How the Story is Built

With apt irony and sometimes with sarcasm, Maik Yohansen writes about style and language, characters and plot, about the meaning of literature and art in general. The author analyzes literary techniques and shares sometimes witty and sometimes serious advice for writers.

This practical guide to writing novels, short stories, and other short prose will be useful to aspiring writers and anyone who wants to understand the principles of the literary process better.

Maik Yohansen (1895–1937) is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, translator, critic, linguist, and screenwriter. One of the brightest representatives of the "Shot Revival" era. One of the founders of the VAPLITE literary association. A victim of Stalinist repressions.

Both in poetry and in prose, Yohansen maintained a creative individuality. He often resorted to experiments — combining prose and poetry in one work to hoaxes. During seventeen years of creative activity, he published eight books of poems, ten books of prose, four books for children, and two books on literature. His translated works include the works of Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, and others.