Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing
    Unavailable
    The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing
    Unavailable
    The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing
    Ebook285 pages4 hours

    The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing

    By Francis Flaherty

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “A splendid book for journalists (new or old), fiction writers, essayists, and critics. But it could also be of great use to the intelligent common reader, the man or woman who wonders why it’s impossible to finish reading certain stories and why others carry the reader in a vivid rush to the end.”
    —Pete Hamill, author of A Drinking Life

     

    In the spirit of Strunk and White’s classic The Elements of Style, comes The Elements of Story, by Francis Flaherty, longtime story editor at The New York Times. A brilliant blend of memoir and how-to, The Elements of Story offers more than 50 principles that emphasize storytelling aspects rather than simply the mechanics of writing—a relentlessly entertaining, totally accessible writing guide for the novice and the professional alike.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 23, 2009
    ISBN9780061892394
    Unavailable
    The Elements of Story: Field Notes on Nonfiction Writing

    Related to The Elements of Story

    Related ebooks

    Reference For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      What Agents Wish Writers Knew

      Dec 21, 2021

      What Agents Wish Writers Knew
      9 min read

    • Article

      Set the Hook With Great Beginnings

      Oct 18, 2021

      As a novice fisher, I’ve only caught a few fish, but I’m already thinking about better ways to hook more. Likewise, as a writer, I think a lot about how to write beginnings that will hook readers. Just as fishing advice abounds, so too does writing a

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Writer’s Bookshelf

      Aug 17, 2022

      As you find your path as a writer, there may be no better support than the wisdom of your fellow travelers. Let these twelve recent and forthcoming books by some of contemporary literature’s most insightful and generous luminaries guide you on your w

      4 min read

    • Article

      Bookish

      May 21, 2019

      There’s no one right way to live a writing life (unless, of course, you never write a word). But how does one start being a writer? Who’s allowed to call themselves a “writer,” anyway? And beyond grammar and syntax, what does a person need to know be

      1 min read

    • Article

      What’s the Story?

      Mar 29, 2021

      What’s the Story?
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Snapshot Theory

      Feb 27, 2021

      The Snapshot Theory
      6 min read

    • Article

      Getting Creative With Reality

      Oct 1, 2020

      What do H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Notes on a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Tall Stories and Wee Tales by Billy Connolly have in common? They all belong to the increasingly popular genre of creative non-fiction writing. When creative non-fic

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Time Is Now Writing Prompts and Exercises

      Oct 10, 2018

      Suggested Reading:The Story Cure: A Book Doctor’s Pain-Free Guide to Finishing Your Novel or Memoir (Ten Speed Press, May 2017) by Dinty W. Moore The director of creative writing at Ohio State University and author of a number of books of literary no

      2 min read

    • Article

      Nonfiction Book Proposals

      Oct 13, 2021

      FOR years journalist Chloé Cooper Jones, who was born with a rare congenital disorder called sacral agenesis that affected the development of her hips and legs, had been filling free moments between assignments by writing journal entries on how stran

      8 min read

    • Article

      Writing Your First Article

      Sep 18, 2019

      After all your hard work and writing the perfect query, you now have an article writing assignment. The editor has detailed the word count, deadline, the rights, and the payment, and now it’s time to write the article. Keep in mind everything you kno

      6 min read

    • Article

      Is Podcasting Right for You?

      Dec 21, 2021

      Is Podcasting Right for You?
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of PLOTTING

      Jul 9, 2022

      Writing a novel is a huge challenge. Not only must you create relatable, compelling characters who grab readers, but you also need to nail down a storyline that does the same thing. Readers want adept storytelling, with scenes that move, lives that c

      8 min read

    • Article

      On Writer’s Block: Advice from Twelve Writers

      Mar 19, 2018

      Our Writers at Work series, which spans sixty-five years of interviews with nearly four hundred writers, offers no shortage of advice. Should this multitude seem daunting, fear not! The editors of The Paris Review have combed through the series and s

      4 min read

    • Article

      12 Foolproof Ways To Fail As A Writer

      Dec 21, 2021

      Whether you’re just now launching into writing or you’re an old pro, here are 12 surefire ways to fail this year as you pursue your dreams within the writing world. You’ll be tempted to compare other authors’ sales figures, reviews, likes, comments,

      4 min read

    • Article

      Opportunities

      Jan 28, 2023

      Categories: Art, poetry, prose Description: Editors seek U.S. entries from emerging and established writers and artists for the 47th issue. Deadline: March 20 http://sandhillslitmag.com/submit/ Categories: Poetry, craft essays, fiction, hybrid, nonfi

      1 min read

    • Article

      A Writer’s Toolbox

      Jan 30, 2018

      1. I pulled the heavy red book down from my dad’s bookshelf. Bryan A. Garner’s A Dictionary of Modern American Usage, its cover announced. “David Foster Wallace said it’s the only usage guide he ever consulted,” my dad said, a note of pride in his vo

      7 min read

    • Article

      Starting Out in an MFA Program?

      Aug 12, 2020

      I HAVE taught fiction writing for almost three decades and served as program director of two graduate programs—the MA program in creative writing and literature at Kansas State University and the MFA program in creative writing at Oregon State Univer

      9 min read

    • Article

      Twelve Ways to Create Space to Write No Matter Where You Are

      Dec 14, 2022

      1. Turn your mind inside out. One of my favorite discoveries has been dry-erase paint. I fully painted two of my office walls, and it’s where I do my first project outlines. The temporariness of it gives me permission to be messy and the space to con

      3 min read

    • Article

      DIY Mfa

      Mar 26, 2022

      DIY Mfa
      3 min read

    • Article

      Everything I Don’t Know About Swords: On Teaching Creative Writing

      Mar 19, 2018

      1. One evening in grad school, half-drunk and Googling my own name, I found a blog run by one of my fiction students. I shouldn’t have read it, but of course I read it. “I already hate this class,” she wrote. “My teacher is a stuck-up snob who won’t

      7 min read

    Reviews for The Elements of Story

    4/5

    11 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      A powerful set of essays about nonfiction writing, The Elements of Story is aimed primarily at newspaper and magazine writers, and contains the kind of real-world, gritty and professional advice that so many writing books seem to lack.

      That's due in part to the author's pedigree; Flaherty was a longtime New York Times editor. I believe most nonfiction writers will find something of value in this book, which I resisted reading for a long time (I'm a huge fan of The Elements of Style and many of the knock-off titles haven't come close to measuring up).

      Organized by topics like The Theme and Motion, this kind of subject matter resists simple, binary organization, and therein lies my only real difficulty with this book.

      Not all of the real-life story excerpts seemed to clearly illustrate their point, and a certain choppiness to the chapters (some were very long, others unhappily short) made the book sometimes difficult to digest.

      I read this book cover-to-cover, but suspect it would have been best to tackle the sections singly and then allowing them to digest a little before moving on.

      Those quibbles aside, this is a book that tackles difficult, somewhat esoteric subject matter and largely succeeds (the Motion chapter was a favorite), and it's worth a little of your time.

      1 person found this helpful