Alison Kent's Blah Blog

Take your fiction to the next level! Maybe you’re a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you’ve already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list hell. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel—one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists. Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share—regardless of genre—then shows you how to use them to write books that can stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.

You’ll learn to:
# develop an inspired premise that sets your novel apart from the competition
# establish a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place
# create larger-than-life characters that step right off the page
# sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish
# weave sub-plots into the main action for a complex, engrossing story
# explore universal themes that will interest a broad audience of readers.

Then, using examples from the recent works of several best-selling authors—including novelist Anne Perry—Maass illustrates methods for upping the ante in every aspect of your novel writing. You’ll capture the eye of an agent, generate publisher interest, and lay the foundation for a promising career.

“Word of mouth is the secret grease of publishing. It is the engine that drives breakouts.”–Donald Maass, from the Introduction

The key to writing a “breakout” novel has nothing to do with million-dollar publicity budgets, huge advances or name recognition. It comes from writing the kind of novel that gets people talking and creates a growing wave of excitement and support that carries your work along for the ride.

Calling upon over two decades of experience in the publishing industry, as both an author and literary agent, Donald Maass explains how to imbue your novel with the qualities that inspire just such a reaction. He’ll show you how to:
# find—then push beyond—a category niche
# master the mechanics of the breakout novel and apply them to your own work
# interest agents and publishers with a compelling, original story
# create work that generates extraordinary word of mouth You’ll learn to take your fiction to the next level of storytelling, while establishing the career—and recognition—you’ve always dreamed of.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

Whether you are an accomplished professional, a novelist, story writer, or a writer of nonfiction, you will find a wealth of immediately useful guidance not available anywhere else. As Sol Stein explains, “This is a not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions; how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place.”

You will find one of the great unspoken secrets of craftsmanship in Chapter 5, called “Markers: The Key to Swift Characterization.” In Chapter 7, Stein reveals for the first time in print the system for creating instant conflict developed in the Playwrights Group of the Actors Studio, of which he was a founder. In “Secrets of Good Dialogue,” Stein gives you usable techniques that not only make verbal exchanges exciting but that move the story forward immediately. You won’t have to struggle with flashbacks or background material after you’ve read Chapter 14, which shows you how to bring background into the foreground.

Writers of both fiction and nonfiction will relish the amphetamines for speeding up pace, and the many ways to liposuction flab, as well as how to tap originality and recognize what successful titles have in common. Nonfiction writers will find a passport to the new revolution in journalism and a guide to using the techniques of fiction to enhance nonfiction. You’ll discover literary values that enhance writing, providing depth and resonance. In Chapters 32 and 33 you will learn why revising by starting at page one can be a serious mistake, and how to revise without growing cold on your manuscript.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

John Gardner was almost as famous as a teacher of creative writing as he was for his own works. In this practical, instructive handbook, based on the courses and seminars that he gave, he explains, simply and cogently, the principles and techniques of good writing.

Review:

“The Art of Fiction is a ‘how to’ guide for the neophyte who wants to sharpen his writing skills. Its author, the late John Gardner, was not only an accomplished writer but a teacher as well, having been a veteran of many a fiction workshop. Gardner’s teaching experience led him to concentrate on technique as a means to successful fiction writing. His book is a collection of do’s and don’ts for the young writer, supplemented with examples of the right and wrong ways of writing. Above all, Gardner believed that practice makes perfect, and he has included numerous writing exercises for those who wish to improve. Gardner may be naïve in concluding that anyone who wants to write can, but his optimistic teaching approach is infectious and is sure to encourage those who until now have been too shy to try.” Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

In his widely read guides How to Write a Damn Good Novel and How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced Techniques, popular novelist and fiction-writing coach James N. Frey showed tens of thousands of writers how—starting with rounded, living, breathing, dynamic characters—to structure a novel that sustains its tension and development and ends in a satisfying, dramatic climax.

Now, in The Key, Frey takes his no-nonsense, “Damn Good” approach and applies it to Joseph Campbell’s insights into the universal structure of myths. Myths, says Frey, are the basis of all storytelling, and their structures and motifs are just as powerful for contemporary writers as they were for Homer. Frey begins with the qualities found in mythic heros—ancient and modern—such as the hero’s special talent, his or her wound, status as an “outlaw,” and so on. He then demonstrates how the hero is initiated—sent on a mission, forced to learn the new rules, tested, and suffers a symbolic death and rebirth—before he or she can return home. Using dozens of classical and contemporary novels and films as models, Frey shows how these motifs and forms work their powerful magic on the reader’s imagination.

The Key is designed as a practical step-by-step guide for fiction writers and screen writers who want to shape their own ideas into a mythic story.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

The blank page, the impossible deadline, the rush of inspiration: There is no profession more maddening or more rewarding than being a writer. Yet surprisingly, all writers pass through the same sequence of stages in the course of their careers. It was this remarkable insight that inspired veteran authors Nancy Pickard and Lynn Lott to write one of the wisest and liveliest guides to the literary life ever penned— a volume of astonishing revelation, warm reassurance, brilliant encouragement, and welcome humor. No matter what you write or how much recognition you’ve received, you are bound to pass through the seven steps on the writer’s path: Unhappiness, Wanting, Commitment, Wavering, Letting Go, Immersion, and Fulfillment.

