RESOURCES
I’m often asked questions about the writing life, so I’ve put together a list of resources you may find helpful on your journey. From craft books to vetted literary agencies and more.
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My Favorite Craft Books
The Writer’s Compass
Map out your idea and finish your story in 7 stages!
This book will show writers how to develop their ideas into a finished novel by working through it in 7 stages, while learning how to map out their story’s progress and structure so they can evaluate and improve their work. It teaches writers to visualize their story’s progress with a story map that helps them see all the different components of their story, where these components are going, and, perhaps most importantly, what’s missing.
For more information, check it out here:
Plot & Structure
Craft an Engaging Plot
How does plot influence story structure? What’s the difference between plotting for commercial and literary fiction? How do you revise a plot or structure that’s gone off course?
With Write Great Fiction: Plot & Structure, you’ll discover the answers to these questions and more. Award-winning author James Scott Bell offers clear, concise information that will help you create a believable and memorable plot.
For more information, check it out here:
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression
One of the biggest struggles for writers is how to convey emotion to readers in a unique and compelling way. When showing our characters’ feelings, we often use the first idea that comes to mind, and they end up smiling, nodding, and frowning too much.
If you need inspiration for creating characters’ emotional responses that are personalized and evocative, this ultimate show-don’t-tell guide for emotion can help. The Emotion Thesaurus, in its easy-to-navigate list format, will inspire you to create stronger, fresher character expressions and engage readers from your first page to your last.
For more information, check it out here:
Or check out the entire fabulous series here: Amazon
Writing the Breakout Novel
Take your fiction to the next level!
Maybe you’re a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you’ve already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel – one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists.
Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share – regardless of genre – then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.
For more information, check it out here:
A Novel Idea
Best-selling Christian fiction writers have teamed together to contribute articles on the craft of writing. A Novel Idea contains tips on brainstorming ideas and crafting and marketing a novel. It explains what makes a Christian novel “Christian” and offers tips on how to approach tough topics. Contributors include Jerry B. Jenkins, Karen Kingsbury, Francine Rivers, and many other beloved authors. All proceeds will benefit MAI, an organization that teaches writing internationally to help provide literature that is culturally relevant.
For more information, check it out here:
Story Fix
Reinvigorate Your Fiction!
You’ve written the first draft of your novel or screenplay, and you’ve released it into the world: to your critique group, to your most trusted beta readers, or even to an agent or an editor. But something’s wrong. You’re not getting the glowing response you had expected, or you might have even received a rejection. Your story is getting a “Meh…” when you had hoped for an “Amazing!”
But have no fear–the piece you’ve sweated and bled over isn’t dead on arrival. It just needs fixing.
Story Fix is the answer to your revision needs, with practical techniques from critically acclaimed author and story coach Larry Brooks.
For more information, check it out here:
The Fire in Fiction
Discover the Difference Between a So-So Manuscript and a Novel Readers Can’t Forget
We’ve all read them: novels by our favorite authors that disappoint. What happened? Was the author in a hurry? Did she have a bad year? Has he lost interest altogether?
Something similar is true of a great many unpublished manuscripts. They are okay stories. They don’t grip the imagination, let alone the heart. They merit only a shrug and a polite dismissal by agents and editors.
It doesn’t have to be that way. In The Fire in Fiction, successful literary agent and author Donald Maass shows you not only how to infuse your story with deep conviction and fiery passion, but how to do it over and over again.
For more information, check it out here:
Stein on Writing
Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for all writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether they are newcomers or old hands, students or instructors, amateurs or professionals. As the always clear and direct Stein explains here, “This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions–how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place.” With examples from bestsellers as well as from students’ drafts, Stein offers detailed sections on characterization, dialogue, pacing, flashbacks, trimming away flabby wording, the so-called “triage” method of revision, using the techniques of fiction to enliven nonfiction, and more.
For more information, check it out here:
The Story Equation
Discover The Story Equation!
One question can unlock your entire story! Are you struggling to build a riveting plot? Layered characters? How about fortify that saggy middle? Create that powerful ending? You can build an entire book by asking one powerful question, and then plugging it into an “equation” that makes your plot and characters come to life. You’ll learn how to build the external and internal journey of your characters, create a theme, build story and scene tension, create the character change journey and even pitch and market your story. All with one amazing question.
For more information, check it out here:
The Emotional Craft of Fiction
Engage Your Readers with Emotion
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.
For more information, check it out here: