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Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers
This intermediate/advanced guide to writing fiction emphasizes the revision process and uses craft discussions, exercises, and diverse examples to show the artistic implications of writing choices. This book addresses the major elements of fiction. Numerous examples, questions, and exercises throughout the book help readers reflect upon and explore writing possibilities. The mini-anthology includes a variety of interesting, illustrative, and diverse stories―North American and international, contemporary and classic, realistic and experimental.
448 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2004
13 people are currently reading
122 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Stone
6 books17 followersSarah Stone (she/they) is the author of the novels The True Sources of the Nile and Hungry Ghost Theater, a finalist for the 38th Annual Northern California Book Awards. A new book, Marriage to the Sea, is forthcoming in spring 2026 from Four Way Books. Sarah is also the co-author, with Ron Nyren, of Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers. Sarah’s work has appeared in Image, Ploughshares, 100 Word Story, StoryQuarterly, The Millions, Scoundrel Time, The Believer, CRAFT, Alta Journal online for the California Book Club, and A Kite in the Wind: Fiction Writers on Their Craft, and was included in the list of distinguished stories of 2020 in The Best American Short Stories 2021, Jesmyn Ward, editor. Sarah is a former LABA Fellow and a Jewish Studio Project creative facilitator and has taught for UC Berkeley, the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers, and Stanford Continuing Studies, among other places. She has also written for and taught on Korean television, reported on human rights in Burundi, looked after orphan chimpanzees at the Jane Goodall Institute, and worked as a psychiatric aide in a locked facility, a graveyard-shift waitress in the restaurant where everyone went after they’d been thrown out of all the bars in town, and an office worker in an apparently haunted massage/bodywork school in the Santa Cruz mountains.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 26, 2015
4.5 stars. An excellent textbook for writing that goes beyond the basics. This book is geared specifically to writing short stories and, for the most part, literary short fiction. The anthology of stories in the back are well chosen and the text puts them to good use illustrating different aspects of writing and story telling. As a bonus, I now have several new favorite stories: Trauma Plate by Adam Johnson, Car Crash While Hitchhiking by Denis Johnson, Pilgrims by Julie Orringer, and A Conversation with my Father by Grace Paley.
September 9, 2015
Used by my intermediate fiction class in college, Deepening Fiction was a useful guide in learning how to better my craft; the anthology included within the textbook was even better, offering readers a chance to see the textbook's suggestions at work. This book focuses heavily on revision, a tool useful for any writer; many beginning guides don't give this topic enough weight. Despite the title, new writers will find a lot of practical and useful advice; don't let the intermediate/advanced bit scare you away!
July 13, 2009
Another garbage book. The authors are so pretentious it is hard to get through a chapter. They consider anyone who writes differently from them to be inferior and a bad author. I guess that is why I have never heard of books by Sarah Stone. The other authors are too busy selling books.
October 25, 2016
Hard to find a better fiction writing textbook. Recommended by Joan Silber.
December 9, 2017
Eventually, books that teach writing all sound the same. They attempt to provide fresh new ways of thinking about the craft of creative writing, but in the end it's all the same. You need the drive, the motivation, and the need to write. You need to want to write. If you can't find that, then no writing book can help you.
If you haven't read any books on writing, you could pick up anything and go from there. Or, stick to the internet, where all the information is readily available. For free.
If you haven't read any books on writing, you could pick up anything and go from there. Or, stick to the internet, where all the information is readily available. For free.
April 30, 2018
I was assigned this textbook for a fiction writing class. It's easy to use and understand but I saw nothing 'new' in regards to the subject matter. Same rehashing of info and rules that writers are told throughout the process.
August 22, 2017
Good advice and exercises with a variety of stories for examples.
January 15, 2020
My favorite resource on writing fiction!
July 3, 2021
Highly recommended for writers with some fiction writing experience. Excellent.
April 27, 2016
Connecting character to story: “what action or event could most test this person’s particular personality”
A story will be more complicated if a readers hopes and fears for the character are not identical to the characters’ hopes and fears for themselves
Characters may support or defeat each other, may have conflicting needs or complementary needs, world views, desires—or may illuminate each other through their interactions
When examining our own stories for interactions of characters—look at what their effect their personalities and actions have on others—complicate them and find ways in which they overlap
Counterpointed example: he find her attractive, she finds him disgusting
“In revision, we have several ways to address the lethargy that passive main characters can bring to a story. Perhaps the character needs to have more responsibility or to make a mistake that has dramatic consequences. Or maybe the character’s failure to stand up for his or her desires can have consequences, which then force the character to engage in dramatic actions to compensate. Hamlet is perhaps the most famous example of disasters caused by failure to act.”
Humanize through weakness, villains who cause damage because they are damaged, villains intend harm, heros do good.
Use character to complicate what we already know—how they motivate, hold back, what they want and how their own character stops them from getting it. Let them be their own people.
