By Cunning and Craft: Sound Advice and Practical Wisdom for Fiction Writers

275 Pages·2007·2.37 MB·English

by  Peter Selgin

Praise for By Cunning & Craft
There is craft and there is cunning. There is the struggle to get published
at all. But there is also the chance that you will do something extraor-
dinary. Peter Selgin illustrates the tricks, both basic and sophisticated.
But greatness is what he’s really interested in. He thrusts the readers
into the company of those who wrote magnificently. Salinger is quoted,
Hemingway, Thomas Mann, E.M. Forster, John Gardner. “This book
is for serious writers of all levels,” he writes in the beginning, and he’s
talking about intentions. If you mean to shoot for the stars, then this
book is for you.
— Benjamin Cheever, author of The Plagiarist, The Partisan (both New
York Times Best Books), Famous After Death, and The Good Nanny
Peter Selgin has written an excellent guide—witty, lucid, well-written—for
beginning writers of fi ction. In fact, any writer can learn from it.
—V ivian Gornick, author of The Situation and the Story: The Art of
Personal Narrative and Approaching Eye Level
Cunning and craft, indeed: Within these pages Peter Selgin quotes Chekov
to the effect that, “The writer’s task is not to solve the problem but to state
the problem correctly.” What I admire most about By Cunning &
Craft is its rare and inspired modesty—an ultimately stylish resistance to
pledging more than Selgin (really anyone) can deliver. May many learn
from this book.
— Robert Polito, author of Savage Art: A Biography Of Jim Thompson
and Director of the New School Graduate Writing Program
Along with the great advice, Selgin is pure pleasure to read.
—Alexander Steele, Dean of Faculty, Gotham Writers’ Workshop
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A wonderfully helpful, thorough, and honest book on writing, By Cunning
& Craft is fi lled with good sense, good advice, and many excellent examples of
good writing. A book to read and read again with profi t by the beginning, the
middle, and the writer of many years.
— Sheila Kohler, author of Cracks, Crossways, and The Children
of Pithiviers
By Cunning & Craft is a masterpiece of writing about writing. If, like
Scheherazade, you had to spin out a story under threat of death, this is the how-
to book to read. It’s fi lled with thoughtful, nuanced advice from a teacher/writer
who actually writes—and writes beautifully and with great humor. The list of
rejected stories is worth the price of the whole book.
— Nora Gallagher, author of Things Seen and Unseen, Practicing
Resurrection, and the forthcoming Changing Light
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By Cunning & Craft
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Cincinnati, Ohio
www.writersdigest.com
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By Cunning & Craft
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sound advice and practical
wisdom for fi ction writers
PETER SELGIN
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By Cunning & Craft © 2007 by Peter Selgin. Manufactured in the
United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means
including information storage and retrieval systems without permission
in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief
passages in a review. Published by Writer’s Digest Books, an imprint of
F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio,
45236. [phone]. First edition.
11 10 09 08 07 5 4 3 2 1
Distributed in Canada by Fraser Direct, 100 Armstrong Avenue, George-
town, Ontario Canada L7G 5S4, Tel: [phone]. Distributed in
the U.K. and Europe by David & Charles, Brunel House, Newton Abbot,
Devon, TQ12 4PU, England, Tel: [phone], Fax: (+44) 1626
323319, E-mail: [email protected]. Distributed in Aus-
tralia by Capricorn Link, P.O. Box 704, Windsor, NSW 2756, Australia,
Tel: [phone].
Visit our Web site at www.writersdigest.com for information on more
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Selgin, Peter.
By cunning & craft : sound advice and practical wisdom for fi ction writers /
Peter Selgin. -- 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58297-491-0 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58297-768-3 (EPUB)
ISBN-10: 1-58297-491-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Fiction--Authorship. I. Title. II. Title: By cunning and craft.
PN3355.S395 2007
808.3--dc22 2006034926
Edited by Kelly Nickell
Designed by Grace Ring
Production coordinated by Mark Griffi n
Peter Selgin photo © Paulette Licitra
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Permissions
Chapter V: Description and Chapter VI: Scene, Summary,
and Flashback originally appeared respectively in Volume 119
No. 5 (May 2006) and Volume 119 No. 10 (October 2006)
issues of The Writer magazine.
Parts of Chapter IX: Revision originally appeared in Writing
Fiction: The Practical Guide From New York’s Acclaimed Creative Writing
School © Gotham Writers’ Workshop, and are reprinted here
by their kind permission.
Excerpt from The Centaur by John Updike, copyright © 1962,
1963 by John Updike. Used with permission of the publisher,
Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.
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dedication
to Donald Newlove
and my students
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