Customer Reviews

Fiction Writer's Guidebook

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Fantastic book! Edwin Silberstang offers a lot of helpful and useful tips and advice, including his own personal experiences, and encourages writers not to give up, no matter how many brick walls they encounter. I, too, have returned to my dream of writing and have read tons of so-called guidebooks. This one is the best of the best. He puts out the finest work he can and doesn't let anyone, including publishers or editors, take the wind out of his sails. He has a tendency to be a bit self-righteous, but then hey, he's been published and I have yet to be.

The first half of the book is essentially a biographical account of the author's entry into the world of fiction writing, and his experiences in the trade. While this section of the book is not an instructive piece on writing, there are many insights to gain from the author's down to earth discussion of his own experiences. The second half of the book covers the usual topics regarding the craft of fiction, but in a very readable and direct way. Silberstang cuts through the reems of often confusing material in such craft books by concentrating on the salient points and driving them home. Overall, a very interesting and helpful book for any writer at any stage.

Silberstang does an exellent job not only narrating his own personal journey through writing books, but giving the reader that extra push needed to get from story idea to published novel. His tips are straight to the point, and examples, well explained. This is a first-rate guide for any serious writer seeking advice from a published author.

The first half of this book was essentially Edwin Silberstang telling us his life story. Why? The title of the book says it is a writer's guidebook, not an autobiography. Not until the reader opens the book do they realize that the first 130 pages (of a book that is only 260 pages long) is the author telling the reader you how wonderful and intelligent he is and how he overcame much idiocy to publish his novels that are so relevant to the human condition, you can't even get your hands on them to read because they are out of print. The author spends a great deal of time whining about how dull and boring everything in life seemed to be (college was boring, law school was boring, practicing law was boring....), and how no one (save a few close male friends) truley understood him. Having been a teacher, I have heard this sort of self-centered song and dance before, but it is usually coming out of the mouth of a high school student, not an adult male. He comes across as a psuedo-intellectual who seems to be of the opinion that he knows best and anyone who disagrees with him is a fool. In the biography portion Mr. Silberstang is arrogant, pretentious and condescending. For all his blustering about the six novels he has had published, I thought it interesting that an Amazon search listed only one of his novels. The rest of the search results were all of the "How To" gambling books Mr. Silberstang has written, not of the fiction genre the title of this book professes to provide information about.

In the second half of the book, the information given about the actual writing process is nothing new. Definitions regarding flashbacks, point of view, past and present tense are information that could just as easily be read in any number of books about the writing process, and the reader would not have to wade through the author's life story to get to it.

If you feel this book could be helpful to you, check it out from a library. There is not enough relevant information in it to warrant purchase.