Customer Reviews

Writing Novels That Sell

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This is not a book to be read and set aside, it is a book to be studied and applied. In this book Jack Bickman offers a distillation of his many years of experience as a professional writer combined with his many years as a professional teacher of writing at the university level. This is a very practical book, and I recommend to anyone who is seriously interested in actually doing the hard work of learning the novelist's craft.

This is not a book for dreamers or posers. Bickman devotes the first two chapters of this book to driving home the importance of dedicated hard work, professionalism, and seriousness of purpose involved in crafting a publishable work of fiction.

Book Chapters:

1. The Professional Attitude

2. Work Habits and the Imagination

3. The Nature of Story

4. Viewpoint

5. Stimulus and Response

6. Goal Motivation and the Story Question

7. How a Story Starts . . . and How It Ends

8. Scene and Sequel

9. Handling Time

10. Building Characters

11. Making Your Characters More Complex

12. Other Problems

13. Revision and Submission

14. Final Words

"Writing Novels that Sell" is one of those books where it is apparent that the author knows much more about the subject than what is expressed within the book itself. Bickman's knowledge comes from actually doing what he teaches, and his is the voice of experience.

Again, I recommend this book.

Unfortunately, Bickham has trouble keeping me interested. He does a good job of explaining scene and sequel, but you can get the same and better from Dwight Swain (who taught Bickham) and Manuel Komroff; HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL. James N.Frey recommends Bickham, but I think Frey does a better job of teaching how-to-write than Bickham does. My biggest problem with Bickham is his 'my-way or the hi-way' regimentation. There are much better writers out there who advocate practices Bickham dislikes. And Bickham doesnt even pay lip-service to mastering the fundamentals of good writing, except to note this is something his reader should have already accomplished. This is a book to borrow from the library...not keep.

Bickham is teaching the basics in this book. It is a perfect first step to a solid foundation for the novice writer. Rationally, his approach and content is contextually in-tune with Ayn Rand's "The Romantic Manifesto". Knowing "The Romantic Manifesto" is the advanced stage to writing, then "Writing Novels That Sell" is the mandatory beginning. The novice artist uses this book to decide either to 'try writing novels' or to 'try another form of art'. This book should be required for all junior high school English students AND again in the first year of college.

Writing Novels That Sell is worth the price, if only for Chapter 5, "Stimulus and Response." That chapter is a simply brilliant explanation of how scenes work. Bickham brings to consciousness and clarity things that, if they remain unconscious and confused, can destroy the reality you're trying to create in the reader's mind.

If you mean to write for the commercial fiction market, your bookshelf is incomplete without Jack Bickham's seminal work. This is the book in which Professor Bickham reveals how the pros make it happen. His up-front, step by step approach offers you instant access to writing techniques that stand the test of time. I have seen this method work and know people who have published dozens of books using Jack's techniques. Order one today and start writing novels that sell.