Dialogue is often overlooked as a necessary and potent instrument in the novelist's repertoire. A novel can rise or fall on the strength of its dialogue. Superb dialogue can make a superb novel. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote, Action is character. George V. Higgins said, Dialogue is character. They were both right, because dialogue is action. It comprises much, if not all, of the clarifying drama of any novel. How much physical action can there be in 300...

"In his essential writing guide, This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley supplied aspiring writers with the basic tools and practical advice needed to write a novel in a single year. In this complementary follow up, Mosley guides the reader through the fundamental building blocks of fiction to deliver a master class on the writer's craft. In a series of conversational and instructive chapters, Mosley breaks down the art of fiction to its most...

A guide to the art of storytelling explains how to use such elements as characterization, suspense, and conflict as a part of successful plot development.

"Over the past ten years or so, "Short-shorts" or "Flash Fiction" has emerged as an increasingly popular and visible genre within fiction. David Galef's Brevity offers a guide to the genre for creative writing students by combining discussions of the various approaches and methods within the genre, examples of the form, and prompts for students to develop their own writing. Galef includes examples of the short-short genre from such writers as Collette,...

"Hundreds of books have been written on the art of writing. Here at last is a book by two professional editors to teach writers the techniques of the editing trade that turn promising manuscripts into published novels and short stories." "In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work. Chapters on dialogue, exposition,...

A picture book tutorial for young writers on starting to write their own stories.

Provides writing methods and exercises designed to help authors overcome what is blocking them from their craft, such as the fear of rejection and determining what readers want.

A targeted and insightful guide to the stages of writing fiction and memoir without falling into common traps, while wisely navigating the writing life, from an award-winning author and longtime teacher.

"They say writing is rewriting. So why does the second part get such short shrift? Refuse To Be Done will guide you through every step of the novel writing process, from getting started on those first pages to the last tips for making your final draft even tighter and stronger. From lauded writer and teacher Matt Bell, Refuse to Be Done is encouraging and intensely practical, focusing always on specific rewriting tasks, techniques, and activities...

"A thorough, illuminating, and entertaining guide to crafting point of view, a fiction writer's most essential choice. Who is telling the story to whom affects everything about a work of fiction, from the style and tone to the progression of its plot. Using hundreds of examples from both classic and contemporary fiction, novelist and longtime MFA professor Lisa Zeidner reveals how even seemingly unrelated issues-like what makes a rich description,...