Literary theorist Norm Friedman offered incredible new ways to think about and categorize plots. His work can help writers better...

The principles of literary theory help us tell and understand great stories. Here is a discussion of key concepts in literary theory and...

Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their Eyes Were Watching God is a perfect example of Aristotle's dramatic structure. Here are notes on how...

Using the famous "5 Stages of Grief" as his model, Editor Shawn Coyne develops a theory of character that helps the writer deliver...

Hemingway on writing and the writing life. Here he is in his own immortal words.

Horace writes a book on craft disguised as a poem. His poem, Ars Poetica, is a classic of literary criticism and became the key text for...

David Mamet discusses the fundamentals of story and gets right down to the most essential, most profound elements of writing forceful...

In Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One's Own she analyzes classic books written by women and discusses what it means to be a female...

This ancient text on story lays out what aesthetics are and why the writer must rely on them. Here are notes on Longinus's brilliant...

The great theorist Cleanth Brooks says writers can only step into the universal by going through the narrow door of the particular. Here...

Francine Prose's wonderful advice on craft. Here are notes from her book, Reading Like a Writer.

Stephen King says talent is cheaper than table salt: it's hard work that makes the writer. Here are notes on his classic book, On Writing.

Philip Sidney defends poetry from attacks on its value. Sidney says poetry tamed our wild wits and was the first light-giver to...

In 1668, John Dryden published his work, Essay of Dramatic Poesy, wherein he criticized classical notions of form and put forth a...

Why must art mean something; can't it simply be experienced? In this great, iconoclastic essay, Susan Sontag says interpretation kills...

Writer John Gardner says a story must create a vivid and continuous dream in the reader's mind. Here are notes on his famous book on...

E. M. Forster wrote a terrific book exploring the elements of fiction. Here are notes on his classic book on writing, Aspects of the Novel.

How to Write a Damn Good Novel, Part 2 is a great follow-up book on the craft of writing. Here are notes on this excellent book.

How to Write A Damn Good Novel is a great book on craft. Here are notes on this classic guide to writing.

Literary critic Wolfgang Iser spent his career trying to understand how we read and interpret what we read. Here are notes on his...

All literary theory begins here. Aristotle's Poetics is perhaps the earliest work on theory and gives one of the best explanations of...

"A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no...

Understanding any art form can give the writer insight into craft and aesthetics. Here are notes on Michel Foucault's analysis of...

Jorge Louis Borges is one of the giants. Here are notes on a collection of his essays on craft.

This essay by the Russian Formalist Viktor Shklovsky introduces one of the most important concepts in literary theory: Defamiliarization....

Many novels follow a protagonist along the Hero's Journey. Here are notes on Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces, a book...