How to analyze fiction

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 5, 2009

There's a few threads out about overused plots and stories that never grow old that I don't feel qualified to participate in because I have nothing to contribute.

The reason? I don't know how to analyze fiction. Those were the classes that bored me. The ones where you'd read a story then discuss it's meaning, break it down into various components like theme, and whatever else they broke them down into. The courses that analyzed fiction.

I feel that THIS is what is holding me back as a writer, my lack of education as a analytical reader.

Are there any books out there that can teach this?

DeleyanLee · Aug 5, 2009

The classic How to Read a Book.

Classic reference aside, it really depends on WHAT you are analyzing for. Plot? Character? Description? Mood? Tone? Prose? Genre-redefinition? What?

No, there really isn't any book instructing you on the how-to's of analyzing fiction focused on writers' needs (which I think is different than an English major's needs).

What I've figured out to do is really simple: Take a book you think is good at something you want to do well. Own your own copy (at least one). Read it. Every time the book does something really well, highlight the passage. Repeat until you finish reading the book.

Then go back and start reading again. When you hit a highlighted passage, and start questioning. Is the marvelousness in those highlighted words, or are those words just the payoff for the set-up? Find the start of it, look at it. See if you can jot down notes about how it was constructed and what as involved--building tension? increasing stakes? character flaws pushed to explosion? the exact right words that painted the clearest picture ever? What is it?

Analyzing isn't natural to everyone. It's not to me. I've been working for about 15 years to figure out the kinds of questions that need to be asked when I want to figure out good writing. How to Read a Book helped me learn the gist of the questions that should be covered, helped me figure out how to come up with new questions for the individual situation.

Figuring out the questions for analyzing is the hard part for me. Once I know what I'm looking for, I can root out the answers.

Email me if you want to discuss more.

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 5, 2009

Oh, good. I have that. Never read it.

ETA: Well, that was a quick thread. Mods feel free to delete!

Funny thing is, when I type "analyze fiction" or "fiction analysis" at the library it doesn't come up with much worthwhile. So that's why I posted it here.

DeleyanLee · Aug 5, 2009

How to Read a Book is actually aimed at getting more out of NON-fiction, which is why it's not coming up on your searches. However, as I said, it helped me figure out the kinds of questions to ask when reading fiction. The basic lessons translate.

Good luck!

SilverPhoenix · Aug 5, 2009

I'd recommend you read critical essays or even go back to reading things like school York Notes (where the credited people analyze books - we used them to help us when studying things like Hamlet etc. in Literature class ) rather than trying to find a book on analytical writing.

If you google 'critical essays' you should get a lot of results - but that's more advanced than the notes, the stuff of 'academics'.

CaroGirl · Aug 5, 2009

Shadow_Ferret said:
Oh, good. I have that. Never read it.

ETA: Well, that was a quick thread. Mods feel free to delete!

Funny thing is, when I type "analyze fiction" or "fiction analysis" at the library it doesn't come up with much worthwhile. So that's why I posted it here.

Try looking up "literary criticism." That should work better.

Summonere · Aug 5, 2009

Good advice offered so far, to which I'll add that you should look for well-written and insightful reviews of books that you've read.

Of course you could go the egghead route and read the slim book, Interpretation and Overinterpretation, from a series of lectures by Umberto Eco, Richard Rorty, Jonathan Culler, and Christine Brooke-Rose, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-42554-9. I found it entertaining, and it may provide something of use to you.

Phaeal · Aug 5, 2009

Meh, I'd go with the self-taught method DeleylanLee describes. Corral your favorite books and read them to death, consciously questioning your reactions and seeing how the written word produces them, or fails to produce them.

As a graduate student in English, I read critical works until they poured out my ears (and other orifices). However, it was fiction itself that taught me to write.

Exir · Aug 5, 2009

Study the Three Act Structure inside out. I find it tremendously helpful in analysing the overall picture of the story. Most stories can fit inside this structure, even non-linear and stream of consciousness stories.

It especially helped me with understanding timing and pacing -- these are just ways of describing how events relate to one another and to the grand scheme of things. Learning the Three Act Structure will help.

TrickyFiction · Aug 5, 2009

I think a lot of it is just looking closer. But looking more closely becomes way easier when you've already seen someone else do it first. I'm currently reading The Magician's Book, and I'm being introduced to new ways of looking at the Narnia stories. Still, I bet I had some experiences with those stories even the author didn't have.

To me, analysis is about making connections and seeing new things in the stories. It's just staring at the damn painting until you notice the little things in the background, or squinting at it until you notice the overuse of the color red and wonder what all that red is for, anyway.

blacbird · Aug 5, 2009

I think the formally analytical lit classes are useful to a scholar, but aren't worth dogslobber on a cold winter night to a writer.

