How do literary critics distinguish between ‘story’ and ‘plot’, between a symbol and an image, or between ‘tone’ and ‘mood’? How do we define ‘realism’, ‘modernism’, and ‘postmodernism’? What do narrative theorists mean by ‘frequency’ and ‘distance’?   Studying the Novel  provides answers to these questions and many others in a way that is readable and entertaining without being simplistic. This is the revised and updated sixth edition of Jeremy Hawthorn’s standard introduction to the novel.

Whether you are taking a course in creative writing or making your first solitary steps in fiction, poetry or drama, this is the book you need. The Writer's Workbook provides a concise introduction to the terrain, with directions to the wider world of writing. It offers key points of good practice, warnings about the main pitfalls, and a variety of exercises to hone your skills. Readers will find advice on writing short stories, poetry, novels, plays, song lyrics, TV, radio and film scripts, as well as advice on writing for children, travel writing, writing on the web, and how to get published.