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The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing | 
 enlarge | Creator: Editors Of Writers Digest Books
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.99
Buy Used: $3.98
You Save: $14.01 (78%)
New (29) Used (27) from $3.98
Rating:  14 reviews
Sales Rank: 25842
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9 x 5.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 1582971595
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3
UPC: 035313108259
EAN: 9781582971599
ASIN: 1582971595
Publication Date: July 15, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing is a compilation of the best articles and interviews from Writer's Digest magazine, books, and annuals. Aspiring authors will find articles on the craft, art, and process of fiction writing from such authors as: Sue Grafton, Terry Brooks, Richard Russo, Janet Fitch, Octavia Butler, Tom Clancy, John Updike and more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 9 more reviews...
 Great Resource April 9, 2009
Paul M. Storment
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book was a big help to me. It was concise and helpful without being overbearing.
uneven, but still very valuable writer's resource December 26, 2008
Tom L. Waters (Tesuque, NM USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing from Writer's Digest Books is an anthology of essays and interviews intended to be a one-stop shop for writing novels. It is organized into six broad sections: The Craft (technical explanations of plot, point-of-view, character development), The Art (broad advice on what to write about and approaches to making your writing more appealing), The Process (a lot of advice about editing and revising in this section), The Genres, The Marketplace, and finally The Interviews (brief interviews with a number of well-know authors).
Because it is an anthology, the quality of the individual essays varies quite a bit. Ideally, the anthology format would allow each contributor to write about their special area of interest or mastery, and this seems to hold true, more or less, especially in the first few sections of the book. There were several essays that didn't really tell me anything new, but I picked up enough valuable pointers to make the book a worthwhile purchase and to justify the time taken to read it.
Things get a little murkier as we move toward the end of the book, though. In the genre section, there is no essay on science fiction, but two on fantasy. The first, by Terry Brooks, seemed almost entirely devoid of content, at least to me. The second, by J. V. Jones, on creating fantasy characters, was more helpful, but still did not go very far. It certainly will not replace books devoted specifically to the topic of writing fantasy or sf.
Most disappointing were the interviews (fourteen of them). The problem here is that most of the interviews are only a few pages long, and use much of that space with the interviewer relating the writer's bio. Many of the writers do not offer advice on writing. There are certainly some gems here (the Terry McMillan and Kurt Vonnegut interviews were winners), but mostly the interviews seem like morsels for readers rather than something for a writer's handbook.
Bottom line: This book does a good job of pulling together writing advice on several different levels, from the mechanics of crafting and editing, through broader issues of theme and style, and an overview of how the publishing business works. If you don't want to get more than one book on writing, this book is a good candidate for that spot on your bookshelf, despite the unevenness.
 An okay book October 12, 2008
christ with us (Miami)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am an author and found this book to be somewhat useful. It is well written and gives you much to think about but would research others.
 the Greatest Fiction book out September 8, 2008
True disciple (New York, ny)
This I would have to say is the Greatest Book on Writing Fiction. This book is like the solid base you can establish. It goes through every point in writing a novel by all the professionals. This book, you'll simply learn a lot. I can't tell you how much I learned from it. And it's just so true.
The first chapter is about plot. The writer defines plot as the complications go through in steps toward a resolution. He states that plot arises from the orchestration of the protagonist with the antagonist. The better orchestrated the characters, the better the plot will develop. Actually, it will be natural since the characters are so well-pitted against each other. The more different you make the characters from each other, the better plot will flow and develop. The reason why many plots fail is because the protagonist and antagonist are too close to each other.
Other chapters are just as helpful. One writer talks about how he changed to do movies. Being that movies don't use exposition and thought, he could no longer rely on these methods. When he went back to fiction, he saw this creeping into his fiction as well. In the end, he stated how fictions, like movies, should go scene by scene, which would make it more exciting. Long exposition should be eliminated or severely limited. Also, the best devices to utilize in fiction are action, dialogue, and description, while limiting exposition and too much interior monlogue. This is sound advice.
Another great chapter is emotion. The writer in this case tells how eerything through be shown through the emotional filter, meaning we must see how the character reacts to everything in the story. If not, if the character doesn't react, it's meaningless. It's like having a stimulus in your life that doesn't affect you, it's meaningless in that case. We must see how the character reacts for it to have significance. The author then gives us advice how to show this emotional filter such as using verbs to connote emotion. For example, 'he walked out' only shows movement. 'He stomped out' shows anger.
That's about all for now. I'm tired. If you want to know more, read the book. I promise it is priceless.
Novelist Must Read! March 26, 2008
Rick Gabriel
You want to be a novelist, but are afraid of failure--right?! This is the book you want to read. It's chock full of endless interviews and information from the best in the business. You will recieve step by step instructions from only the top names in the novel writing industry. Don't be worried about genre. There all covered from fantacy, romance, science fiction, christian fiction, and all the rest. It's worth every penny.
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