Which isn't to say you shouldn't analyze, only that it needs to be done in a different manner, for a different goal. Take the work of writers you like and look at it carefully for such questions as:

What narrative POV is used? How are characters introduced? What kinds of physical details are used to set scenes? What are the points of plot surprise or revelation, and how are they presented? How are scenes and chapters ended? What kinds of similes and metaphors are employed?

Above all, read stuff aloud, see how it flows and feels. Especially dialogue.

And lots of other similar questions, specific nuts-and-bolts ones, rather than the grand symbolic meaning-of-life ones.

caw

john barnes on toast · Aug 5, 2009

Shadow_Ferret said:
I have nothing to contribute.

Out of your 14 thousand posts, how many have been about how bad a writer you are?

First off, stop putting yourself down; The wisest man knows only that he knows nothing at all (or something like that, WTF do I know?)

Now you've obviously some commitment to the writing process (your post count on this site alone, bears testimony to that). So I think you should ask yourself why?

Seriously, why do you want to write?

Karen Junker · Aug 5, 2009

Yeah, let's do an intervention on Shadow Ferret's seemingly low self-image...

circle up, everyone...

Seriously, I like blacbird's suggestion. I do this all the time - take a book I admire and outline it and then go in with markers and color-code the appearance of the main characters, or follow certain threads through the story and color-code their appearance. That way, I can outline my own story and try to have a flow that is approximately as good.

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 5, 2009

john barnes on toast said:
Out of your 14 thousand posts, how many have been about how bad a writer you are?

First off, stop putting yourself down; The wisest man knows only that he knows nothing at all (or something like that, WTF do I know?)

Now you've obviously some commitment to the writing process (your post count on this site alone, bears testimony to that). So I think you should ask yourself why?

Seriously, why do you want to write?

It's my only talent. If I don't have that, I have nothing.

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 5, 2009

CaroGirl said:
Try looking up "literary criticism." That should work better.

So criticism is the same as learning all the parts of a story? What is theme? The differences in POV. And other basics of literature?

I understand grammar and the parts of a sentence. I guess what I'm looking for is understanding literary terms and the parts of a story. Maybe a good 7th grade primer on what....? literature?

I guess I'm talking back to basics. The things I should have learned in High School but wasn't listening to the teacher because I had a Conan novel hidden inside my textbook and I was reading that instead.

nconner · Aug 5, 2009

Thomas Foster has written a couple of entertaining guides to analyzing literature: How to Read Literature Like a Professor and How to Read Novels Like a Professor.

Nancy Holzner (former English professor)

Phaeal · Aug 5, 2009

Shadow_Ferret said:
So criticism is the same as learning all the parts of a story? What is theme? The differences in POV. And other basics of literature?

I understand grammar and the parts of a sentence. I guess what I'm looking for is understanding literary terms and the parts of a story. Maybe a good 7th grade primer on what....? literature?

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers will teach you most of the literary terms you need to know as a writer. Plus it has cartoons. What more could you want?

As for theme, all that means is what the story's about. You can fry your brain reading literary critics on this topic, as McCormack illustrates in The Fiction Editor, the Novel and the Novelist, another good read for learning about the beating (we hope) heart of fiction.

Overall, I think you're looking for books on how to write fiction, not books on how to understand/criticize/analyze fiction. Writing and scholarly criticism of writing are very different activities, with something of the character of oil and water for many of us.

Cranky · Aug 5, 2009

I gotta ditto Phael's reccy of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. I think that's probably one of the most useful books I've got on writing, as far as the nuts and bolts type of thing you're talking about, SF.

I don't think (and maybe I'm wrong, so please feel free to thump me on the head if I am) that what you're really looking for is something about literary terms, per se, but analyzing for what works and what doesn't in a given piece, right? SEFFW really helped me be able to notice those things and -- more importantly -- is helping me to figure out how to apply what I've learned to my own stuff.

Shadow_Ferret · Aug 5, 2009

Nice mustache, Jen.

Well, I guess I'm looking for both. Learning the literary terms thrown around here that I keep having to Google (I mean my first college course some guy jumped up yelling "Epiphany" and I thought he was mad. Had never heard the word before), but yeah, something that will help me notice those things, too.

I mean, I'm not embarrassed to admit I had a rather incomplete education. Public, ya know.

Cranky · Aug 5, 2009

Ah, I see. Well, I'm lazy, and I just google.

There's lots of stuff I didn't learn in school and I don't think a lot of folks actually did learn them unless they were English majors, if you're talking literary criticism or analysis. They had to learn on their own. So I suppose there probably is some sort of text out there that will teach you the terms. One of the books other folks mentioned here might do the trick, then, I guess.

Sorry I'm not more help!

