Useful book | How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling |...

James Frey scores a 10 for "How to Write a Damn Good Novel" | How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling | James N. Frey

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	• How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling James N. Frey St. Martin's Press, 1987 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 110 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Saggy Middle!

The chapter on character development was very, very useful, but 1/2 way through this book I put it down, bored. He seems to lose his voice/passion for explaining things at about that point. Classic saggy middle! Very disappointed after a great start.

Useful book

I wanted the basics of fiction writing. This book covers them well.The author is a good teacher and also brief. The book is copyrighted as of 1987 and was probably a reflection of classes Mr. Frey taught in the 1980s and before. It's possible the style of 2010 calls for more shock than in the time this was written. Still, the basics are probably eternal unless the writer is a brilliant innovator and can invent his or her own rules.

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James Frey scores a 10 for "How to Write a Damn Good Novel"

I'm a movie & TV screenwriter turned hopeful novelist. I have read several books on writing novels, but only a few have really been as helpful as Mr. Frey's books. He covers all the bases and gives you what you need to go forward with the requirements and peculiaralities of novel writing and novel publishing. All aces in my book.

Paul Sekulich
Jarrettsville, MD

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This is what made me write

In 2008 I finished a novel I had begun in 2000. And this completion I owe principally to James Frey's "How to Write A Damn Good Novel."

There are so many incompetent books out there purporting to tell you how to write. Frey's book entirely lacks fluff, but tells you in clear terms with examples exactly what the minimum conditions for a successful dramatic novel are. These include having a premise, the importance of having your characters filled with desire for something, the use of dramatic dialogue in conflict and the need for a storyline worth telling.

Above all, Frey emphasises the extremely artificial nature of an art form that only SEEMS to tell a atory that grows naturally. The rules of dramatic prose, honed by centuries of novel writing, may seem arbitrary and unnecessary, but Frey pounds his fist and lets you know EXACTLY why these seemingly strange rules exist at all.

Frey also emphasises the need for humility when writing dramatic prose fiction, which is surely the most difficult form of writing in existence. He emphasises the pitfalls that young writers will fall into EVEN AFTER READING HIS BOOK AND ABSORBING THE LESSONS - the pitfalls of refusing to listen to advice, of authorial "blindness" to mistakes and of empty "symbolism" and other artsy decorations being used to mask lack of dramatic substance.

I also like the abundance of examples that Frey provides for each contention, using examples from dramatic novels of the past such as Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Stephen King's Carrie and Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Frey himself also invents examples for the sake of this book, and they are witty and make their point very well.

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Great book!

I found this book to be full of useful information, examples, etc. However I dont believe any one book is going to have everything you need to be a writer. Read as many quality books as you can, then grow and learn as you apply. This would be one book I recommend. Well worth the money I spent.

Written in a clear, crisp, accessible style, this book is perfect for beginners as well as professional writers who need a crash course in the down-to-earth basics of storytelling. Talent and inspiration can't be taught, but Frey does provide scores of helpful suggestions and sensible rules and principles.

An international bestseller, How to Write a Damn Good Novel will enable all writers to face that intimidating first page, keep them on track when they falter, and help them recognize, analyze, and correct the problems in their own work.

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