Reviews (51)

Take it for what it is!
Some writers need to not take themselves so seriously here. This is *not* a textbook on writing or publishing. There's no advice or sage wisdom on plot or character or dialogue or style. Chris doesn't tell you how to format your manuscript so as not to be marked an amateur by a publisher. It never claimed to be that. He tells you up front it's not that. There are hundreds of other books that address these issues.
Try it, I dare you!:)
I purchased Chris Baty's "No Plot? No Problem!" when it came out in 2004, read through it and thought, "hey, I could try this, but maybe later."Well, "later" became two years.I picked it back up this summer, read it cover to cover and picked August as the month in which I would write my next novel in its entirety.I did what Baty said, created a small support group, found plenty of blocks of time, even signed the contract in the book (and I don't write in books!).I was on my way.I threw convention and sense to the wind and finished my first writing day with nearly 1600 words and a cramp in my hand.I could do this.Day 2 I was still optimistic even though I couldn't think of much to say and had just over half of the previous day's word count.So, it'd be harder than I thought, but I could do this.
Great for people just starting out...
There are many of us out there who have never published a novel but who wanted to give an effort to write one.We walk into a book store and search, high and low, for that one perfect book that we believe will help us write that novel.The problem is, which book to buy?
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Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Composition & Creative Writing - General    4. Fiction    5. General    6. Language    7. Language Arts & Disciplines    8. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    9. New Age / Body, Mind & Spirit    10. Body, Mind & Spirit / General    11. Creative writing guides   

Reviews (1)

Courtesy of Teens Read Too
Although WRITING MAGIC is geared towards young adults, this is the perfect helper for anyone who has ever wanted to write a book.Creating stories is hard work.It takes practice, discipline, and dedication.It would be nice to think that writing a book simply means sitting down and typing up words, but, alas, it really doesn't work that way.Thankfully, though, we have Gail Carson Levine, Newbery Honor author of some of my favorite books (ELLA ENCHANTED, THE TWO PRINCESSES OF BAMARRE, and the upcoming FAIREST, to name a few) who has taken the time to put together
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Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Children's 9-12 - language Arts    3. Children's All Ages - Language Arts    4. Children: Grades 4-6    5. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    6. Fiction    7. Juvenile English Language    8. Juvenile Nonfiction    9. Juvenile literature    10. Language Arts - Composition & Creative Writing    11. Juvenile Nonfiction / Language Arts / Composition & Creative Writing   

Reviews (30)

Great, helpful book, very expensive
I had to get this book for a fiction workshop so the price was what it was, no negotiating textbooks.
Writing Fiction (6th Edition)
Excellent and varied compilation of short stories. Clear explanations, great examples, fun-and helpful-quotes, and fresh instruction of both classic and original methods of writing. Full of challenging exercises.

Too expensive and too general
I used this book twice in two different classes, and it simply repeats everything one can find in a $20 creative writing book.The readings selected are lackluster or horribly common in creative writing books already.
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Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Creative writing    4. Fiction    5. General    6. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    7. Literary Criticism    8. Narration (Rhetoric)    9. Technique    10. Creative writing guides    11. Literary Criticism & Collections / General   

Reviews (34)

Wish there was a six
Unlike most reviewers, I won't take time to tell you what this book is about. Read the book. It does a far better job than I can.
Bell is a great teacher!You will learn how to structure your novel
Plot and Structure is a Writers Digest Book by James Scott Bell.While he touches on many topics, the focus of the book is how to structure your novel to hook your readers and how you can create a riveting plot by giving it structure.Bell peppers this book with examples from literary greats Stephen King and Dean Koontz and many other popular authors.
JSB Dispels The Lie!
There are a lot of books out there whose author claims they'll teach you how to write a novel. It's been my experience that most of them are full of fluff.
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Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Composition & Creative Writing - General    4. Fiction    5. Language    6. Language Arts & Disciplines    7. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    8. Plots (Drama, novel, etc.)    9. Creative writing guides   

