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How to Write Like Tolstoy

A Journey into the Minds of Our Greatest Writers

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About this listen

Behind every acclaimed work of literature is a trove of heartfelt decisions. The best authors put painstaking - sometimes obsessive - effort into each element of their stories, from plot and character development to dialogue and point of view.

Veteran editor and teacher Richard Cohen draws on his vast reservoir of a lifetime's reading and his insight into what makes good prose soar. Here are Gabriel Garcia Márquez's thoughts on how to start a novel ("In the first paragraph you solve most of the problems with your book"); Virginia Woolf offering her definition of style ("It is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can't use the wrong words"); and Vladimir Nabokov on the nature of fiction ("All great novels are great fairy tales").

Cohen has researched the published works and private utterances of our greatest authors to discover the elements that made their prose memorable. The result is a unique exploration of the act and art of writing that enriches our experience of reading both the classics and the best modern fiction. Evoking the marvelous, the famous, and the irreverent, he reveals the challenges that even the greatest writers faced - and shows us how they surmounted them.

©2016 Narrative Tension, Inc. (P)2020 Tantor Art & Literature Authors Literary History & Criticism Words, Language & Grammar Writing & Publishing Witty Heartfelt Fiction Memoir
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The title doesn’t do it justice. Great insight on many writers’ processes. Thank you very much.

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I really enjoyed listening to this. Not stuffy or patronising. Illustrated with good examples. Places where I wanted to make notes (I’m planning a second listen). Useful for anyone learning about creative writing or who wants to understand why some stories work better than others.

A great combination of education and entertainment.

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