Book Review: Immediate Fiction, by Jerry Cleaver

What excuses come to mind when someone asks why your book isn't finished? Writer's block? Lack of time? Lack of a cohesive idea? Jerry Cleaver tackles all those and more in Immediate Fiction: A Complete Writing Course.

In seventeen chapters, Cleaver takes the reader through the entire creative process, from idea to marketing. He covers things like time management, self-editing (and self-abuse), staying on track, and what to do when writer's block hits.

Besides these topics, he covers all the different aspects of the craft of writing, like point of view, how to end scenes well, and how any short story can be turned into a novel.

Cleaver has taught fiction for years, most currently a teacher and writing coach at Chicago's Writing Loft, which he founded. His book and courses were developed out of his own frustration as a novice writer, trying to answer the question, "How do you write?"

He claims to have made every mistake possible for a writer, and wrote immediate fiction to share with others what not to do. And he does it well.

Find out more about Cleaver (and a hands-on course he offers) at The Complete Story.

What have you learned not to do?

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting book and one that can help a writer refocus.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A friend of mine is using the book to teach a writing class, with good results.

    ~Debbie

    ReplyDelete

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