★★★★★ : The Art and Craft of Novel Writing (Paperback) by Oakley Hall, reviewed by C. J. Singh on amazon.com, copy posted December 28, 2010 (7 of 7 people found the review helpful.) – See all my reviews

For two decades, Oakley Hall directed the MFA program at the University of California, Irvine, teaching the craft of writing fiction to numerous apprentice writers, including Richard Ford, Amy Tan, and Michael Chabon.

In The Art & Craft of Novel Writing, published in 1989, Hall sequences the chapters of the first two parts as the syllabus for a basic course in fiction writing. The first part comprises four chapters: dramatization; characterization, point of view, and plotting. The second part also comprises four chapters: style; dialog; indirection; and information. He includes quotes from the writings of literary masters like Gustav Flaubert; Anton Chekov, Henry James; William Faulkner; Ernst Hemingway; and Flannery O’Connor. These well-chosen quotes enhance his exposition of the craft elements to high sophistication.