State University his version of literary boot camp. Now Janet Burroway, author of the classic text on creative writing Writing Fiction "the best such book on the market," according to James L. Marra of Temple University introduces her edited transcripts of Butler's thought-provoking lectures.
From Where You Dream reimagines the process of writing as emotional rather than intellectual, and tells writers how to achieve the dreamspace necessary for composing honest, inspired fiction. Proposing fiction as the exploration of the human condition with yearning as its compass, Butler reinterprets the traditional tools of the craft using the dynamics of desire. He offers invaluable insights into the nature of voice and shows how to experience fiction as a sensual, cinematic series of takes and scenes. Offering a direct view into the mind and craft of a literary master, From Where You Dream is an invaluable tool for the novice and experienced writer alike.
Review
"This book, honestly, has been revolutionary for me." Lucky White Girl
Synopsis
Burroway introduces her edited transcripts of Butler's thought-provoking lectures to tell writers how to achieve the dream space necessary for composing honest, inspired fiction.
Synopsis
Jane Burroway, author of the classic text on creative writing Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, attended Robert Olen Butler's graduate fiction lectures at Floriday State University (a sort of literary boot camp that asks writers to abandoned their preconceived notions of fiction) and transcribes them here with an introduction telling us why his thinking about fiction is so unique and inspiring. In Method Writing, Butler argues that writing is emotional rather than intellectual, and tells writers how to slip into the dreamspace necessary for composing honest, inspired fiction. He proposes fiction as the exploration of the human condition and yearning as its compass, showing his students how to reinterpret the traditional tools of fiction through the prism of learning. He officers insights into the nature of voice. He compares fiction to cinema, to be experienced by the reader as a sensual series of takes and scenes. And he offers a system whereby revision is undertaken at the level of structure rather than sentence. The lectures include original perspectives on science, psychology, and the arts, quoting from great literature, cinema, and student papers alike to bring Butler's unique ideas to life.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Part I: The Lectures
1 Boot Camp 9
2 The Zone 23
3 Yearning 39
4 Cinema of the Mind 63
5 A Writer Prepares 85
Part II: The Workshop
6 Reading, Lit Crit, and the Workshop 107
7 The Bad Story 123
8 The Anecdote Exercise 141
9 The Written Exercise 165
Part III: The Stories, Analyzed
10 "Flamenco" by Erich Sysak 187
11 "My Impossibles" by Brandy T. Wilson 207
12 "My Summer in Vulcan" by Rita Mae Reese 229
Appendix: "Open Arms" by Robert Olen Butler 253