Writing Fiction For Dummies (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
This book would be really helpful to someone who has not studied the craft of writing in detail. I read this manual at a point where I had a firm grasp of the basics, either by education or experience. However, I did not find the review to be tedious, it managed to cast a new light on how to think of the background elements of novel writing. One of the most valuable pieces I took away from this was the focus on writing as a business. The book assumes that the reader wishes to publish their works, and the advice is geared to help someone starting out to reach that path more than most other books on writing. This is a good entry level book for wannabe writers. It’s certainly not the ultimate guide or the only source you’ll ever reference, but if you don’t know anything about writing fiction, it’s a really good book to start with. Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy break writing fiction down into its fundamental components so that it’s easy to understand. They then build up from there to show how all of those components work together to help you write fiction in a way that works. There are sections on structuring your story, building strong character bios, creating scenes step-by-step, and how to get one scene to flow seamlessly into the next until you have a story.As a pantser, one who writes by the seat of their pants, I found the idea of structuring my novel up front to be interesting and I tried it for the second novel I wrote. I was concerned that having an outline wouldn’t stifle my creativity, but instead it gave me a trail to follow. I now write everything with a very loose outline and that often changes as I go, but it helps to know where I’m going before I write my first word.Like all Dummies books, Writing Fiction for Dummies contains checklists at the end of each chapter to help you review and retain the information you just read. Probably the sections I found most useful were those on editing. For me, first drafts come easy, but editing is the bane of my existence. Dummies helped me structure and execute drafts in the same way that I structured and outlined my first draft.Additionally, the book contains useful information on writing a pitch, synopsis, query letter, and how to go about searching for and identifying appropriate agents in order to get published.Bottom LineHow to Write Fiction for Dummies is a solid entry-level reference and if you’ve never written any fiction and don’t know where to start, I highly recommend it. Randy Ingermanson is also known as The Snowflake Guy and takes a scientific approach to writing. He developed a software application for structuring and writing fiction, called Snowflake Pro. If you buy Writing Fiction for Dummies, Randy offers a 50% discount off of Snowflake Pro. Not a bad deal.
What do You think about Writing Fiction For Dummies (2009)?
this is a very helpful book. and interesting too. even if you do not intend to write fiction.
—Debbie
ithink it was a really good books because now i know what fiction is
—day
