The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing [Hardcover]

Meg Leder (Editor), Jack Heffron (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 452 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582971609
• ISBN-13: 978-1582971605
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,370,433 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Tools on the Market, August 15, 2002

By 

FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Paperback)

If you're even thinking about writing a book, you need "The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing." This comprehensive guide contains over 400 pages of everything you need to know about writing, publishing and marketing your work.

Each section of this book covers vital aspects of the craft every writer should follow:

Part I: The Craft
Get started by understanding plot, story flow, point of view, characters and dialogue.

Part II: The Art
Understand the rules of fiction, turn true life to fiction, connect emotion and get in tune with your reader's senses.

Part III: The Process
Find out how to get started on your novel, jumpstart your creativity, revise your novel and deal with criticism.

Part IV: The Genres
Get to know your audience, create realistic characters and keep the suspense going throughout your novel. Plus, tips on writing horror, fantasy, romance and Christian fiction.

Part V: The Marketplace
Use these insider tips for finding agents and editors. Study the debate of fee-charging agents. Learn the ins and outs of the market. Tools for book proposals, a novel synopsis, getting your work published and help with the electronic publishing world.

Part VI: The Interviews
Read interviews with the hottest, most accomplished authors, including Margaret Atwood, Maeve Binchy, Tom Clancy, Joyce Carol Oates, James Patterson, Kurt Vonnegut and more.

You could easily read this book from cover-to-cover or flip through it as a reference as your writing progresses. This is, by far, one of the strongest writing how-to books on the market.

If you only purchase one writing book this year, make it "The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing." Head to the bookstore, run through the pages and you'll instantly be hooked.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Diverse Goldmine, February 27, 2003

By 

Dorion Sagan (East Coast, USA and Toronto) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Paperback)

Any aspiring writer should be grateful for this anthology to study. Although the considerable diversity here does not a completely unified voice make, each article (previously published in Writer's Digest) has tips and inspirations for the aspiring novelist. From Richard Russo's exploration of place and character to mystery novelist Sue Grafton's use of a journal to get her right brain going-from Jeanne Cavelos's observation that horror is a genre uniquely dependent upon emotion-and what scares you is the secret source of fear-this book is a diverse gold mine of writing technique nuggets. Here you will find James Patrick Kelly talking about the need to "murder your darlings"-the phrase that Stephen King borrows in his On Writing book. Helpful boxes of related books, how to write proposals and Evan Marshall's chapter on novel synopses (which I didn't even know existed!) for agents; personal anecdotes and articulate easy-to-read tips from authors either great or best-selling or both make this a useful, inspiring, and exciting book-perhaps the best overall I have read on the craft of fiction. How does screenwriting relate to novel writing? How do you create a believable character? How do you integrate exposition? How do you create suspense? How do you revise or deal with criticism? What means emotion and motivation? These are the kinds of core questions addressed in this fun technique book.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Youll write better after reading this, September 7, 2002

By 

Joan Mazza "Author, speaker, poet" (Mineral, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing (Paperback)

Complete Handbook of Novel Writing is a collection of articles and interviews with successful novelists. Notable authors include Octavia Butler, Margaret Atwood, John Updike, and James Patterson. The individual chapters are pithy yet comprehensive. I particularly liked the chapters on using specific details and what makes them work, point of view, editing tips, and helpful hints on specific genres: fantasy, mystery, horror, suspense, romance, and Christian fiction. Much valuable information here that writers can return to for reminders as their writing skills mature.

This book will get you writing and keep your writing at a higher level.

~review by Joan Mazza, author of six books, including Dreaming Your Real Self and Exploring Your Sexual Self.