Reviews (67)

dangerous
the author insists, so far as I can tell, that the only way to write a decent novel is based on some Aristotelean idea of the 'premise' which cannot be violated.'Love leads to death' is an example for a character who dies as a result of being in love.This is nothing but an obscene simplification of the plot.It's absurdly reductionist.
One side of the story
Let's be clear what we're buying here: an authoritative text on how to deploy character, crescendo, climax and theme in the idiom of the dramatic novel. Frey is covering the big picture, how skilled writers nurture the evolution of tensions through the work as a whole. His references to the classic canon of American fiction reinforce the message that these techniques are the essence of drama, and not just the stock in trade of pulp fiction.
A How-to-Write Classic
How to Write a Damn Good Novel is billed as "a step-by-step no nonsense guide to dramatic storytelling." I don't know about the step-by-step part, but Frey's advice is definately no-nonsense and will help you create dynamic stories.
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Subjects:  1. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    2. Fiction    3. General    4. Reference    5. Technique    6. Language Arts & Disciplines / Authorship   

Reviews (59)

Great Resource
As an aspiring writer, I have been greatly aided by Characters and Viewpoint.Card divides his book into three sections: Inventing Characters, Constructing Characters, and Performing Characters.In the first section, Card outlines where ideas for characters come from, and how to exploit these ideas to their full potential.He advocates interrogating our characters in order to realize them as full-bodied figures.In Part Two, Constructing Characters, Card explains that the characters we need depend on the type of story we are telling (e.g. an event story vs. a character story).He writes that many people (myself included, before I read this book) are under the misguided impression that every story needs to have full character development.He refutes this assertion, saying instead that the amount of characterization needed depends on the type of story we are telling.For example, a character story needs more fully-developed characters than an event story.He goes on to explain how we elicit emotional responses from the audience for certain characters (e.g. how we control their dislike or contempt or pity for the antagonist).Part Three, Performing Characters, outlines how we present our characters and situations to the audience through our use of voice and viewpoint.He further explains the distinction between representational and presentational stories, and which you should choose for your own story.
Viewpoint First, Characters Third
This book by OSC is a wonderful collection to any aspiring author's collection, but it does not live up to 'How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy'.
Amazing and Indispensable
This book revolutionized my writing.That is the single greatest testament I can give to it.Card will break down, piece by piece, how to build good characters in every type of fiction, and how to avoid making cliche or overwrought decisions regarding your characters.Excellent! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Characters and characteristics in literature    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Fiction    4. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    5. Point of view (Literature)    6. Reference    7. Technique    8. Writing Skills    9. Creative writing guides    10. Rhetoric   

Reviews (8)

Better Than Some I've Read
I have to admit that I had never read any of Janet Evanovich's books until this one. Some of the reviews here were not as favorable as I would have expected. The reviewers were disappointed that nothing new had been revealed to them, wrt the mechanics of writing, but so what? I have many books at home dealing with that and can refer to them when needed. My interest in reading How I Write was just to get this particular author's view of the writing life. What motivated her to chose the mystery genre and how she came up with plots for her series of novels about Stephanie Plum. I wasn't at all disappointed in what I read and was actually inspired to get back to my own writing, particularly the advice Miss Evanovich gave to stop working and reworking the first chapter and to move on asap to chapter two. It helped to unstick myself and to move forward. Since finishing this book, I've begun reading the Stephanie Plum books. They are fast paced and quite humorous. I recommend How I Write to anyone who needs a chuckle and a little motivation.

