How Not to Write a Novel

Author: Howard Mittelmark
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061862894
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 273

Book Description
"What do you think of my fiction book writing?" the aspiring novelist extorted. "Darn," the editor hectored, in turn. "I can not publish your novel! It is full of what we in the business call 'really awful writing.'" "But how shall I absolve this dilemma? I have already read every tome available on how to write well and get published!" The writer tossed his head about, wildly. "It might help," opined the blonde editor, helpfully, "to ponder how NOT to write a novel, so you might avoid the very thing!" Many writing books offer sound advice on how to write well. This is not one of those books. On the contrary, this is a collection of terrible, awkward, and laughably unreadable excerpts that will teach you what to avoid—at all costs—if you ever want your novel published. In How Not to Write a Novel, authors Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman distill their 30 years combined experience in teaching, editing, writing, and reviewing fiction to bring you real advice from the other side of the query letter. Rather than telling you how or what to write, they identify the 200 most common mistakes unconsciously made by writers and teach you to recognize, avoid, and amend them. With hilarious "mis-examples" to demonstrate each manuscript-mangling error, they'll help you troubleshoot your beginnings and endings, bad guys, love interests, style, jokes, perspective, voice, and more. As funny as it is useful, this essential how-NOT-to guide will help you get your manuscript out of the slush pile and into the bookstore.

How to Grow a Novel

Author: Sol Stein
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1466865008
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
Each year thousands of fiction writers, from beginners to bestselling author, benefit from Sol Stein's sold-out workshops, featured appearances at writers' conferences, software for writers, on-line columns, and his popular first book for writers, Stein on Writing. Stein practices what he teaches: He is the author of nine novels, including the million-copy bestseller The Magician, as well as editor of such major writers as James Baldwin, Jack Higgins, Elia Kazan, Budd Schulberg, W. H. Auden, and Jacques Barzun, and the teacher and editor of several current bestselling authors. What sets Stein apart is his practical approach. He provides specific techniques that speed writers to successful publication. How to Grow a Novel is not just a book, but an invaluable workshop in print. It includes details and examples from Stein's editorial work with a #1 bestselling novelist as well as talented newcomers. Stein takes the reader backstage in the development of memorable characters and fascinating plots. The chapter on dialogue overflows with solutions for short-story writers, novelists, screenwriters, and playwrights. Stein shows what readers are looking for-- and what they avoid-- in the experience of reading fiction. The book offers guidelines-- and warnings-- of special value for nonfiction writers who want to move into fiction. Stein points to the little, often overlooked things that damage the writer's authority without the writer knowing it. And this book, like no other writing book, takes the reader behind the scenes of the publishing business as it affects writers of every level of experience, revealing the hard truths that are kept behind shut doors.

Artful Sentences

Author: Virginia Tufte
Publisher: Conran Octopus
ISBN:
Category : Authorship
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Book Description
"In Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style, Virginia Tufte shows how standard sentence patterns and forms contribute to meaning and art in more than a thousand wonderful sentences from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The book has special interest for aspiring writers, students of literature and language, and anyone who finds joy in reading and writing."--Publisher's description.

How to Not Write Bad

Author: Ben Yagoda
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1594488487
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
Ben Yagoda's How to Not Write Bad illustrates how we can all write better, more clearly, and for a wider readership. He offers advice on what he calls "not-writing-badly," which consists of the ability, first, to craft sentences that are correct in terms of spelling, diction (word choice), punctuation, and grammar, and that also display clarity, precision, and grace. Then he focuses on crafting whole paragraphs—with attention to cadence, consistency of tone, sentence transitions, and paragraph length. In a fun, comprehensive guide, Yagoda lays out the simple steps we can all take to make our writing more effective, more interesting—and just plain better.

The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and how to Avoid Them

Author: Judy Delton
Publisher: Betterway Books
ISBN: 9780898794533
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 96

Book Description
Twenty-nine tips for writers on how to avoid being their own worst enemy when it comes to writing and selling their work.

