]Y~)reword<br > There are no easy solutions to the problems of storytellint<br >and no shortcuts to learning the craft. Becoming a storvtell~<br >--especially a novelist--is not easy.<br > The best I can promise is to tell you what has worked fe<br >me， has worked for most of tile professional writers I hay<br >known， and seems to have worked fi)r many writing studeni<br >with whom I ve worked at the University of Oklahoma during<br >twenty-year period.<br > If I had had a book like this when I was starting out， I thin<br >it might have saved me five years in getting published. As<br >was， I pretty much wasted my first five apprentice years<br >hard， discouraging work befo， e I fbund my teacher， Dwight<br >Swain， and began to learn how to learn the writer s era[t.<br > Perhaps， however， if 1 had had a book like this at the start<br >wouldn t have been ready to listen， or understan(1 all the co<br >eepts， anyway. I hope you will be.<br > This book， in other words， can only help you to the degre<br >you are already aware of your problems as a writer， and knol<br >what you need to know. It represents a learner s permit. As yo<br >grow over the years， I hope yon can return here often， an<br >norhan，: ~oo ，a~mo o~moont that oarlior olur]o(] v(m hoo;m~o w~<br >