If You Like Evanovich, You'll Like This Book
I've been a fan of Janet Evanovich since her first Stephanie Plum novel. I like her breezy and humorous style, and it's in great evidence in How I Write.
Mostly fluff
If you're an Evanovich fan, sure you might enjoy this, but there's no meat, just tons of fluff. With so many guides on the market, don't waste your money here. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Fiction    4. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    5. Reference    6. Writing Skills    7. Reference / Writing Skills   

Editorial Review

Even in 1934, Dorothea Brande knew that most writers didn't need another book on "technique" -- and this, before so many more would be published.No, she realized, as John Gardner notes in his foreword, "the root problems of the writer are personality problems," and thus her wise book is designed to simply help you get over yourself and start writing, with techniques ranging from a simple declaration to write every day at a fixed time -- no matter what -- to exercises that come close to inventing the TM and self-actualization movements that would follow a few decades later. ... Read more

Reviews (39)

This book turned me into a writer
There's a reason this book has been in print since 1934. It's a classic. It's the book that turned me into a writer, actually. (I've had 11 books and more than 350 articles published since I read this book.) You will have to overlook some of the language that does make it seem dated, but if you follow her suggestions, you will learn how to work with the creative process. This is the book that spawned a whole genre of books on becoming a writer, perhaps including Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, which I also love. But Brande's book is simpler, and a good place to start. Be forewarned: You must actually do the exercises Brande suggessts to get anything out of this book. If you do, you will see fruit.

Oldie But Goodie
Brande's book helped pioneer the contemporary monster genre of books on the writing life. "Writing Down the Bones," "Bird By Bird," etc. and etc. and etc. all have roots meandering back to this classic. Personally, I prefer some of its heirs, but many name writers have paid it homage. In it you'll discover that the idea of writing "morning pages" to kick-start the habit of scribbling wasn't original with Julia Cameron of "Creative Way" and its sequels fame; and Brande prefigures the right brain/left brain dynamic, too. I could live without her Freudian schmutz, but the book's original publication date, 1934, explains its presence. All in all, if you're a person who reads writing books regularly--to inspire, to goad, to learn, to dream--you'll no doubt want "Becoming a Writer" in your library.

From Archaic to Modern in One Short Period
Ironic that this book came out in the same year, 1934, as James M. Cain's breakout novel, The Postman Always Rings Twice.Cain's charge was the launching pad for hard-bitten, tell-it-like-it-is, choppy dialogue, a style that is still much in vogue today.#####Although Brande's style is distinctly that of another period, which unlike Cain's did not carry through to our present day, it nonetheless retains a certain charm which should be forever recognized.Her intermixture of pathos and purity side-by-side with an indefinable restlessness--a never-say-die pursuit of truth--is indeed endearing.What I liked best about this book is its in-depth probing of rest / work balance, an aspect of writing seldom examined. In my writing career, on the work side of the equation, I found that chewing on a narrative problem late at night, right into the alpha state of sleep, would produce answers first thing in the morning upon awakening.So often I would scramble out of bed and hasten to my old IBM Selectric typewriter to immediately get down on paper, pound into print, those wonderful ideas and phrases that came together in my head overnight.#####Many of the thoughts so eloquently expressed in this book, outdated as they are, should come through like a telepathic echo. To any young writer still at the front end of his / her writing career they should appear like a down payment on a dream. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Composition & Creative Writing - General    4. Fiction    5. General    6. Language    7. Language Arts & Disciplines    8. Psychology    9. Publishing    10. Technique    11. Creative writing guides   

Reviews (29)

Great help for shaping your novel
If found this book delightfully helpful. Nancy Kress clearly lays out the way to shape a novel or short story. She emphasizes character development in for the "beginning" followed by a strong "middle" which is intended soley to set up the climax in the "end". I am writing a novel and found her viewpoint extremely useful. Thinking about the middle of a novel as the part that sets up the climax is very helpful when deciding what scenes to include. It helped me focus my writing and also helped me to understand why some parts of my novel seemed to work better than others. I reccomend this book highly for new authors or those who have already written novels/short stories and want to understand how to improve.

