Break Into Fiction: 11 Steps to Building a Story that Sells [Paperback]

Mary Buckham (Author), Dianna Love (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 18, 2009

Getting a book published is hard enough—getting a novel published is doubly so! But a writer seeing his story on bookshelves everywhere is just a rewrite away with this book! Written by two award-winning novelists, this workshop-in-a-book is all aspiring authors need to master the art of fiction—and see their novel in print.

Based on their popular workshops, Mary Buckham and Dianna Love Snell have created a novel-writing system that anyone can follow. Their innovative method shows writers how to create stories of depth, excitement, and emotion with:

• Easy-to-understand templates that guide the new writer through building a novel and show more experienced writers how to deepen a plot and take a first draft to the next level
• Reference examples from a strongly-plotted popular genre films like suspense, classics, children, and romance
• Simple worksheets to build a strong story one plot point at a time for any genre
• Troubleshooting tips that reveal how to find and fix holes that weaken the plot
• Insights from best-selling novelists representing a variety of fiction genres
• A bonus dialogue guide that reveals how to make a character come alive through conversation.

Inspiring authors shall struggle no more with the help of this step-by-step guide!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

DIANNA LOVE is the New York Times best selling co-author of the Belador urban fantasy series. BLOOD TRINITY, the first book in this new series, debuted on the NYT, USA Today, Publishers Weekly and Walmart best seller lists. ALTERANT, book two, will be released Sept 27, 2011. 
Visit AuthorDiannaLove.com for more on this author who rides motorcycles, loves to saltwater fish and enjoys meeting fans everywhere.

Mary Buckham (Port Townsend, WA) is an award-winning romantic-suspense author who, before becoming published in book-length fiction was a freelance article writer, selling hundreds of articles to local, regional, and national publications. In addition, she's been an editor of a regional magazine. Mary is a sought-after speaker and writing craft teacher for both online and in live presentations throughout the United States and Canada. Visit MaryBuckham.com for more on Mary.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media (June 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1605500151
• ISBN-13: 978-1605500157
• Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 5.9 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #888,059 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Gut wrenching, but worth it June 11, 2009

By Joy Smith

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Working through the templates provided in Break into Fiction is painful. The questions make you think. Harder, and then harder. Fresh ideas pop into your head, and-- voila--your characters come to life as real people with deep-seated issues, and your plot thickens. Where was this book when I needed it nine drafts ago? I highly recommend it for anyone who is serious about writing a book that will sell.

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Should have been edited August 11, 2009

By C. Anatolios

Format:Paperback

The premise and some of the ideas in the book are intriguing. Some of the templates are interesting and helpful, and give food for thought. However, the book seem "unfinished" to me, in many ways, and was ultimately frustrating to use for that reason. One example of this is a Glossary at the beginning of the book, which includes several terms that don't appear anywhere in the actual body of the book, or are only referenced very slightly (example: "Twist Points", described as "key areas of your story", are referenced in only one question in any of the templates, and don't stand out as being that important).

The book also seemed "unfinished" because the parts never seem to add up to a whole.There are a bunch of "template" writing books on the market, and some of them are very well thought out and quite complete as far as character building, plot building and so forth. This is not one of them.

I was also very much distracted by the grammatical errors that sprinkle every chapter and, to my mind, are especially damning in a book on writing technique. They had me shaking my head in disbelief at times. Example: "The character has refused to take action while they weighed the risks, even briefly, and most likely have been persuaded to act either due to strong motivation or a mentor." I feel it shouldn't be so difficult just to read a book that intends to help you write.

It is also very odd that while films are analysed as to how they fit the authors' theories, no books at all are used. If I had known it would not give examples of any books, I would not have bought it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is a must buy for the serious author June 6, 2009

By varmint kitty

Format:Paperback

Once you have grasped goal, motivation, and conflict, once you have done Story, if you have struggled through Techniques of the Selling Writer, then read this book because it will all become clear, at least it did for me.
Plotters will love this technique, the worksheets take you all the way through the story and help you nail the plots and subplots. The worksheets on the character will help you sift through all the facts about your characters and distill the important parts.
Pantsers will love this after the first draft. The not so comfortable parts in your first draft will become clearer and help tie the story together. It will help you find the missing puzzle pieces.
This book won't write the story for you, but it will help take some of the frustration out of the process and what more could you want?
Oh yeah, a winning lottery ticket.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Glad I bought it. November 17, 2009

By Myriad

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Sometimes I'm moved by bad reviews and other times I'll take a chance. This time I took a chance and am glad I did. In this case the one bad review sounded pretty persuasive, but after reading the others decided to ignore it. There are plenty of books like this out there but this one was more useful to me than the others. What this one does is define the turning points of the story and so aided me in gaining a deeper understanding of what they are and at what point of the story they could possibly be. I consider myself an intuitive writer, so there's a lot of restructuring once I'm done. Now maybe my initial draft will be more structured. It also aided me in gaining a deeper understanding of the character and premise. There are a lot of good and excellent books on writing and this is one of them I will look to for inspiration.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Break Into One of the Best Writing Books Available! March 24, 2011

By Scave31

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Generally, I have a love/hate relationship with writing books. I buy them, start reading them, only to stop reading them for...whatever reason. Not that I don't like them. Not that they aren't teaching me something. I really don't know why. It's just a bad habit.

Break Into Fiction, though, is nothing short of amazing and I read it from beginning to end.

Break Into Fiction: 11 Steps to Building a Story that Sells, by Mary Buckham (fellow Pacific NW writer!) and Dianna Love, is the byproduct of a workshop they've been giving around the country for quite a while now. A friend had taken it and swears that workshop is the reason she finally snagged an agent. I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was the case. It's that good.

Their secret? Plotting through Character. The best stories (popular fiction anyway) are the best because of the characters. We pick up commercial fiction books because we love connecting with the characters and seeing/reading about their growth through the course of a book. Break into Fiction guides writers through plotting through getting to know their characters.

There are templates to fill out (NOT character sketches), each getting to know your character more and more, and as you do so, discovering where your book needs to go in order to fulfill the character arc you have planned out.

I really have to recommend this book! I'm loving what I've discovered. Check it out!