Beyond the First Draft: The Art of Fiction

by John Casey

Overview

For students and writers alike, a brilliant guide to the craft of writing by the National Book Award–winning author of Spartina.

National Book Award winner John Casey is a masterful novelist who is also an inspiring and beloved teacher. In Beyond the First Draft he offers essential and original insights into the art of writing—and rewriting—fiction.

Through anecdotes about other writers’ methods and habits (as well as his own) and close readings of literature from Aristotle to Zola, the essays in this collection offer “suggestions about things to do, things to think about when your writing has got you lost in the woods.” In “Dogma and Anti-dogma” Casey sets out the tried-and-true advice and then comments on when to apply it and when to ignore it. In “What's Funny” he considers the range of comedy from pratfalls to elegant wit. In “In Other Words” he discusses translations and the surprising effects that translating can have on one’s native language. In “Mentors” he pays tribute to those who have guided him and other writers. Throughout the fourteen essays there are notes on voice, point of view, structure, and other crucial elements. This book is an invaluable resource for aspiring writers and a revitalizing companion for seasoned ones.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393244007
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/11/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	317 KB

About the Author

John Casey is the author of six works of fiction, including Spartina, winner of the National Book Award, and Compass Rose, as well as nonfiction and translations. Educated at Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Editorial Reviews

06/02/2014
In this collection of essays, National Book Award–winning novelist Casey (Spartina) presents his take on the craft of writing fiction, or “things to think about, when your writing has got you lost in the woods.” In regards to humor (“What’s Funny”), he concludes that the best humor is grounded in something true. For sex scenes (“Sex and Violence”), he suggests that writers think in terms of “cathexis and release.” Throughout, he illustrates ideas with excerpts from published stories, the weight of which lands more effectively if readers are familiar with the quoted works. The reach from good story to instructive lesson on writing unfortunately often falls short. However, some of Casey’s anecdotes are especially insightful, such as his analogy that the right sexual tension in a story resembles a full glass with water “above the rim but kept in place by surface tension.” In a crowded field of writing reference books, this book does not substantially advance the genre, though it may appeal to Casey fans. Agent: Michael Carlisle, Inkwell Management. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Entrancing… encourag[es] us to look more closely and intelligently at what we read and even at what we may be trying to write."

Wall Street Journal - Allan Massie

"A major writer and master teacher, John Casey brings his formidable intellect to bear on the art of fiction. [His] wide reading and experience furnish these essays with shrewd exempla and portraits of other writers, their texts, procedures, and consequences. Beyond the First Draft shimmers with the wonderment of its author for the wonder of fiction."

Christine Schutt

"John Casey is as wise about people—what we want, what we need, who we are, how we dream—as he is about the craft of writing: and that makes him an unusually good guide to the art of making fiction. What a useful book for writers at every stage!"

Andrea Barrett

"John Casey offers his brilliant, erudite company in that complicated and mysterious endeavor we call writing fiction. As he explores his own life and work, he introduces us not only to writers we know, or ought to know, but also to new ways of thinking about writing, about reading, and about finding our way into our own work…A deeply companionable and immensely helpful book."

Margot Livesey

"Practical and provocative…the next best thing to being in a workshop with the brilliant writer and teacher John Casey…Personal, insightful, colorfully anecdotal, Beyond the First Draft is more than a writing handbook—it’s a singular contribution to the conversation about how fiction is made and what it can do."

Eleanor Henderson

"John Casey is a superb craftsman, a legendary teacher, and an omnivorous reader. The combination makes this book of essays a literary delight. It is pure gold for the young, and not so young, writer trying to master the craft."

Chris Tilghman

"It is rare that a book devoted to the craft of fiction stands as a work of art in its own right, but Beyond the First Draft does just that. I marveled at the intelligence, humor, acuity of thought, lucidity of expression, and crystalline beauty of these essays. What a spectacular book this is."

Tim O'Brien

"A delight of a book. I was lucky enough to be a student of John Casey’s, but most of what I learned from him didn’t come from the classroom. It came through conversation and observation, from spending time with a writer of his great talent, intelligence, and wit. Now his readers can do the same, listening to him play across two centuries of literature, a rich career as a novelist and teacher, and his own well-earned wisdom. The result is a real pleasure."

Adam Haslett

★ 02/01/2016
Novelist and translator Casey (National Book Award winner for Spartina) distinguishes this fiction guide by relating his experiences in disciplines such as theater, law, and translation to the art of fiction writing. This title belongs on every writer's shelf. (LJ 7/14)

Library Journal

2014-06-05
National Book Award–winning novelist Casey (English/Univ. of Virginia;Compass Rose, 2010, etc.) waxes thoughtful about his craft in a collection of essays, some nearly 20 years old.The title, which sounds a little how-to-do-it, is somewhat misleading. Yes, the art of fiction is the author’s subject, but these are more ruminative, speculative pieces than they are lessons in how to write stories and novels. Readers looking for bullet-point lists of specific recommendations should look elsewhere. Also: Since the essays were written over a period of decades, some of the examples and anecdotes appear more than once. Casey frequently writes about his time at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (with kind words for such teachers as Kurt Vonnegut Jr.), and he alludes in several ways to Nabokov’sSpeak, Memory. He repeats a story about a painting chimpanzee, and several times, he discusses the significance for beginning writers of the work of acting theorist Stanislavski. On the whole, however, Casey’s topics are compelling and useful. He examines quintessentiallyAmerican writers—Twain, Whitman, Hemingway and Salinger—and he explores the concept of human justice in fiction (are you treating your characters equally?). Casey also reflects on humor—and consults some pretty good authorities (Oscar Wilde)—leaps back in history for consideration of Aristotle’sPoetics, and traces the history of sex and violence in fiction (D.H. Lawrence makes an expected appearance here). The author notes the various uses of the first person—from “My Last Duchess” to Edgar Allan Poe to “the swelling I” of Whitman—and he asserts that the “point” of it all is “to crack the skull of a character…so that the individual psyche of the character is released”—an apt and unforgettable image. The author also includes essays on vocabulary, translation and childhood reading—with a shout out toCatcher in the Rye—and ends with an affectionate tribute to his mentor, Peter Taylor.Not a handbook for students but a guidebook for thinking about fiction.

Kirkus Reviews