Beginnings, Middles and Ends- another Nancy Kress best!
This book is so helpful. After using Kress' Dynamic Characters book for my editing, I was so grateful to find another Kress writing book! The strategies and explanations Kress uses are the most logical and useful tools I have ever acquired from books. Beginnings,Middles and Ends pulls out elements that I would nerver have thought of on my own. I have many pages earmarked to use again and again.

Average.
After reading all of the reviews here I had to have this book! But after reading several pages things started reminding me alot of training seminars I've taken where most of your time is spent looking at your watch and hoping lunch-time arrives soon or the speaker has an emergency and needs to call it a day, sooner than later, if at all possible. It's boring the way frozen pizza is boring or most college courses are boring or selling shrimp from the roadside is boring. Large chunks of the book are the same stuff every writing book includes. And, in fairness, I did find one or two helpful hints that are new to me. But 5 Stars it aint. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Closure (Rhetoric)    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Fiction    4. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    5. Openings (Rhetoric)    6. Reference    7. Technique    8. Writing Skills    9. Creative writing guides    10. Rhetoric   

Editorial Review

There's not much of the old-style editing going on at publishing houses today.Renni Browne, veteran of William Morrow and other publishers, founded the Editorial Department in 1980 to teach fiction writers the techniques professional editors (many of whom have gone independent) use to prepare a manuscript for publication. In this book, she and senior editor Dave King share their accumulated expertise in a series of brilliantly compact lessons. One page from their simply and markedly improved version of a scenefrom Read more

Reviews (74)

good book, with a caveat
As others have stated, this is a helpful book for improving line-level writing.This is not a general book on fiction writing and does not cover the usual topics, nor is it intended to.This leaves more room for what it does cover: editing.
helpful and no-nonsense
Authors will find this book by Browne and King helpful in two specific regards: (1) learning how to render a scene for the reader rather than slipping into narrative summary, and (2) developing crisper, more realistic dialogue by using beats and avoiding mistakes that scream "amateur!"
Very informative
What a great way to explore the best way to edit your own fictional work! Helpful for all genres. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    2. Editing    3. Fiction    4. General    5. Language    6. Language Arts & Disciplines    7. Reference    8. Technique    9. Language Arts & Disciplines / General   

Reviews (14)

Really, I wouldn't bother
I don't think Karen Wiesner's plotting techniques can be applied to any piece of fiction worth reading. All you need to do is flip to worksheet 15 to see how flawed her system is. She recomends plotting out with short-term goal, thwarting of short-term goal, character reaction. This leads to a very choppy, jumpy piece of fiction. What's worse is that the "real life examples" (she takes published, popular books and uses them to fill out her worksheets as examples) don't even work with her system. There's a bunch of blanks with The Lovely Bones. And she encourages her plotters to fill out every part of the worksheet using detailed instruction-- but in the real life examples each part is rarely more than a sentence! Her instructions are confusing. Her worksheets are confusing. Her examples are confusing.
Finally....
FINALLY a system that's comprehensive, workable, and successful. "First Draft in 30 Days" is not the typical blah, blah, blah scenario of most supposed writing guides (and believe me, I've read them all).
Good Outline examples
This is a great book if you're the type of writer who is organized and needs to have structure.The book is very detailed and thorough. Series writers might enjoy this. I've used a plot outline before that was about 14 pages, this method builds a 60-paged or over outline!You'd include every detail so that you can sit down and do the creative work on your novel. I'd highly recommend this for the writer who needs lots and lots of structure to do the creative work. I never realized that I was missing so much until I began to use this method. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Composition & Creative Writing - General    4. Fiction    5. Language    6. Language Arts & Disciplines    7. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    8. Manuscript preparation (Author    9. Manuscript preparation (Authorship)    10. English    11. Writing & editing guides   

Reviews (14)