The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes

Author: Jack Bickham
Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
ISBN: 9780898798210
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes When you write fiction, you march onto a minefield. This book gives you a map. Oh, what tricky terrain you're traveling! You must reckon with: Character, Conflict, Point of View, Dialogue, Editors, Editors, and Editors, who--by returning stories they see as problem-plagued--can burst your hopes of publication. Where are the problems? Editors rarely take the time to map them out, so Jack Bickham has. In this book, he spotlights the 38 most common fiction writing land mines--writing mistakes that can turn even dynamite story ideas into slush pile rejects. And he guides you in overcoming them. In to-the-point style, he shows you how to: conquer procrastination--and put ink on paper regularly dump wimpy characters--and build characters ready to act look for trouble--and create conflicts for your characters cut coincidence--and put better-than-life logic into fiction escape the fog--and find and stick to your story's direction free feelings--and fire your fiction with passion and emotion In short, Bickham helps you take a giant step toward publication. Read this book. Strengthen your writing. And start setting off explosions where they belong: on the sales charts.

The Savior's Champion

Author: Jenna Moreci
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780999735206
Category : Imaginary places
Languages : en
Pages : 562

Book Description
Hoping to save his family, one man enters his realm's most glorious tournament and finds himself in the middle of a political chess game, unthinkable bloodshed, and an unexpected romance with a woman he's not supposed to want.

Structuring Your Novel

Author: K. M. Weiland
Publisher: Penforasword
ISBN: 9780985780401
Category : Authorship
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Acclaim for Structuring Your Novel "I have long wished for a book like this. Structuring Your Novel is so much more than a writing craft book-it's a recipe to help writers structure a deep, meaningful journey for their hero that will captivate readers from beginning to end."-Angela Ackerman, Author of The Emotion Thesaurus "There is absolute gold in this book-and I am grateful that the author has a real talent for distilling some of the somewhat clunky information found elsewhere, into really simple-to-understand and easy-to-follow techniques."-Robert Scanlon "This book shows a writer how to structure their novel from beginning to end in a no-nonsense manner. It's fast and easy reading, and MAKES SENSE "-Carrie C. Spencer About the Book Is Structure the Hidden Foundation of All Successful Stories? Why do some stories work and others don't? The answer is structure. In this IPPY and NIEA-Award winning guide from the author of the bestselling Outlining Your Novel, you will learn the universal underpinnings that guarantee powerful plot and character arcs. An understanding of proper story and scene structure will show you how to perfectly time your story's major events and will provide you with an unerring standard against which to evaluate your novel's pacing and progression. Structuring Your Novel will show you: How to determine the best techniques for empowering your unique and personal vision for your story. How to identify common structural weaknesses and flip them around into stunning strengths. How to eliminate saggy middles by discovering your "centerpiece." Why you should NEVER include conflict in every scene. How to discover the questions you don't want readers asking about your plot-and then how to get them to ask the right questions. Story structure has enabled countless bestselling and classic authors. Now it's your turn More Praise for Structuring Your Novel "K.M. Weiland delivers another exceptional resource for writers-offering practical guidance on everything from crafting a book's hook to its resolution."-Elizabeth Spann Craig, Author of the Myrtle Clover Mysteries "Structuring Your Novel will give you the blueprint for making your story more powerful. I'm taking this one with me to my desert island "-Jennifer Ibarra "After finishing the book, I reviewed my own writing and was easily able to see where the story wasn't working, understand why it wasn't, and figure out what I needed to do to fix it."-Abby Geiger More storytelling assistance from K.M. Weiland: Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success-Can outlining help you write a better story?

How to Read Like a Writer

Author: Mike Bunn
Publisher: The Saylor Foundation
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 17

Book Description
When you Read Like a Writer (RLW) you work to identify some of the choices the author made so that you can better understand how such choices might arise in your own writing. The idea is to carefully examine the things you read, looking at the writerly techniques in the text in order to decide if you might want to adopt similar (or the same) techniques in your writing. You are reading to learn about writing. Instead of reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing (which you will automatically do to some degree anyway), you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text. As you read in this way, you think about how the choices the author made and the techniques that he/she used are influencing your own responses as a reader. What is it about the way this text is written that makes you feel and respond the way you do?

The Time Traveler's Wife

Author: Audrey Niffenegger
Publisher: Night Bookmobile Editions
ISBN: 0578889412
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Book Description
A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who inadvertently travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love. “Niffenegger’s inventive and poignant writing is well worth a trip” (Entertainment Weekly).