As I writer, I was psyched to read THE BREAKOUT NOVELIST
by the great Donald Maass who is a giant in the publishing
industry. This book has so much information in it, you may
want to just nibble your way through, as there is too much
information to consume large chunks in one sitting. Mr.
Maass covers literally everything. He covers your basic
building blocks first, such as character and premise, time
and place. Then he moves on and elaborates on each
element: "Protagonist vs. Heroes," "Scenes That Can't Be
Cut" and "Tension All The Time," just to name a few of the
sections contained in this book. Lastly, he covers the
actual process of getting published from getting an agent
to negotiating a contract. And of course, there are large
sections of exercises to help you tweak your writing.
Now, I had The Fire in Fiction by the same author and
I was
disappointed to find that whole sections of this hardcover,
spiral-bound book were verbatim from his other book. The
thing I found most helpful were all the comprehensive
exercises included throughout the text. Basically, he
included the workbook from one of his other works as well.
Now, it's not bad news, really, this book is great, it will
definitely hang out on my shelf (or, more realistically, on
my desk) as a reference. The Fire in Fiction is
great, but
I kinda wish I didn't own two copies of it now! My advice
is: if you're looking for a great writing book, here it
is. If you already own The Fire in Fiction, I'd
hesitate
and maybe buy the workbook he has available instead. BUT
if you don't own any Donald Maass books, this is the one to
get!
Fiction writers of all levels and genres who want solid
craft advice and writers ready to send their manuscripts out
to agents and editors but aren't sure of the next steps will
value this comprehensive writing reference by top New York
literary agent Donald Maass. It contains the most essential
information from four of his bestselling books, Writing the
Breakout Novel, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, The
Fire in Fiction, and The Career Novelist, plus updated content.
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