There are books that come into our lives when we need them most and 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel by Jane Smiley was one of those books for me.  My dad was battling cancer and I wasn’t writing. (That’s not entirely true. I was keeping a journal and writing to my dad , but getting any focus onto writing fiction at that time was out of the question.)

13 Ways of Looking at the Novel is a different kind of writing book – and I sense many people don’t see it as a writing instruction book at all. At Amazon it’s classified under “Books & Reading,” “Essays” and “Literary Criticism & Theory.” But for me this was an invaluable resource when it came to writing – and reading – because it looks at the tradition of the novel from classics like Tale of the Genji and Robinson Crusoe to contemporary fiction by Anne Tyler, Zadie Smith and Ian McEwan. Never has a single book so inspired the to-read pile of books on my bedside table.

It’s a big book – more than 600 pages – and I won't do it any justice by writing a “review.” There’s just too much wonderful stuff in there. So instead, over the next month I’m going to share some of what I took from this book – in Jane Smiley’s own words – with blog posts and on Twitter. (I’m @mystorywriter and will use #13ways as the hashtag.)

I hope this inspires you in your writing (and reading) as it did mine. And I’m excited to see what I take away after digging into this book again.

lara
My Story Writer
writing software
www.mywritingsoftware.com

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