The Craft of Fiction

“Fiction is the most joyous, beautiful,
sophisticated, wonderful thing in the world.”

Arundhati Roy

The last twenty or so years of my life have in large measure been spent looking for, finding, and compiling a survey of the Elements of Fiction.

It was the late John Gardner who threw down the gauntlet for me when he said, “Though no one can say what the number is, the number of fictional elements that exist is finite, like the number of words in the English language.” Well, I didn’t find quite that many elements, but I did find a few.

The way I see it, as the story evolves from Cause to Effect it sets out at Interest and travels through those elements that best serve it to arrive at Truth. I have documented this journey with illustrative quotes from many known, or not so known, pliers of the craft.

Of course, the survey is incomplete, but what started out as a sort of cheat sheet, and which then took on a life of its own, is complete enough for me.

I hope you will find it useful.

Ulf Wolf

PS. The copyrights to all quotes belong to the respective writers/publishers, except, of course, where I quote myself (one way of offering my opinion) when the copyright belongs to Wolfstuff.

PPS. Here is an amazing tool for the improvement of the fiction writer's biggest asset: the imagination. I have found Hubbard's Self Analysis to improve both perception and memory, and most importantly, your imagination. You should try it. I promise you, you'll be glad you did.

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