Cancel anytime. What are the secrets for writing a great ending for your novel? How do you leave readers so satisfied that they'll want another book by you, right now? What tools and techniques can shape your last 50 pages into a powerful, unforgettable experience?
Listen to this audiobook, and you will come away with a thorough knowledge of why great endings work and how to create them for every novel you write. By: James Scott Bell. There is one sure-fire way of improving your novel fast You may know the fundamentals of how to write fiction.
You may be more than competent in plot, structure and characters. But if your dialogue is dull it will drag the whole story down Don't sabotage your chances of selling your work to readers or publishers because the dialogue is unexceptional.
Dazzle them with what the characters say. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue will give you the tools to do it. Super Structure represents over two decades of research on what makes a novel or screenplay entertaining, commercial, original, and irresistible. Contrary to what some may think, structure is not a nasty inhibitor of creativity.
Quite the opposite. Properly understood and utilized, structure is what translates story into a form audiences are wired to receive it. Do you want your readers to feel like they're really there - in the place where the story happens? Whether you want to enrich stark prose with atmospheric detail, add vibrancy to a dull piece, or curb waffling descriptions, this guide can help. Learn how to make your settings intense, realistic, and intriguing. This is the 10th book in Rayne Hall's acclaimed Writer's Craft series.
By: Rayne Hall. Internationally published author K. By: K. In this book, I'll reveal the powerful techniques employed by best-selling authors, and I'll show you how to apply them to rivet your readers. I'll start with the basics of Point of View - if you're already familiar with the concept, you can treat them as a refresher - and then guide you to advanced strategies for taking your reader deep. While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel.
The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you. That's where The Emotional Craft of Fiction comes in.
Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers. By: Donald Maass. Virtually every widely acclaimed author has an extensive catalog of books. To join the elite ranks of those who write consistently, you need to learn how to stay prolific over the long term. And for that, the number one ingredient is self-discipline.
By: Martin Meadows. Let outlines help you write a better book! Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer's arsenal. Writing fast is the most important skill you can develop as a writer.
While it seems hard to hit high word counts, the secrets are easier than you think. In this writer's guide, prolific author M. Ronn pulls back the curtain on the process that he uses to write six to eight novels a year.
He has kept this pace while juggling responsibilities as a husband, father, manager at a Fortune company, and a law school student. The result is a catalog of over 40 books and counting. By: M. Why do some stories work and others don't?
The answer is structure. An understanding of proper story and scene structure will help you to not only perfectly time your story's major events, but will also provide you with an unerring standard to use in evaluating your novel's pacing and progression. Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters - but it just isn't grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It's time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs.
Internationally published, award-winning novelist K. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.
This is a short book, with just one goal - to teach you the simple principles you can use right now to design a powerful scene before you write it. If you've already written your novel, you can use these same principles to make each scene better. By: Randy Ingermanson. Inspiration is a slippery thing at the best of times. But as a writer, you can't afford to wait around on Madam Muse's goodwill. In this encouraging audiobook, award-winning author K. Weiland shows you how to nurture creativity and put it at your summons, rather than the other way around.
Book coach and editor Molly McCowan takes you through the self-editing process in 13 detailed lessons, using a step-by-step method designed to reduce overwhelm and to structure the revision process in the most productive way possible.
This one has been as helpful as the rest. Maybe even more of a revelation. Middles are usually difficult, because they tend to drag. This book offers a fresh look at the middle, and offers plenty of examples as well. Love it! Thanks for being here today! And for continuing to share your knowledge with others :. Now this sounds like exactly what I need!
What a great idea for a pantster who wishes she was more of an outliner. I already purchased and read this book! Great addition. It always helps to look at story structure in new ways! I have such trouble with middles. Not really trouble, but I do think mine can drag. Great post. Thank you so much. Will order the book!
I ordered this for my Kindle a couple of weeks ago. Lots of good advice that makes sense. Excellent post, thank you! I have a couple of his books waiting for pick up.