Basic Plot:
Ground Situation
Complication or inception
Rising action increases tension
Crisis, tension hits highest point
Climax, perform the most significant actions of the story in response to peak tensions, lives changed
Falling action, response to changes
Drive: Something meaningful must be at stake
It is human nature to route for the underdog
Actual plot vs. emotion plot.
Emotion is like, people who question their lives’ purposes, so if they have sacrificed everything for others, was it worth it if those others leave them?
Other structures—nonlinear—rely on building and creating meaning. Look at how the images change through what they represent or how the characters change
Scene lives in the moment
Change in scene can occur in surface events and relations or in subtext
To push our limits, we change our usual balance—talk more, talk less, lush sense of the physical world by adding description that enhances character or tone—deepen fiction through the heart of the story
An effective summary can set up or ask questions, introduce a mystery or move us gracefully through hours or years when nothing much is happening to our characters. Summary should be as fascinating as scene
Once drafted, review for details, surprising observations, subtle continuation of story’s purposes
Situational—what happens Psychological is human drama, greed or love or other struggles
Use details to drive home the point
Nonrealistic fiction needs to be memorable, but have something to do with the real struggles of live, but needs to convey the strangeness of the fictional world
This is the hardest thing:
Firm sense of the legitimacy of our own work and impulses
Welty: Feelings are bound up in place
Invent secrets. Create a scene—action, dialogue, descriptive details, in which one character communicates the secret to the other without direct discussion
Opening of a story teaches us to interpret the story
A story will be more complicated if a readers hopes and fears for the character are not identical to the characters’ hopes and fears for themselves
Characters may support or defeat each other, may have conflicting needs or complementary needs, world views, desires—or may illuminate each other through their interactions
When examining our own stories for interactions of characters—look at what their effect their personalities and actions have on others—complicate them and find ways in which they overlap
Counterpointed example: he find her attractive, she finds him disgusting
“In revision, we have several ways to address the lethargy that passive main characters can bring to a story. Perhaps the character needs to have more responsibility or to make a mistake that has dramatic consequences. Or maybe the character’s failure to stand up for his or her desires can have consequences, which then force the character to engage in dramatic actions to compensate. Hamlet is perhaps the most famous example of disasters caused by failure to act.”
Humanize through weakness, villains who cause damage because they are damaged, villains intend harm, heros do good.
Use character to complicate what we already know—how they motivate, hold back, what they want and how their own character stops them from getting it. Let them be their own people.
Basic Plot:
Ground Situation
Complication or inception
Rising action increases tension
Crisis, tension hits highest point
Climax, perform the most significant actions of the story in response to peak tensions, lives changed
Falling action, response to changes
Drive: Something meaningful must be at stake
It is human nature to route for the underdog
Actual plot vs. emotion plot.
Emotion is like, people who question their lives’ purposes, so if they have sacrificed everything for others, was it worth it if those others leave them?
Other structures—nonlinear—rely on building and creating meaning. Look at how the images change through what they represent or how the characters change
Scene lives in the moment
Change in scene can occur in surface events and relations or in subtext
To push our limits, we change our usual balance—talk more, talk less, lush sense of the physical world by adding description that enhances character or tone—deepen fiction through the heart of the story
An effective summary can set up or ask questions, introduce a mystery or move us gracefully through hours or years when nothing much is happening to our characters. Summary should be as fascinating as scene
Once drafted, review for details, surprising observations, subtle continuation of story’s purposes
Situational—what happens Psychological is human drama, greed or love or other struggles
Use details to drive home the point
Nonrealistic fiction needs to be memorable, but have something to do with the real struggles of live, but needs to convey the strangeness of the fictional world
This is the hardest thing:
Firm sense of the legitimacy of our own work and impulses
Welty: Feelings are bound up in place
Invent secrets. Create a scene—action, dialogue, descriptive details, in which one character communicates the secret to the other without direct discussion
Opening of a story teaches us to interpret the story
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2013
This was the textbook for a writing class I took. It's a pretty expensive book, but it contains a huge amount of writing discussion, a small anthology of short stories by noted writers, and analyses of these stories to illustrate the discussions. The book is aimed at intermediate and advanced writers, and I appreciated that focus and the amount of attention given to revision. Highly recommended if you want to do some self-study to strengthen your writing.
May 29, 2017
This is an excellent text for anyone who wants to improve in writing fiction, complete with examples, an anthology of stories, and really entertaining chapters. My favorite chapters are towards the end where they discuss publishing and writer's block.
April 29, 2016
This book contains great ideas, advice, and exercises for intermediate to advanced writers. It really helps writers improve their craft. The anthology of stories used in the book are creative and enjoyable to read, giving examples of the skills taught in the book.
September 4, 2008
I got this book for school which starts tommorow and I have read it from cover to cover already. I love it. Very informative with some intriguing short stories.
June 11, 2011
I learned so much about my craft from this book, I'm placing it in the top 3 books on writing!
August 17, 2013
Good guide and reference for a new or practiced creative writers.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews