The Stuff of Fiction: Advice on Craft

Title, Copyright and Dedication Pages

The Stuff of Fiction Also Available Bringing the Devil to His Knees: The Craft of Fiction and the Writing Life Charles Baxter and Peter Turchi, Editors The Writing Life: The Hopwood Lectures, Fifth Series Nicholas Delbanco, Editor Sound and Form in Modern Poetry: Second Edition Harvey Gross and Robert McDowell The Origins of Free Verse H.T. Kirby-Smith Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms: 85 Leading Contemporary Poets Select and Comment on Their Poems David Lehman, Editor Curious Attractions: Essays on Fiction Writing Debra Spark You Must Revise Your Life William Stafford The Stuff of Fiction Advice on Craft Douglas Bauer The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor Copyright © by Douglas Bauer 2000, 2006 All rights reserved Published in the United States of America by The University of Michigan Press Manufactured in the United States of America c Printed on acid-free paper 2009 2008 2007 2006 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bauer, Douglas. The stuff of fiction : advice on craft / by Douglas Bauer.— Enl. and rev. ed. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-472-03153-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-472-03153-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Fiction—Authorship. I. Title. PN3355.B29 2006 808.3—dc22 2006003046 Grateful acknowledgment is made to the following journals and publishers for permission to reprint previously published material. “Emergency,” from JESUS’ SON, by Denis Johnson. Copyright © 1992 by Denis Johnson. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LIC. LEGS, by William Kennedy, copyright © 1975 by William Kennedy. Used by permission of Viking. ISBN13 978-0-472-02627-2 (electronic) For David Lehman I want to thank the students and my colleagues at the Bennington College Writing Seminars, where some of this material was originally offered in lecture form. My special gratitude goes to Liam Rector. ...