Izz · Aug 5, 2009

I like the methods that DelayanLee and blacbird mentioned.

This is what i like to do:

When i finish a good book (and goodness knows there's less and less of those i qualify as good now) i take a few minutes to think about why i liked the book so much.

Was it the characters? If so, what about the characters made me willing to take the journey with them over the course of the book--whether they were bad guys or good guys or betwixt and between guys? What did the author do to make them real? How did he/she construct the dialogue, and the backstory?

Was it the plot? How did the author construct the plot? How did the author maintain the tension, avoid superfluous scenes, keep the reader informed without giving too much away?

Was it the voice of the narrator/main characters? How did the author hook me in--was it with a few choice sentences at the beginning, or was the voice slowly built up along with the characters and plot until i was lost in the story? How did the author maintain the voice?

After that few minutes to think about it, i'll put the book away for a while and then come back and read it with a view to dissecting it.

Those kinda seem like general questions, don't they? Not necessarily specific. Best analogy i can think of is that usually when we read we look at a book like it's a house, and admire the looks and the furnishings, etc, but when we read analytically we're looking at architectural plans and talking to the guys who built it and decorated--'ah, so without that beam through here the whole thing collapses? and this bedroom is this size and takes up this whole side of the house so it captures as much of the day's sun as possible? and you chose this lounge suite because it contrasted with that feature wall?'

Hmm. I think that might only make sense in my head

Matera the Mad · Aug 5, 2009

Schools really screw people's minds over. I hated the anal-izing. It meant nothing. Yet I can do it -- as long as I don't try to think from the stuck-in-the-box perspective -- because I can see patterns. Things that are similar make connections through my memories. That's how I know my MC is a Cinderfella. All that I know about almost everything has been learned from observation, not dictatorial lessons.

Robert E. Keller · Aug 5, 2009

Wow, I would get bogged down and frustrated if I tried to look at and analyze all the literary angles of my writing. I stick to simple things like: cool, unique ideas, plot, believable human characters, pacing, setting, grammar, level of detail, depth, style, and how my readers might view what I'm writing. When you take care of those things, 'ol buddy Mr. Ferret, the rest takes care of itself.

backslashbaby · Aug 5, 2009

I think Monarch Notes for theme, etc. can be very interesting. I like to read the book completely first. I enjoyed my lit classes very much, where discussions sounded like Monarch Notes, really.

But I never got into the high criticism kind of stuff, either

CheshireCat · Aug 5, 2009

Shadow_Ferret said:
There's a few threads out about overused plots and stories that never grow old that I don't feel qualified to participate in because I have nothing to contribute.

The reason? I don't know how to analyze fiction. Those were the classes that bored me. The ones where you'd read a story then discuss it's meaning, break it down into various components like theme, and whatever else they broke them down into. The courses that analyzed fiction.

I feel that THIS is what is holding me back as a writer, my lack of education as a analytical reader.

Are there any books out there that can teach this?

I haven't read the other responses, but ... I'm sorry, it sounds to me like a copout when you say you aren't reaching whatever success you want as a writer because you never learned how to read analytically.

My entire life, I've read for pleasure. That's all. I love a good story, and when I find one I keep reading. If a book disappoints me, I put it down. And that's the only analyzing I do. (Or did; becoming a writer does make you a different reader, no question about that.)

I was young when I sold my first book, and I broke most of the "rules" in writing it. Didn't know any better. Looking at it now, there are lots and lots of things I would change -- if I were to write the same story now. But I wrote it then, and all I wanted to do was tell a good story.

I gained a sense of structure and pacing and characterization, I believe, from reading. Absorbed it, if you will. I didn't analyze. I just read a LOT of books. Mostly genre fiction, because that's what entertained me, and some non-fiction on subjects that interested me.

Look, I still can't diagram a sentence. I can fix what's wrong with one, but explain it? No, usually not. I can tell an interesting story, I can move and surprise readers, and I can create characters that linger in their minds long after the book is closed.

That's what they tell me in letters and emails, at any rate. And my sales have been climbing, so that presumably counts for something.

The thing is, I did my best early on not to over-analyze because I was superstitious and didn't want to mess up a process that worked for me. By the time I was comfortable enough and secure enough in my process to not worry about that, and took the time to look around and listen to what other writers were doing, I realized all over again that there was no reason for me to try to "fix" what wasn't broken.

I found my voice by reading a lot, and then writing a lot. I didn't read books on how to write, or attend workshops where other writers explained their process, or any of that stuff. I just read for pleasure. And wrote for pleasure.

In the joy of writing, I believe, you find your voice.

Anything that makes reading a dry and dusty chore, anything that turns it into a lesson, is not going to help you find or reclaim the joy in writing.

My opinion.

How to analyze fiction

Court Jester

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