Behind the Scenes at the Abbatoir

books:


	• Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction Patricia Highsmith St. Martin's Griffin, 2001 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 17 reviews view larger image
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Interesting and entertaining

I'm glad I bought this book. As an author of suspense myself, I found it very worthwhile. It won't teach you how to write--but I've found no book can really do that. In the same vein as Stephen Kings book On Writing, it is more an account about how this highly successful author developed her craft over the years, her successes and failures. If you want a how to guide you would be better off with another title. It also enhances the enjoyment of this book if the reader is familiar with Highsmith's books. I found it interesting to know where she got her ideas and how she developed a small incident into a novel.

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Behind the Scenes at the Abbatoir

A modestly written, terse, readable and nuts and bolts book about how plots come to be put together, how a writer makes a living (or doesn't) and how to tell the story. What I found most charming about this "How-To" book was that it wasn't chirpy, wasn't preachy, didn't have a whiff of unreality arising from its advice, and was eminently practical. The only crime writing manual so far that I have picked up, browsed in, bought, took home and actually finished reading from cover to cover (sometimes doing the reading on a bus, that's how gripping it is). Recommended.

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No Suspense Here

Patricia Highsmith is a fine writer of suspense fiction, one of the better ones of the past generation. But, Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction has none whatsoever: no intrique, no gueswork at all as to where she is going. Rather, she is only frank, brutally honest, and above all, to her credit, refrains from Lordly preachments as to the craft of writing in this genre. There are no exercises, no checklists, no workbook atmosphere, not the remotest hint of finger waving, teacherly reprimands surrounding this book. ##### I got curiouser and curiouser as I read, wondering when the directional thrust would evolve. It never did. If you're expecting her to tell you to put down the newspaper and turn off the tv, forget it. Instead, she tells you, in effect, if you want to make the world a better place, plant flowers in your front yard. ##### The closest she gets to a heartily advocated position in the entire book is in stressing that you must, firstly, write to please yourself. If you've read all the great works in your genre, and are satisfied with your own when you hold it up to the light of comparison, you're probably knocking out good stuff. It all starts there: your own self-satisfaction. Precious wisdom, indeed. ##### When I open a book on the writing craft I ecxpect a big variety of things. I ask myself, is it going to be another gung-ho, Gen. George S. Patton entreaty, a kick-ass approach to blowing away all obstacles? Is it going to be a back-to-school lesson? Maybe a biting commentary on the plight of the book publishing business. Are all the barriers going to be highlighted, and followed with urgings which subconsciously cause a sense of desperastion, like borrowing last-resort money to save the family farm?. You just never know what the "slant" will be. It could be any one of a number. ##### Highsmith opts for a sort of combination semi-autobiography / musings-on-writing treatise. Inspirational? No. Educational? Not really. A good look at the bell-shaped curve of life from a talented writer's viewpoint? Yes. It's like getting an Insider's look, from the outside. Whatever value you might get from this perspective is for only you to determine.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

Patricia Highsmith, author of Strangers On a Train, The Talented Mr.Ripley, Found In The Street, and many other books, is known as one of the finest suspense novelists. In this book, she analyzes the key elements of suspense fiction, drawing upon her own experience in four decades as a working writer. She talks about, among other topics; how to develop a complete story from an idea; what makes a plot gripping; the use (and abuse) of coincidence; characterization and the "likeable criminal"; going from first draft to final draft; and writing the suspense short story.
Throughout the book, Highsmith illustrates her points with plentiful examples from her own work, and by discussing her own inspirations, false starts, dead ends, successes, and failures, she presents a lively and highly readable picture of the novelist at work.

Anyone who wishes to write crime and suspense fiction, or who enjoys reading it, will find this book an insightful guide to the craft and art of a modern master.

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