THE ICE PICK

The Art and Craft of Novel Writing, by Oakley Hall. Cincinnati, Writer’s Digest Books, 1989. ISBN 0-89879-346-7. $16.95.

My copy is falling apart. (Yeah, they don’t make anything like they used to!) But no, this really is one of my pet books. And I use it as much for writing short stories as when working on novels.

Hall doesn’t just list, or even explain what you should be doing, and then leave you hanging. He tells and shows you how to do things in a simple, clear, straightforward manner without throwing a lot of rules at you. As Hall says, "in fiction, as in life, what works, works."

Parts One and Two deal with the elements of fiction. For example, his first chapter is about the difference between showing and telling. He not only explains it, but in example after example points out the abstract and general, the boring, the clincher detail, the sense impressions, and the weak nonspecific words, enabling you to critique your own writing. He demonstrates how to avoid static description, especially when you meld research with your writing, by putting things in motion--flags flying, leaves fluttering, etc. His techniques can be applied equally well to science fiction and fantasy, so that your prose enlivens the scene with color, sound, and motion.

His explanation of point of view is, I think, the clearest I’ve seen on it. Equally good are the chapters on dialogue, plotting, characterization, style, etc. (Ever wonder how to get across a translation of what your alien said? Do it "most simply by repeating the phrase a second time, in translation." Hemingway did.)

For the more experienced writer, his chapters on how to convey information and emotional impact by "implication, symbols, images, metaphors, allegories, parallels, and contrasts" are excellent.

Part Three covers planning, beginning, and finishing the novel, as well as how to handle writers’ block.

The index is excellent, and wide margins throughout let you write all kinds of notes.

A lot of how-to-write books just aren’t that helpful, especially for beginners. I feel lucky that I stumbled across this one when I was starting out.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, May 1998. Reprinted in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, May 1999.}