Good deal
The book has been delivered brand new, in time. The contents of the book are above expectations and live upto to the reviews.
there are better books on characterization
Unlike her book, Making a Good Script Great, this book is disappointing.Creating characters involves: "getting the first idea..., creating the first broad strokes, finding the core of the character...finding the paradoxes within the character..., adding emotions, attitudes, and values, adding details to make the character specific and unique" (p.23).These steps are then elaborated in separate chapters (although the elaboration consists mostly of extended examples of films most people--those who actually saw the films--would consider to be mixed bags at best, long series of autobiographical paragraphs, and extended quotes from screenwriters ruminating about their experiences in writing this or that character).Seldom is information actually added to that already given on page 23.
Finally, Good Characters
Before I read this book, I have to admit - my characters were all pretty lame. Then, hey, I read this book, and boom! Ok, so they still need work, but this book made me understand how to keep characters exotic, good, and believable.
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Subjects:  1. Characters and characteristics    2. Characters and characteristics in literature    3. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    4. Composition & Creative Writing - Play/Scriptwriting    5. Drama    6. Fiction    7. General    8. Motion picture plays    9. Reference    10. Technique    11. Writing & editing guides   

Reviews (45)

A long time ago..
...in a time far away, I was an aspiring fantasy writer, and I picked this book up off the shelf shortly after it was published. I've never forgotten the MICE, and to this day, I still use the basics of that idea to help me focus my stories.
Very Good!
I was amazed when I first started reading this book. As a relatively novice writer, I felt the book helped me understand a lot more about writing certain kinds of fantasy novels, and taught me a general overview on how to make a living doing so. Card is a worthwhile author and this book is an indispensible guide for ANY fantasy writer.

Quick and Useful Guide
I, like many aspiring filmmakers, read Aristotle's Poetics in college as part of a dramatic writing class.There is nothing in there that one cannot reason out for oneself; still, it is useful to have it written out and classified. This is both because not all of us have time to think about dramatic theory/contemplate our navels, and also because Aristotle was a pretty clever guy and it's good to see what he thought about the things he was an expert on.
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Subjects:  1. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    2. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    3. Reference    4. Writing Skills    5. Creative writing guides   

Reviews (16)

This book will get your writing...
This book is chock full of good exercises that will get you writing instead of just reading.I think that's an important part of any instructional writing book because you're probably reading a book like this in order to write, or at least write better.
The man with the plan
This book is quite possibly the most helpful of any books or classes I have taken.Clear cut methods and his keep-it-simple-stupidness have helped me take my fiction to another level.The examples given are great and wonderfully chosen; Novakovich is a master of literature.This book, used correctly, will improve your writing greatly, and better still, you may surprise even yourself!

Novakovich has changed my writing life
Not only does Novakovich bring in the advice of many other writers to make his book of instruction a great resource for a writing workshop, buthe shares his own vast wealth of experience as a short story writer and recently published novelistto make this book the best book from which to learn the craft of writing I have ever owned. The Fiction Writer's Workshop is the only writing instruction book of the several I bought that offers a set of useful exercises and writing prompts at the end of each chapter. For anyone who is serious about the writing life, Novakovich's book is a must buy and a must use. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Composition & Creative Writing - General    4. Fiction    5. Language    6. Language Arts & Disciplines    7. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    8. Problems, exercises, etc    9. Technique    10. Rhetoric    11. Writing & editing guides   

Reviews (50)

practical and easy-to-use
As the author of more than 20 books I'm always on the lookout for practical writing guides that will help me improve my craft and expand my horizons without simply repeating the same old advice. In this book, literary agent Donald Maass offers insider's advice on taking your fiction to the next level by outlining what makes a bestselling novel work. I found the ideas invigorating, practical, and very down-to-earth.
Blew my mind
I got this book because of Holly Lisle's gushing review of it on Forward Motion (fmwriters.com), and I never regretted it. I read it on the bus, underlining and gasping at some of the ideas that finally made connections in my brain. No, Maass' information isn't new when taken individually. However, the way he presented the ideas, the way he stated things, made me sit up and pay attention far more than almost any other book has.
Breakout book for would-be novelists
This book is particularly useful for advanced writing students as well as for novelists who have written from one to fifty books but never quite reached "breakout" levels of success. In other words, this book is for those who are serious about writing a breakout novel and are willing to apply the information provided to perfect their craft. Rather than a "quick fix," the author provides tips that distinguish "average" or "ok" novels from truly breakout novels, but it requires the writer's patient persistent application. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Composition & Creative Writing - General    4. Fiction    5. Language    6. Language Arts & Disciplines    7. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    8. Marketing    9. Technique    10. Creative writing guides   

