Customer Reviews

Let's Get Creative: Writing Fiction that Sells!

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William F. Nolan is the successful author of more than eighty works of fiction and so brings to "Let's Get Creative: Writing Fiction That Sells" a very special expertise based on personal experience and hard work. Writing with a much appreciated clarity and occasional touches of human, Nolan covers getting started as a writer, where ideas can (and do) come from, the critical value and necessity of a story's climax, the use of dialogue, 'characterization-within-action, the art of revising a manuscript, the value of humor, achieving a personal writing style, employing all five senses in the art and craft of writing fiction, developing conflict to create and hold reader interest, 'hooking the reader', the differences between writing short stories and full length novels, shifting between prose and script writing, handling rejection (the inevitable lot of even the most accomplished and successful authors), and dealing with publishers and literary agents (also inevitable for aspiring writers seeking to become - or continue as - successfully published authors). A superbly presented and informative introduction 'how to' manual to the art, craft and realities of writing fiction, "Let's Get Creative: Writing Fiction That Sells" is a 'must' read for the novice author and has a great deal to recommend it to even the more seasoned fiction writing as well.

I have read a good handful of how-to books covering the subject of creative writing. This is by far the worst. Reading it felt like watching an infomercial as one of the other reviewers has pointed out. Mr. Nolan has focused this book on touting his own accomplishments and pointing out to the reader what made his own work so brilliant: i.e. "See, look how good I was at creating a gripping opening to this story." He bragged constantly about his famous, landmark book Logan Run which I had never heard of before. Most of the examples given are from his own previous work and he seemed to be advertising rather than trying to help his reader. Some of his examples were full length reproductions of his short stories. TOTALLY UNNECESSARY AND EXCESSIVE.

The most annoying chapter of the book was the one about versatility. It ran something along the lines of, "Beware of versatility. Very few people, if any other than myself, are able to competently jump from genre to genre. Here is a long list of all of my different books and stories from a ridiculous range of dramas. See how amazing I am? Do not aspire to be me because most people are total rubbish at writing in any more than one genre. It is my curse and it has hurt my career, but it takes a ridiculous amount of talent, and I'm one of the few who has that awesome talent." How is this useful to a beginning writer? Mr. Nolan doesn't seem to be in touch with his audience.

Finally, Mr. Nolan does have some decent advice, though nothing that hasn't been suggested before (setting aside a set block of time every day for writing, using dialogue effectively, showing not telling, etc.). However, what valuable advice Mr. Nolan does give is completely disorganized. There are 45-some odd chapters, some very short, about a wide variety of topics. There is no larger structure that organizes the ideas. Here's a chapter about suspense. Here's a chapter about dialogue. Here's a chapter about getting an agent. No obvious organization at all. You would think that someone who claims to be such an amazing writer would understand the rudimentary technique of organizing a how-to book.

William F. Nolan's "Let's Get Creative" is a dismal hack piece with generalizations all based upon his overblown past as a professional writer. He is less an author and more a marketer and promoter of the 1967 Book, "Logan's Run" which he co-authored with George Clayton Johnson. (though there is but one brief note that he was only a co-author)

Nolan fills out one and two page "Chapters" in this book with endless unhelpful examples, like several pages of reprinted "notes he has jotted down" in his 'writer's notebook over the past 40-plus years. Trying to get some useful nuts and bolts instruction on writing by reading this book is much like watching a rambling infomercial. This seems to be just another quickly cobbled together addition to his claim of "80 published books."

Chapter 32, "Suspense: How to achieve it" is barely half a page in length. Chapters 33, 34 and 35 are also a page and a half, or less in length. And those pages are typical examples of this book's shallow generalizations on writing. Better basic information is available on Google for free. William F. Nolan's verbal sausage is old, lean and not at all filling.

Larry M. Ray