Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories
The ultimate guide to reading and writing fiction, with useful creative exercises and fascinating analyses of great plots—from Plato and Tolstoy to The Matrix and Toy Story.

The bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y shows you how to unlock any narrative and create your own.
 
Filled with creative exercises, structures, and charts, this creative writing manual breaks down the fiction writing process and demonstrates that everyone has material to write about—whether they believe it or not. Have you ever had your heart broken, or broken someone else’s heart? Have you ever won an argument but later realized you were wrong? Have you ever tripped in public or spilled wine on someone else’s carpet? Monkeys with Typewriters is an ode to the secret power of stories, and a guide to cracking those powers open.

As a bestselling author, Thomas may appear as a naturally gifted writer. However, for Thomas, fiction unlocked itself only once she recognized the importance of an author’s individual experience and one’s willingness to ask questions, not simply provide solutions. She deems the communication of one’s humanity as the key to making a piece relatable, and Thomas does nothing less in her own work.
 
With startling and original insights into how we construct stories, Monkeys with Typewriters is a creative writing book like no other. It will show you how to not only write, but also to a finer degree, how to read.
1113034443
Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories
The ultimate guide to reading and writing fiction, with useful creative exercises and fascinating analyses of great plots—from Plato and Tolstoy to The Matrix and Toy Story.

The bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y shows you how to unlock any narrative and create your own.
 
Filled with creative exercises, structures, and charts, this creative writing manual breaks down the fiction writing process and demonstrates that everyone has material to write about—whether they believe it or not. Have you ever had your heart broken, or broken someone else’s heart? Have you ever won an argument but later realized you were wrong? Have you ever tripped in public or spilled wine on someone else’s carpet? Monkeys with Typewriters is an ode to the secret power of stories, and a guide to cracking those powers open.

As a bestselling author, Thomas may appear as a naturally gifted writer. However, for Thomas, fiction unlocked itself only once she recognized the importance of an author’s individual experience and one’s willingness to ask questions, not simply provide solutions. She deems the communication of one’s humanity as the key to making a piece relatable, and Thomas does nothing less in her own work.
 
With startling and original insights into how we construct stories, Monkeys with Typewriters is a creative writing book like no other. It will show you how to not only write, but also to a finer degree, how to read.
20.95 In Stock
Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories

Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories

by Scarlett Thomas
Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories

Monkeys with Typewriters: How to Write Fiction and Unlock the Secret Power of Stories

by Scarlett Thomas

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$20.95 
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Overview

The ultimate guide to reading and writing fiction, with useful creative exercises and fascinating analyses of great plots—from Plato and Tolstoy to The Matrix and Toy Story.

The bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y shows you how to unlock any narrative and create your own.
 
Filled with creative exercises, structures, and charts, this creative writing manual breaks down the fiction writing process and demonstrates that everyone has material to write about—whether they believe it or not. Have you ever had your heart broken, or broken someone else’s heart? Have you ever won an argument but later realized you were wrong? Have you ever tripped in public or spilled wine on someone else’s carpet? Monkeys with Typewriters is an ode to the secret power of stories, and a guide to cracking those powers open.

As a bestselling author, Thomas may appear as a naturally gifted writer. However, for Thomas, fiction unlocked itself only once she recognized the importance of an author’s individual experience and one’s willingness to ask questions, not simply provide solutions. She deems the communication of one’s humanity as the key to making a piece relatable, and Thomas does nothing less in her own work.
 
With startling and original insights into how we construct stories, Monkeys with Typewriters is a creative writing book like no other. It will show you how to not only write, but also to a finer degree, how to read.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781593766658
Publisher: Catapult
Publication date: 02/14/2017
Pages: 496
Sales rank: 984,110
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Scarlett Thomas was born in London in 1972. Her novels include The Seed Collectors, PopCo, The End of Mr.Y which was longlisted for the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction 2007, and Our Tragic Universe. She teaches creative writing at the University of Kent.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I Theory

Inside Plato's Gave 21

Going to Bed with Aristotle 44

Tragedy and the Complex Plot 76

How to Turn a Fairy Tale into an Equation 103

The Eight Basic Plots 131

Part II Practice

How to Have Ideas 191

Styles of Narration 219

Characterisation 257

Writing a Good Sentence 298

Beginning to Write a Novel 359

Appendix 1 Blank Matrix 403

Appendix 2 Completed Matrixes 407

Appendix 3 Technical Matrix 417

Appendix 4 Bank of Words Examples 419

Notes 423

Bibliography 471

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Scarlett Thomas's prose is so addictive you can't help but fall deeper and deeper under her spell. How does she do it? She is a genius." —Douglas Coupland on Our Tragic Universe

"Thomas brilliantly reminds us that, despite popular representations, many women are actually staying up half the night talking ideas. One feels alone. And then one reads Our Tragic Universe." —Jincy Willett, author, Winner of the National Book Award, on Our Tragic Universe

"[S]mart, stylish and dizzying. . . . an accomplished, impressive thought experiment for the 21st Century."  —New York Times Book Review on The End of Mr. Y

"Literary manna for would-be philosophy nerds. There are little, 100-percent-literary sugar plums to be found in its pages."  —Salon.com on The End of Mr. Y

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