Thanks guys. The mirror moment of your novel is the point at which everything in your story becomes clear. With the mirror method, […].
Start in the middle. This is what James Scott Bell describes as the emotional heart of a story. If […]. I originally found out about the wee little book from this blog post, where the author breaks down his Midpoint Mirror Moment Method might not be the official title, […]. Meanwhile, Philip Overby discusses how to decide if you should write a fantasy […].
Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Yes, please add me to your mailing list. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Ready for some Black Friday savings? Close Top Banner. I believed that for years. Truly inspirational. Really looking forward to this one on paper.
Any ETA for that Mr. You rock. Just finished Plot and Structure for the third time! SOunds like a great book. Thanks for letting us know about it. So excited to read this. I love Plot and Structure and have re-read it many times. Trackbacks […] method. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Your email address will not be published.
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We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Hands down the best book on writing craft I have ever read. I understand things about structure that never made sense to me before. Bell has a method here that will end the war between planners and pansters--something we all need. Every other book on writing skirts around the most important element of a novel; trying to tell you how to write it without telling you want it is.
Bell captures that; the mirror moment that occurs in the exact center o Hands down the best book on writing craft I have ever read. Bell captures that; the mirror moment that occurs in the exact center of a story and is crucial to the entire thing.
It sounds like a magic trick, and maybe it is, but it explains so many things about my writing process that I never understood myself, blaming it on intuition. It's a short book, which makes it all the better.
Reading this will change the way you view your craft, and I guarantee it will make you a better writer. Required reading for everyone. Jun 21, J. Seem rated it did not like it Shelves: writing.
Working on your writing is hard. All I'm doing these days is plotting, plotting, plotting, without ever getting very far. So I read this for some tips. Sadly, it's not very useful. It's not that the advice in this book isn't good, it's just that even though the book is relatively short, it's way too long. The reason is that the writing system included can be summed up in a single paragraph.
The book is instead made up of needless examples of other people's writing, way too many of them, so as to re Working on your writing is hard. The book is instead made up of needless examples of other people's writing, way too many of them, so as to really grind the message into the reader when we got the point three examples ago.
A few of them are even bad examples. To be honest, this book is mostly about other things than writing from the middle, since that piece of advice is summed up in fifteen seconds. The rest of it is just filler, about what you should do with all the other parts of the book.
It takes forever to get to the heart of the matter, and doesn't linger there for very long when it does. It also turns rather wooly when trying mostly failing to explain the indefinable concept of a writer's "voice", and suggests somewhat New Agey methods to bring on ideas.
Frankly, it's hard to believe that this person is indeed a writer who teaches creative writing, like he claims. The text is untidy, there are grammar mistakes, and the book has been very poorly edited, if at all. The important thing is you do it this way.
Needless to say, I'm most reluctant to take any advice from this person. We're all on our own. Sorry, dude. Talk to the hand. View 2 comments.
Jul 12, Rose rated it really liked it Shelves: needs-review. I read this a while ago because I'd bought it off Amazon, but I never wrote a review for it. Full review to come. Half the book is an ad for another book, it's still an OK read I'm a disorganized mess at times, many times, and when I create a story, I start somewhere in the middle. James Scot Bell's short e-book "Write Your Novel from the Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between" explains how this is a perfectly utile method for writing a book, even if you're the plan-every-detail-ahead, organized type.
Fiction can be distilled into a 3 part structure I always thought it was Half the book is an ad for another book, it's still an OK read Fiction can be distilled into a 3 part structure I always thought it was 5 part, but whatever. The 2nd part is the point of no return, the defining moment of the plot, ergo the most interesting. You can build on how your character came to be in that position or how they'll get out of it.
Then there's some other writing advice that's fairly generic. That's the first half. The second half of this book seems to be a thinly-veiled ad for a pulp-noir, Big Red's Daughter, using that book as a guide on how to hook readers into your story right away.
