novels

A Prison Wherever He Turned (Stoner by John Williams)

The plot of John Williams’ 1965 novel, Stoner (NYRB Classics, 2006): Young man becomes assistant professor at University of Missouri, lives unhappy life, has undistinguished career, dies. You can hardly be blamed if you don’t find this particularly enticing, but make no mistake: Stoner (last name of the protagonist—sorry to disappoint) is a work of almost unbearable beauty. [Read More]

July 22, 2017

Novel Fridays: Structure

Happy Friday, novelists! I hope you had successful weeks. Once again, we will be delving into the different techniques we use when writing novels. Now you may have been wondering in our discussion of time last week: what about flashbacks? Or flash forwards? How are the events of my novel best arranged? Should they only proceed in sequential order? Or in other words: what should the structure of my novel be? [Read More]

February 6, 2015