Write Like the Masters: Emulating the Best of Hemingway, Faulkner, Salinger, and Others

by William Cane

Want To Find Your Voice? Learn from the Best.

Time and time again you've been told to find your own unique writing style, as if it were as simple as pulling it out of thin air. But finding your voice isn't easy, so where better to look than to the greatest writers of our time?

"Write Like the Masters" analyzes the writing styles of twenty-one great novelists, including Charles Dickens, Edith Wharton, Franz Kafka, Flannery O'Connor, and Ray Bradbury. This fascinating and insightful guide shows you how to imitate the masters of literature and, in the process, learn advanced writing secrets to fire up your own work.

You'll discover: Herman Melville's secrets for creating characters as memorable as Captain Ahab.How to master point of view with techniques from Fyodor Dostoevesky.Ways to pick up the pace by keeping your sentences lean like Ernest HemingwayThe importance of sensual details from James Bond creator Ian FlemingHow to add suspense to your story by following the lead of the master of horror, Stephen King

Whether you're working on a unique voice for your next novel or you're a composition student toying with different styles, this guide will help you gain insight into the work of the masters through the rhetorical technique of imitation. Filled with practical, easy-to-apply advice, "Write Like the Masters" is your key to understanding and using the proven techniques of history's greatest authors.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference, Crafts

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

William Cane has had a distinguished career as a professor of English at CUNY and Boston College, where he helped a generation of students improve their prose. Cane is the author of six books, including the international bestseller THE ART OF KISSING (St. Martin’s 1991; revised editions 1995 and 2005), which sold more than 100,000 copies in the U.S. and was translated into nineteen languages. The tremendous popularity of this title launched a series of successful follow-up books with St. Martins: THE BOOK OF KISSES (1993), THE ART OF HUGGING (1996), THE ART OF KISSING BOOK OF QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS (1999), and KISS LIKE A STAR (2007). Cane’s self-help title THE BIRTH ORDER BOOK OF LOVE was published by Da Capo / Perseus Books in 2008. His book WRITE LIKE THE MASTERS was published by Writer’s Digest in 2009.

An attorney and a highly sought-after speaker on the college lecture circuit, Cane has appeared on almost every major television talk show, including Today, The View, and CBS This Morning. His work has been featured in print and electronic media internationally and has appeared in such publications as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Elle, and Seventeen.

Reviews

[K.M. Weiland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having written a similar book—analyzing a classic author—for Writer’s Digest, I know full well how difficult it is to break down even one author’s work and come up with enough pertinent insights to fill a book. Cane had the even more challenging task of presenting unique gems from 21 great authors, without risking repeating himself. And he does a fine job.

The book is nice on several levels, first in presenting some worthy insights into the processes and techniques of great authors such as Dickens, Hemingway, all the way up to King (I especially enjoyed Cane’s not-without-criticism chapter on Faulkner, which lines up perfectly with my own love/hate relationship with his works). Just as interesting, however, is the peek Cane offers into the great authors’ backgrounds and the “whys” behind some of their story and writing decisions.

[Roxana Saberi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book to have many helpful writing tips. You don't have to like all the authors analyzed in the book, but still, each one's style has something to teach writers. I particularly enjoyed the critique of Hemingway, which includes advice such as:
o Interchange short and long paragraphs; break up many long graphs with a short one
o Use short dialogues back and forth
o Avoid too much attribution
o Repeat colors; contrast colors

I also learned something from reading about Dostoevsky and his "secret" to making great transitions (between sections, chapters, etc.) and from going through the chapter on Tom Wolfe and his development of internal dialogue and writing nonfiction like fiction. This book also contains pointers on character and plot development, building suspense (particularly in the chapter on Stephen King), foreshadowing, and types of discourse.

[E.M. Epps · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me want to read Balzac. And that's an impressive enough accomplishment that I could stop there. But, no, I won't, because in truth I think this is one of the most useful books on style for fiction writers that I've ever read. It smells distinctly of academia (behold footnotes!) yet it's deeply practical. Each chapter discusses the most distinctive writing techniques of a pleasingly wide variety of authors—from Balzac to King by way of Melville and Philip K. Dick—with each short section elucidating a single technique, analyzing examples, and making suggestions about how the technique can be incorporated into modern fiction. There's a great range of stuff here, from "What you can learn from Tarzan" to "Mesmerizing readers with death and destruction," courtesy of Tom Wolfe. It seems inevitable that any writer will find tricks to inspire them.

