Product Description

A collection of articles from Writer's Digest and the Market books. The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing covers the basics of a best-selling topic: novel writing. From crafting a story and using descriptive language to breaking through writer's block, mastering genres and getting an agent, this book addresses the spectrum of issues pertinent to fiction writers. Readers will find a number of pieces by best-selling authors, including Janet Fitch, Terry Brooks, Sue Grafton, John Updike, Richard Russon, Evan Hunter, and J. A. Jance, and interviews with others, including Kurt Vonnegut and Margaret Atwood. Both novice and experienced writers will find advice in this book that speaks to their dreams of getting their novels published.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14023 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Customer Reviews

A very interesting book
This book tackles novel writing in a helpful, positive way. Each chapter addresses one element, eg how to create characters. It sets out the issues the writer should be thinking of, points out the errors the novice novel writer typically makes, and explors how to avoid such pitfalls. Examples are given to illustrate the point. It is a very readable book and flows well despite the large number of different authors who contributed to its writing.

the best book on writing ever published
the complete handbook of novel writing is a fantastic, incredibly useful, inspirational, hands-on advice book. The book spans indeed virtually all aspects of novel writing. Every chapter covers a 'stand-alone' topic, written by a different author giving specific, expert advice. This book is a rich source of information and includes numerous real life examples on what to do, how to do it and what to avoid. I have read numerous books on novel writing in the past year, but none comes close to the value of this book in guiding new and inexperienced writers - and it's handy in that one can zoom in on specific aspects quickly by reading selected chapters. I have had this book for about 2 months and have read it for at least four times. Some chapters even more often. This is a 'must have' for any aspiring writer out there. Absolutely superb - great value and invaluable as a reference, teaching and guide book.

Really Good
This book is made up of short articles covering all aspects of writing and publishing. This layout is good as it allows you to choose how you read it, i.e. dip in wherever the mood takes you or just read from front to back. I dipped in as i have kids and so don't really have long free periods.

I really liked the different styles of different authors and found most of the info to be either usefull or at least not condescending or too obvious. All the authors are listed in the index so you can skip straight to your favourite ones to see what they have to say on thier given subject.

I bought a couple of similar type books and this was the one that i kept.

Well worth a look if you want insight into novel writing etc and full of little tips that can help get the fingers going again. I really liked it.