Monkeys with Typewriters

Book excerpt: The ultimate guide to reading and writing fiction, with useful creative exercises and fascinating analyses of great plots—from Plato and Tolstoy to The Matrix and Toy Story. The bestselling author of The End of Mr. Y shows you how to unlock any narrative and create your own. Filled with creative exercises, structures, and charts, this creative writing manual breaks down the fiction writing process and demonstrates that everyone has material to write about—whether they believe it or not. Have you ever had your heart broken, or broken someone else’s heart? Have you ever won an argument but later realized you were wrong? Have you ever tripped in public or spilled wine on someone else’s carpet? Monkeys with Typewriters is an ode to the secret power of stories, and a guide to cracking those powers open. As a bestselling author, Thomas may appear as a naturally gifted writer. However, for Thomas, fiction unlocked itself only once she recognized the importance of an author’s individual experience and one’s willingness to ask questions, not simply provide solutions. She deems the communication of one’s humanity as the key to making a piece relatable, and Thomas does nothing less in her own work. With startling and original insights into how we construct stories, Monkeys with Typewriters is a creative writing book like no other. It will show you how to not only write, but also to a finer degree, how to read.