Excerpts from BRD are shown, demonstrating writing techniques that work to keep the reader turning the pages in excitement. As for this book? Informative, but nothing revolutionary. It simply affirms that you don't need to write in a rigid manner to finish a book. Jun 29, Emma Sea rated it really liked it Shelves: writing-about-writing , kindle. I'm so used to a bunch of filler that the fact Bell cuts straight to the chase was both unexpected and delightful.
Good stuff in here, I like it, I can use it, it will make my stories better. Mar 27, Jane rated it really liked it Shelves: about-writing. Where I got the book: purchased on Kindle. This short 85 pages craft book turned out to be worth buying despite its brevity, because apart from some cutesy stuff at the beginning about Pam Pantser, Paul Plotter and so on—why do people DO that? He focuses on the realization that the mid-point of a story contains a moment where the main char Where I got the book: purchased on Kindle.
He focuses on the realization that the mid-point of a story contains a moment where the main character has to face himself or herself, and provides a simple structure for incorporating that mid-point moment into your novel.
He uses several familiar examples, including Gone With The Wind which has an extremely memorable mid-point right before the intermission in the movie , and explains how to incorporate the mid-point into an outline I rather liked his outline, which was a bit different from most. Apr 03, Sam Burns rated it it was ok Shelves: writing-reference. The weird aversion to sex scenes with "body parts" is somehow juvenile and puritanical at the same time. No, Mr. Bell, two lines of a mediocre metaphor doesn't work better than actual descriptions.
Way to marginalize entire genres by suggesting there's something wrong with real sex scenes written by grownups who aren't afraid of body part words. This is a short book, and it could have been a lot shorter while still imparting the same information.
There's literally one idea in the whole thing, and The weird aversion to sex scenes with "body parts" is somehow juvenile and puritanical at the same time.
There's literally one idea in the whole thing, and it could be explained in a thousand words or less. May 01, Heidi rated it it was amazing. Clickety click click. Clickety click. And illuminating to realize I had failed to seed my early pages with information that would make my mirror moment resonate.
The ping was about far more than just a task I needed to complete to improve craft. It was a ping of insight into who I was when. It showed me something new and immediately valid about what had been motivating my attachment to the antagonist.
Thanks for the music, James Scott Bell. Sep 06, Paul rated it liked it. At the center of this book, literally and figuratively, is a compelling idea: a rethinking of the midpoint of a book or film. In many writing guides, the midpoint is where "something happens. Still, something happens at the midpoint. Bell says he's analyzed books and films and has realized that the midpoint is this: a "mirror moment" not even a whole scene but a moment in a scene in which the At the center of this book, literally and figuratively, is a compelling idea: a rethinking of the midpoint of a book or film.
Bell says he's analyzed books and films and has realized that the midpoint is this: a "mirror moment" not even a whole scene but a moment in a scene in which the protagonist has to look at herself and decide what kind of person she is in character-driven stories , or to consider the odds against her.
But more than this, Bell says this is what the story is actually about, its true center. Thus, writing from the middle means that you might wish to first identify this moment, and then you'll know how to get your character there, and will understand your character better, and in case you missed this what the story is actually about.
I'm simplifying, but then again, it's a simple--if compelling--concept. As a writer, I think I will find this useful, perhaps even four-stars useful. The book gets three stars, however, because it has the feel of an article stretched to book length and only barely; it's 92 pages.
It's a perfect ebook; three bucks worth of learning. I think I'd feel cheated, however, if I paid ten bucks for the paperback. Sep 17, Lia Black rated it did not like it. I rarely rate any book that I feel will earn less than 3 stars from me, but books about writing are apparently going to be one of my exceptions.
I guess I just expect a lot more from authors who are implying a level of expertise, one which puts them in the realm of "teacher". For me, this book was largely anecdotal. Just for kicks, I grabbed several books off of my shelves from popular authors as well as some of the old classics I did the math and found the middle. Even reading several pages on either side, I found no "mirror moment".
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