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| Author: Nancy Kress
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.99
Buy New: $11.55
You Save: $5.44 (32%)
Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 8940
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1582973164
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3
EAN: 9781582973166
Publication Date: March 15, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Great advice and well readable February 13, 2007
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
There are many books on the market on how to write a novel. But I can highly recommend the complete series of Write Great Fiction, simply because I cannot think a writer could ask or want for more information on setting, character, plot etc.Plot & Structure: (Techniques And Exercises For Crafting A Plot That Grips Readers From Start To Finish) (Write Great Fiction)Dialogue: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Effective Dialogue (Write Great Fiction)Description & Setting (Write Great Fiction)
I read first 'How to write a damn good novel' of James Frey. This is a great synopsis of the craft of writing, and included roughly all that this 'Write Great Fiction' series explores in much more detail.
I did not realize that actually much of writing theory is more transparant than it seems. We all read stories that seemed fluent, while others we could not seem to finish. The reasons for this are not mysterious. Many aspects make for good, or bad writing, but where can you find works that elaborate on all of them in a clear manner? This 'Write Great Fiction' series splits this seemingly impossible task in just 4 editions that you can read one by one. This book gives many great tips in a clear and fun to read manner. Apart from the content, what I like especially is the setup of the chapter; at the end there is a recap, and a possibility for doing excersises. At the end of the book there is a quick bulletpoint checklist on all the material covered that you could tear out to hang on the wall. Very handy!
Just as the rule in writing often goes: 'show not tell', so does this book. The many examples included the book enhance the credibility of the tips that are given in every chapter, on how it is done, or what makes horribly writing.
I recommend to check out the index of content on the 'search inside' option to see the content of the book yourself. Buy it and read it and at least you will have good advice on how to embark on an emotional deadth-bed scene, or how to portray emotions, to name just a few. Of course, most of us know, at leat intuitively, much of the advice. But it is always better to have them all summed up once more to refresh the memory, and also to realize why things work out or not. But then you might say 'hey, I already have read dozens of books like this'. Well, like James Frey said, there is no shortcut on reading the masters to see how they do their magic. The same is true for 'how to write' books. If you want to give writing all you have got, then I would say for every tip you did not know yet it would be well worth the price of this book! There will be many of those tips, guaranteed! Highly recommended.
 Not my first choice January 17, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Orson Scott Card's book Characters & Viewpoint is better, as that book actually shows how to go about creating likable characters, and which characters fit with which stories. This book has some good tips on how to bring emotion into your scenes, but other than that's it's a little too thin. Start with Card first.
Another Solid Entry in the "Write Great Fiction" Series.....But.... August 4, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a good resource for looking at how characters, the emotions they portray and in what viewpoint (first person, third person omniscient, third person limited, etc) to use, and it certainly complements the other books quite nicely. I have read all of the "WGF" books save for the one on revision and see them all as a great investment.
For this particular book, Nancy Kress does do a good job of exploring each element in detail. Like the other books, it is largely an overview of each concept, and, like the other books, she does hit on some similar aspects that the other books cover more extensively (how could she not? All aspects work together to create a work of fiction.)
My main problem with the book is that when she gets to the section where she delves deeply into first person, at one point at least she goes into a small rabbit trail about why some readers don't like and will never read first person. Apparently they're willing to read books but not willing to suspend their disbelief that the character narrating the work was an active participant. It makes absolutely no sense to me but I am not going to judge these people. My problem with this is that she goes a little bit longer talking about this than what the situation merits, spending at least a page or two on the subject, yet she says NOTHING of authors who write their books in the present tense, even though this style is easily as equally jarring and disengaging as first person, actually more so in my opinion. Why she ignores the pitfalls of writing in present tense yet shows the pitfalls of first person, second person, third person, first person plural, third person plural, multiple first person, multiple third person, hybrid, (and there's more but you get the point,) is beyond me.
All in all a good book and I would recommend it.
excellent February 27, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A book to read and re-read with extensive advice for making your characters merit their inclusion. I found each topic to be concisely dealt with and particularly liked the final chapters on writer's block and editing.
WELL DONE! December 1, 2006
2 out of 12 found this review helpful
CHARACTERS, EMOTION & VIEWPOINT, by Nancy Kress, covers the three subjects listed in the title as well as any book I've found. Well done, Nancy Kress!
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