Editorial Review

"The best reading experiences," says Sol Stein, "defy interruption." With Stein's assistance, you can grab your reader on page 1 and not let go until "The End." Stein--author of nine novels (including the bestselling Read more

Reviews (46)

Most interesting How To book I've ever read
Stein actually makes learning from a book fun. I found myself looking forward to picking it up again and again and learning more incredibly useful and on-target advice. It has become my Bible on how to write a novel! I actually bought this book almost 10 years ago and never read it. After I wrote an initial draft for my first novel, I was looking through my bookshelf and picked it up. I couldn't believe that anything in a book could be this much help. By page 10, Stein was speaking to exactly where I was in the progress of my book. After that I absorbed and implemented two college semesters of advice. I got the impression that this guy really knew what he was talking about. You can't just make up advice like he gives. He writes with compelling authority. Long story short, I wouldn't have had a chance in heck of ever getting my book published without this book. Now I feel I have an excellent chance if I am willing to work and rework hard and utilize his advice.

Great advice!
I bought this book a few months ago at the advice of a fellow journalist. He told me that this book is half fiction, half non-fiction but the advice is helpful. Without a doubt, the words of wisdom that Stein has to offer are priceless. However, when I thought about writing a novel, this is where I turned. From there I now have the basis for my story and will write it during National Novel Writing Month. Get the book, whether you're interested in non-fiction, fiction or both. Be prepared to be honest with yourself and have fun writing!

**
This book has major shortcomings; Stein's obsession with character over plot, for one (Martin Amis said, "I used to sneer at plot until I wrote a novel that had one, titled NIGHT TRAIN. It was HARD and I used stay awake at night hoping I wasn't leaving any holes."), another being his obsession with "show don't tell" (Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA is probably the greatest novel of the 1980's and it's almost entirely "tell" and very little "show.") And the passages Stein includes from his own novels as examples of good writing were actually examples of terrible writing! (A taxi "disengorging" its passengers is categorically bad writing.) And Stein admits he rejected Frederick Forythe's THE DAY OF THE JACKAL. I wouldn't read a book by Dick Rowe about how to make it in the music business (Rowe famously rejected the Beatles from Decca Records). Stein excuses himself that he was going by only an outline, but then Rowe was going by just a demo tape. Better writing books are out there. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    2. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    3. Reference    4. Writing Skills   

Reviews (39)

Inspiring!
This book is for anyone who writes, anyone who wants to write.It is for anyone who teaches creative writing, anyone who wants to teach creative writing.
Functional & Fun
"What If" differs from many other how-to writing books in that the writer will spend more time writing through the book than actually reading it - that is if the writing exercises at the end of chapter are completed. The chapters are bite-size, informative and to the point. Thus the information the book brings, coupled with the exercises, makes it functional and at the same time fun.
Excellent refresher or learning tool
I've been writing for years and earned my MFA a few years ago and have loved "What If" since it was introduced to me in my intro to creative writing class.It's great for beginners to exercise their creativity, fun for people with more writing experience because the assignments allow for creative expansion as well as improvement and various method training, and if I'm ever having a down time when I just don't know what to write but feel the need to get something on paper, the book is perfect inspiration, and sometimes has the tendency to get me started on a story I didn't know I had in me.Even if it seems elementary, it's hardly that...each exercise can be done once yearly, and every time it's done it will be tackled differently and with growing talent and skill. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    2. Composition & Creative Writing - General    3. Creative Writing    4. English language    5. Fiction    6. Language    7. Language Arts & Disciplines    8. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    9. Problems, exercises, etc    10. Rhetoric    11. Technique    12. Language Arts & Disciplines / Composition & Creative Writing    13. Personal finance   