Whether you’re a wannabe writer or a published literary veteran, you’re bound to find this book a source of true delight, vital wisdom, and lasting inspiration.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

Whether you are a novice writer or a veteran who has already had your work published, rejection is often a frustrating reality. Literary agents and editors receive and reject hundreds of manuscripts each month. While it’s the job of these publishing professionals to be discriminating, it’s the job of the writer to produce a manuscript that immediately stands out among the vast competition. And those outstanding qualities, says New York literary agent Noah Lukeman, have to be apparent from the first five pages.

The First Five Pages reveals the necessary elements of good writing, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, journalism, or poetry, and points out errors to be avoided, such as

* A weak opening hook
* Overuse of adjectives and adverbs
* Flat or forced metaphors or similes
* Melodramatic, commonplace or confusing dialogue
* Undeveloped characterizations and lifeless settings
* Uneven pacing and lack of progression

With exercises at the end of each chapter, this invaluable reference will allow novelists, journalists, poets and screenwriters alike to improve their technique as they learn to eliminate even the most subtle mistakes that are cause for rejection. The First Five Pages will help writers at every stage take their art to a higher — and more successful — level.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

Successful New York literary agent Donald Maass has guided many fiction writers from first book to full-time career. In The Career Novelist, Maass has gathered his considerable experience and insight both as an agent and as an author of fourteen novels and put it into one indispensable source. From Maass, learn about:

-The dream and reality of being a published author
-How to choose an agent
-The marketing game
-Collaborations
-Electronic rights and much much more!

Whether you are launching or jumpstarting your writing career, The Career Novelist is the place to start.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

The first thing T. Macdonald Skillman sets out to do in Writing the Thriller is define the thriller. Unlike the mystery, she says, “Suspense is emotional. It’s surprise and confusion and fear and anticipation. And suspense is danger. Immediate danger.” Thrillers come in a variety of guises: action-adventures; legal, medical, techno-, and political thrillers; psychological suspense; romantic-relationship suspense; women-in-jeopardy suspense. Skillman addresses each element of fiction writing–such as setting, dialogue, and point of view–as it applies to the various types of thriller. For all thrillers, she says, it is best to begin “in the midst of the action or danger”; any subsequent back story should “add a new dimension to the suspense itself.” And the pacing should be “like climbing a long, steep series of stairways…. As you cling to the railing at the bottom of the last set of stairs, your heart is pounding; your lungs are burning.” Most useful here are Skillman’s case studies in plotting, for which she creates eight plots (one for each type of thriller) using the same cast of characters.

For the book’s final 60 pages, Skillman hands the baton to 11 thriller writers. From Clive Cussler (Flood Tide), we learn that never growing up is “a pretty good prerequisite for writing action-adventure novels.” Both Michael Connelly (Blood Work) and Tess Gerritsen (Bloodstream) discuss how their genre can be used to tap into what ills the near future holds. Richard North Patterson (Degree of Guilt) likes to consult with psychologists to get a handle on his characters’ motivations, while Mary Willis Walker (All the Dead Lie Down) “love[s] doing research that feels a little bit risky.” And any thriller writer would be wise to keep John Gilstrap’s (Nathan’s Run) words in mind: “If you’re going to write convincing suspense, you ought to be scared of it yourself.”

Comedy is not magic, not inspiration, not a “gift.” Mostly, it’s simple rules and structures—the logic of the illogical—tools that anyone can use.

The Comic Toolbox is a straightforward, often humorous, workbook approach to comedy writing as creative problem solving. In it, veteran Hollywood comedy writer John Vorhaus offers his tools of the trade to writers, comics, and anyone else who wants to be funny. Among these indispensable tools are Clash of Context, Tension and Release, The Law of Comic Opposites, The Wildly Inappropriate Response, and The Myth of the Last Great Idea.

Readers will learn that comedy = truth and pain (the essence of the comic situation), that fear is the biggest roadblock to comedy (kill your ferocious editor within and rich, useful comic ideas will flow), and much, much more.

With Vorhaus’ tools in hand, anyone can be funny.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.

Covering the entire process from story building to manuscript preparation and marketing, Jerry Cleaver shows the novice and experienced writer how to start writing and how to get immediate results.

Readers will find everything they need to know about managing time, finding an idea, getting the first ford down on the page, staying unblocked, shaping ideas into compelling stories, and submitting their work to agents and publishers.

Immediate Fiction goes beyond the old “Write what you know” to “Write what you can imagine.” Filled with insightful tips on how to manage doubts, fears, blocks, and panic, Immediate Fiction will help writers develop their skills in as little minutes a day, if necessary.

Believing that all writing is rewriting, Cleaver says, “You can’t control what you put on the page. You can only control what you leave on the page.” With this book Cleaver shows how to get that control and produce results.

I’ll be posting giveaway books throughout the day each day this week. If you’re interested in this book, leave a comment below. I’ll draw all of this week’s winners on Sunday, July 3, 2011 and post them that day. You will need to check back and send me your mailing address by Sunday, July 10, 2011 CDT if you are one of the winners.