Fiction Writer’s Notebook: Jane Austen
I went to Barnes and Noble today and picked up a rather interesting book. It’s titled “Fiction Writer’s Notebook” by John Gillard and it contains information on twenty different authors as well as seventy writing exercises. I flipped the pages briefly and quickly realized it could be used as a great source of inspiration for my blog.
I’m going to do these exercises, share them, and briefly discuss what I learned. This is the first of many to fit this new category. I hope you’ll find them both instructional as well as entertaining to read! With any luck, this will not only boost my writing abilities, but also increase your as well!
The first author presented in the notebook is the famed Jane Austen. If you don’t recognize the name, you’ll at least likely recognize some of her classic novels such as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility.” I haven’t personally read her novels, but I’ve seen the “Pride and Prejudice” movie, and my wife adores Austen’s stories.
In “Fiction Writer’s Notebook,” Gillard points out several reasons why Jane Austin’s work is popular 200 years after they were first published. I won’t go too much into detail, but some of the reasons Gillard brings up are: Wit and satire, her stories are driven by mistruths and misunderstandings, she “wrote at a time when the modern novel was still in its infancy,” she mirrors sentiment with pace, and her characters and their interactions push the plot forward.
The next three blogs will focus on exercises meant to help authors replicate the positive aspects of Jane Austen’s work. Now that you’ve got a little more information on Jane Austen, here’s a list of the exercises linked to her writing. (If there isn’t a link yet, it’s because I haven’t posted that exercise.)
- Exercise #1 Free Indirect Speech
- Exercise #2 Irony
- Exercise #3 Character Counterparts
Question of the Day: Are you a Jane Austen fan? If so, share why in the comments! I’d love to learn more, and I’m sure other readers would too!
