The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing

I am an author and found this book to be somewhat useful. It is well written and gives you much to think about but would research others.

This I would have to say is the Greatest Book on Writing Fiction. This book is like the solid base you can establish. It goes through every point in writing a novel by all the professionals. This book, you'll simply learn a lot. I can't tell you how much I learned from it. And it's just so true.

The first chapter is about plot. The writer defines plot as the complications go through in steps toward a resolution. He states that plot arises from the orchestration of the protagonist with the antagonist. The better orchestrated the characters, the better the plot will develop. Actually, it will be natural since the characters are so well-pitted against each other. The more different you make the characters from each other, the better plot will flow and develop. The reason why many plots fail is because the protagonist and antagonist are too close to each other.

Other chapters are just as helpful. One writer talks about how he changed to do movies. Being that movies don't use exposition and thought, he could no longer rely on these methods. When he went back to fiction, he saw this creeping into his fiction as well. In the end, he stated how fictions, like movies, should go scene by scene, which would make it more exciting. Long exposition should be eliminated or severely limited. Also, the best devices to utilize in fiction are action, dialogue, and description, while limiting exposition and too much interior monlogue. This is sound advice.

Another great chapter is emotion. The writer in this case tells how eerything through be shown through the emotional filter, meaning we must see how the character reacts to everything in the story. If not, if the character doesn't react, it's meaningless. It's like having a stimulus in your life that doesn't affect you, it's meaningless in that case. We must see how the character reacts for it to have significance. The author then gives us advice how to show this emotional filter such as using verbs to connote emotion. For example, 'he walked out' only shows movement. 'He stomped out' shows anger.

That's about all for now. I'm tired. If you want to know more, read the book. I promise it is priceless.

You want to be a novelist, but are afraid of failure--right?! This is the book you want to read. It's chock full of endless interviews and information from the best in the business. You will recieve step by step instructions from only the top names in the novel writing industry. Don't be worried about genre. There all covered from fantacy, romance, science fiction, christian fiction, and all the rest. It's worth every penny.

I'm not sure where to start when describing this book. This book is awesome- I think that I'll be a Pulitzer prize winner before I know it. (A man can dream........) This book offers everything from the idea of writing to the publication of what you write. I'll have it faithfully beside me during every step of my writing process; all the way to that Pulitzer. Unbelievable buy-

I generally don't care for compilations, especially about the writing business. I was forced to read this one for a class I took and I found it to be surprisingly helpful in some ways. Don't expect all the answers here.