How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques for Dramatic Storytelling (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780312104788)

Damn good fiction is dramatic fiction, Frey insists, whether it is by Hemingway or Grisham, Le Carre or Ludlum, Austen or Dickens. Despite their differences, these authors' works share common elements: strong narrative lines, fascinating characters, steadily building conflicts, and satisfying conclusions. Frey's How to Write a Damn Good Novel is one of the most widely used guides ever published for aspiring authors. Here, in How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II, Frey offers powerful advanced techniques to build suspense, create fresher, more interesting characters, and achieve greater reader sympathy, empathy, and identification.

How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II also warns against the pseudo-rules often inflicted upon writers, rules such as The author must always be invisible and You must stick to a single viewpoint in a scene, which cramp the imagination and deaden the narrative. Frey focuses instead on promises that the author makes to the reader--promises about character, narrative voice, story type, and so on, which must be kept if the reader is to be satisfied. This book is rich, instructive, honest, and often tellingly funny about the way writers sometimes fail their readers and themselves.

Author: James N. Frey
ISBN-10: 0312104782
ISBN-13: 9780312104788
Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
Language: English
Published: 03/15/1994
Pages: 176
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.60h x 5.70w x 0.70d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/15/1994 pg. 80