SAMPLE PARAGRAPH
Looking at [the fifth paragraph of Moby-Dick], one biographer compared Melville's work to the best of poetry. "In the long second sentence, the range of alliterated initial consonant sounds mimics the 'blended noises' of men laboring on the docks...seven pairs and one triplet of alliterated words that perfectly convey the ceaseless repetition of the dockside work...He achieves here a mastery of verbal effects that one expects from only the most accomplished poetry." A modern writer may wonder whether he has the nerve to dare anything quite so bold. Melville has thrown down the gauntlet though few have been the brave souls who have picked it up. Yet the careful use of alliteration appears in some of the most powerful prose works of the twentieth century, including novels by Nabokov, Bradbury and Roth. Often the best use of alliteration, however, is that which readers do not consciously notice.

This review originally appeared on my blog, This Space Intentionally Left Blank .

[Maggie · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Beyond the various crimes of decency this book conducts — justifying a Nazi and calling the resultant backlash to his work due to his support of Hitler “an unfortunate overlooking” and suggesting that a female author’s interest in art and sexual life is a result of a “failure to form a normal mother daughter bond”— it was boring and unoriginal. He uses buzzwords quite a lot, and seems to simply suggest your characters should be based off of you, complex, but also likely defined by several main traits. Waste of time.

[فلاح رحيم · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful brain storm for writers and for readers interested in the craft of fiction. Real pleasure to read.

[Mufasa Kastie-el · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am in shock and in awe.
Firstly let me say that I am shaken up a bit. It is as if revelations are being revealed from the Greats up in the heavens.
This book has escaped the notice of it's potential admirers. It's ratings and placement on 'On Writing Book' lists is depreciated. I highly recommend this book to be taken notice, URGENTLY !

Writers like Salinger, King, Melville and coffee crazed Balzacs! A blend of styles, intermixed with that sweetness to detail that is so rare, tinted with a hint of awe-some spice of verisimilitude.
The aspiring writer can pick and chose whatever tools he chooses from this book. This- more concisely- is a list of tricks and techniques that all of us should know.

The narrative by William Cane gives you back stories featuring:
Narcotic addicted Philip K.Dick,
J.D Salinger harboring words in underground bunkers,
Balzac consuming copious cups of caffeine like a madman.

To give you some whiff of the craft:
.Dostoyevsky's emotional transitions.
.Suspense like Stephen King.
.Symbolism from Ms. Connor
.Poetry Prose like Bradbury

Combined with the entertaining and informative narration, this is a must read for every reader and author.

[Tiff · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book saved my life.

Well, speaking as a student in pressing need of useful material - the book contains in-depth analysis of the (arguably) "greatest" writers in history.

It teaches you how to pick apart a piece of work, and though there is a lot of padding the book contains many, many good pointers; allows the reader to extract the specific things that these writers did "right" and implement them in one's own work, however disparate the styles and focus.

(Surprisingly enough, some of the insights aren't trite at all.)

Highly recommended for any writer.

[Alma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Got this book as a birthday present from a friend who knows I like to write and I am so very glad that I did, and that I finally got around to reading it :)

It's a great book, not at all what I expected. I enjoyed reading about all the writers that I knew and worshipped and those I had somehow not even heard of. Reading about their routines, how they finished their first drafts, how they overcame their particular challenges, and the in-depth analysis of their works and writing style really gave me a lot of ideas, plus a little bit of motivation for practice, and for continuing to write.

The idea of "emulating" made little sense in the beginning, but towards the end, I was seeing it in a different light. I remembered how, as a kid, when I read books by a particular author over a period of time, I started wanting to write, and when I did, I would write very similar to the author I had just read. I was emulating, but not really.
I was inspired and had subconsciously taken in the elements I had perceived and liked in the author's work and was reproducing something using those elements combined with my own imagination. I was definitely not consciously trying to emulate the author, but I couldn't help writing like him/her.

All in all, the idea makes sound sense. There are a lot of very intriguing details about each author in the book, and although the authors are all very different, they've got a lot in common. You will read over and over again how the authors in the book needed isolation and a fixed routine to be able to focus and make things work for them (no wonder you can't bring your ideas to the paper when you're swamped with daily tasks and thoughts), and how they weren't shy to bring in lots and lots from themselves and their personal lives into their works - which you might've known already but is a nice reminder nevertheless ;) Well worth my time.

