The art of fiction: a guide for writers and readers - By Ayn Rand & Tore Boeckmann

EDITOR’S PREFACE

Chapter 1 - Writing and the Subconscious

Chapter 2 - Literature as an Art Form

Chapter 3 - Theme and Plot

Chapter 4 - The Plot-Theme

Chapter 5 - The Climax

Chapter 6 - How to Develop a Plot Ability

Chapter 7 - Characterization

Chapter 8 - Style I: Depictions of Love

Chapter 9 - Style II: Descriptions of Nature and of New York

Chapter 10 - Particular Issues of Style

Chapter 11 - Special Forms of Literature

INDEX

AYN RAND is the author of Atlas Shrugged, philosophically the most challenging bestseller of its time. Her first novel, We the Living, was published in 1936, followed by Anthem. With the publication of The Fountainhead, she achieved a spectacular and enduring success. Rand’s unique philosophy, Objectivism, has gained a worldwide audience. The fundamentals of her philosophy are set forth in such books as Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology, The Virtue of Selfishness, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, and The Romantic Manifesto. Journals of Ayn Rand and The Ayn Rand Reader are available in Plume editions. Ayn Rand died in 1982.

LEONARD PEIKOFF is universally recognized as the world’s premier Ayn Rand scholar. He worked closely with her for thirty years and was designated by Rand as the heir to her estate. He has taught philosophy at Hunter College, New York University, and the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. Peikoff is the author of The Ominous Parallels and Objectivism: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand. For further information, go to his website: ALSHOW.com.

TORE BOECKMANN is an editor and publisher living in Norway. He has written on Ayn Rand’s literary esthetics for The Intellectual Activist. His mystery fiction, originally published in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, has been anthologized in several languages.

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First published by Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, January 2000

Copyright © Estate of Ayn Rand, 2000

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REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data

Rand, Ayn.

The art of fiction: a guide for writers and readers / Ayn Rand; edited by

Tore Boeckmann; introduction by Leonard Peikoff. p. cm.

Includes index.

eISBN : 978-1-101-13723-9

1. Fiction—Authorship. I. Boeckmann, Tore. II. Title.

PN3355.R26 2000

808.3—dc21

99-35588

CIP

Set in Goudy

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INTRODUCTION

This book is an edited version of an informal course of lectures given by Ayn Rand in her own living room in 1958. It was the year after the publication of Atlas Shrugged, and AR was at the peak of her powers as a novelist.

She gave the course, by “popular demand,” to some twenty or so friends and acquaintances. She spoke extemporaneously, with only a few written notes naming the topics she meant to cover. Including questions and discussion, each of the twelve sessions lasted about four hours.

Two kinds of students attended: aspiring young fiction writers, and fiction readers from a variety of professions. These two groups are the audience to whom the present book is addressed.

The goal of the writers was obvious and practical: to learn everything possible about the problems and techniques of their craft. The readers, by contrast, of whom I was one, were there strictly as consumers; we wanted to enhance our enjoyment in reading. We wanted to know from the master what to look for in fiction and where it had come from, i.e., what had gone on behind the scenes, in the creator’s mind, to produce the stories we loved (or hated). We were not content to grasp a

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