Reviews (7)

Alot of very smart information, for anyone who wants to write!
Despite a less than attention grabbing cover, the chapters by various published authors are information packed.
The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing: Everything You Need to Know About Creating & Selling Your Work
Very practical and very readable.Not at all pedantic.Chapters are generally short, but packed with information.Book is being used as a text in a Writer's Digest class.Section breakdown by number of chapters: The craft (9), The art (8), The process (8), The genres (9), The marketplace (7), plus 14 interviews with current writers.The book is great, but surprisingly, it contains more than a few typos and grammatical errors!

Inspiration For Would Be Writers
Since I have yet to write "the great American novel," I probably cannot critique a book such as THE COMPLETE HANDBOOK OF NOVEL WRITING, since I have yet to have a book published. I do want to write a novel one day, and I have been doing quite a bit of writing and rewriting. I have also been doing quite a bit of reading of novels and books on writing theory and have taken part in writing workshops. All of these things have been helpful, particularly the writing workshops. Yet as I write, I do have questions about what I am doing, and like to read practical advice from writers who have been published. THE COMPLETE HANDBOOK OF NOVEL WRITING is such a resource. It contains articles about writing theory and craft, information about genres, and the various markets. The articles have been published in WRITER'S DIGEST magazine and most are penned by well known writers. I am finding the book to be a great reference tool. I have found the book particularly helpful when I have a question about some aspect of writing or need advice and inspiration to keep writing. Read more

Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Composition & Creative Writing - General    4. Fiction    5. Handbooks, manuals, etc    6. Language    7. Language Arts & Disciplines    8. Language Arts / Linguistics / Literacy    9. Creative writing guides   

Reviews (18)

A must have for your library
If you are looking for a book to help you develop the craft of writing then this book is a must have for your library. It provides a wealth of information, practice ideas and examples in literature so you can see how it's done. It's easy to read and written in a relaxed manner. Not intimidating at all. If you're on the fence about buying it then go ahead and get it. It's not a waste of money.

New Writers Look No Further!
This superb collection of fiction how to's developed out of a series of writers' workshops that started small, grew and expanded into a full-fledged writer's program. Terrific and detailed chapters on plot, structure, dialogue, characters and more give you the bare bones of learning how to write great fiction. Gives lots of examples from great works of fiction, as well as writer's prompts. I have read and taken notes on all areas, and it has been like having a group of personal mentors!Great investment.

Best book ever for fiction writing instruction!
Gotham Writers' Workshop's _Writing Fiction: the Practical Guide_ demystifies the craft of writing. In step-by-step progression, students learn to shape rambling narratives into edgy fiction. This is the best book I have ever used in the creative writing classroom. I am grateful to editor Alexander Steele for making my job so much easier.
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Subjects:  1. Authorship    2. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    3. Fiction    4. Reference    5. Technique    6. Writing Skills   

Reviews (3)

Recommendation
This book was recommended by my MA thesis advisor at graduate course in English. It gave me valuable insights and ideas to develop my own argument.It's also very fun to read itself. I recommend this book for those who want to know more about what is "storytelling"- probably one of the most fundamental, universal and interesting human activities - like!

very useful
This book is extremely useful both for absolute beginners and also for those who have already encountered and practised narratology. Bal's comprehensive theory of narrative is a precious tool for a betterunderstanding of narrative texts and of other theories in the field ofnarratology.

A VERY GOOD BOOK
A VERY GOOD BOO ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Composition & Creative Writing - Fiction    2. Literary Criticism    3. Literature - Classics / Criticism    4. Narration (Rhetoric)    5. Semiotics & Theory    6. Literary Criticism & Collections / Theory    7. Literary theory