[German Popkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Write Like the Masters is a fascinating and useful guide for anyone who wants to improve their writing skills by studying the style of great authors. The author takes a detailed look at the techniques of Hemingway, Faulkner, Salinger, and other classics, offering practical exercises for practicing their techniques.

What is especially valuable - the book does not just teach imitation, but helps you understand why these techniques work and how you can adapt them in your own work. After reading it, I am inspired to experiment with different styles and find my own unique voice.

I recommend this book to aspiring writers and those who want to delve deeper into literary craft.

P.S. If you like to understand the intricacies of both literature and technology, you might be interested in the topic of PS4 Emulator for PC - emulating console games on a computer also requires learning someone else's “style” (in this case, hardware) and adapting to new conditions. 😉

Rated: 5/5 - great book for inspiration and growth!

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the book:

"You should have the ability to dissect a work, see it with X-ray-like vision, and understand how it functions ... so that you can mold its techniques into new works of your own design."

An interesting book, a useful book. The method he suggests applies to other than the writers he brings forth here, obviously.

It is a recent book, 2009, but he writes as though speaking to an all-male audience, which can be off-putting, but the lessons are useful for all.

[Belynda Thomas]

This is a very good book for writers who want what the Master's have done pointed out to them. We get better by emulating other's and this is the premise of the book. Standing on the shoulder's of giants will help us put out our best work.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Which picks apart various authors' works and describes their lives -- some trivia, but a good bit about how they actually wrote.

Has a good number of interesting tricks of the trade. He's a little too fond of using Jungian analysis and tell you to use it too, and tell you to draw your characters from real life; both tricks, BTW, that simply vanish when the use he is talking about doesn't apply, as when discussing Edgar Rice Burroughs's characters. Action and adventure, character change and how little you need, emotional tags, exaggeration -- all sorts of tricks described in here.

He warns up front that useful piece of advice: becoming a writer will change how you read. Forever. And in fact, this book will hurry it up a bit, since it shows you how to dissect the books instead of just reading them. So it's not only the techniques you learn here, but those you can pick up using the tools you can learn here and take to slice up other books with.

[Dean Turnbloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

William Cane's book, "Write Like the Masters" takes many of the world's finest authors and analyzes their strong points in a way that I've read in no other work. Rather than an in-depth study of any one author, the book offers synopsis-style looks at a wide variety of writers from Balzac to Stephen King. I very much enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the craft of writing.

[Clarissa Draper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing is better for a writer to learn writing than learning from the masters. This book takes apart the writing of well known authors like Hemingway and Faulkner and discusses what makes that writer excel at certain parts of writing.

The book discusses the main parts of writing like plot, characters, scene development and so on.

[Raymond Esposito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Authors often are asked, "who do you write like?" Although each voice is different and no one writes like another, Write Like the Masters is a great book to discover the components of some of the best writers. For the writer, this book serves as one part educational overview and one part style guide for emulating the masterful techniques of some of the best.

[Cameron Schy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very helpful tool for writers who want to improve their craft by analysing techniques and elements used by the best* (Well, a pretty good selection at least).

Also helpful for someone like me who's also looking for different authors and books to explore. There's a few I've overlooked in the past I'll probably go back and others I'd not yet considered.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I would recommend to anyone who wants to write. Sitting down and trying to write a story in the style of each writer in ther series would be like like practicing scales in piano training. It would give any writer practice and foundation. Try it.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this informative writing reference! It teaches writers to imitate and emulate the masters such as Dickens, Kafka, Salinger and Hemmingway and learn the methods they incorporated in their writing process. A definite must read for fiction writers!

[James Cho · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was interesting to see how these great masters wrote their famous novels back then, including their writing habits. I thought the analysis on Hemingway was particularly helpful with my own writing, as well as J.D. Salinger. I would recommend this book to those who aspire to become writers.

[James O. · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far this is an informative little book that makes some good points about things one can learn from different authors.

[R. Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book for fine-tuning your writing. It doesn't discuss all the minutia of writing, but uses more of a broad stroke.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.5 stars)

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

[Glenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

See highlights for sample tidbits from the book with interesting trivia, phrasing, metaphors and facts !!!

[Rob Schwarz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! It helped me see things I could add to my own writing. It also helped me see what I needed in my first novel to make the plot come together perfectly.

[Reeds]

Wonderful things to keep in mind while writing.

[Winston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great reference to have.