Writing Magic & Writing the Thriller

I read "The First Five Pages" and also The Writer's Little Helper - which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt my novel was overwritten. Good luck.

Amadeus said:

Or perhaps, you have other books you'd like to share?

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I posted a couple of weeks back asking for people's favortie books on Writing. Here's the thread: http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40623

I have since read several of them. I liked
Plot and Structrue
Self Editing for Fiction Writers.

I have resolved not to read any more books on writing, no matter who has written them.

I haven't read those books you mentioned. I also have Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, which pointed to me a couple of errors in my writing. But I think the best book on writing the story--not the technical parts--is Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card. Even if that is not your genre, he demonstrates very well some points not well covered in the other books, especially where to start and end your story, and world-building/characterization. Another favorite of mine is the Complete Handbook of Fiction (or was it Novel?) Writing. Forgive me if I get the names a little confused. The First Five Pages is also very useful.

Save your money. Or buy some classic works or just popular works and study them yourself.

King's, for my money, is the only one worth the price and he basically says, "this works for me, but you have tofind what works for you and I'm not gonna tell you what that is." Refreshingly honest. There's no magic formular, just work and learning and rejection.

wordmonkey said:

Save your money.

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You save your money, monkey, I am a big spender!

I got both books I own off ebay, after I had read them form the library. I think I paid 99 cents for one and about three bucks for the other.

P

Prawn said:

You save your money, monkey, I am a big spender!

I got both books I own off ebay, after I had read them form the library. I think I paid 99 cents for one and about three bucks for the other.

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You devil, you. Just flashing your wealth in our faces with rakish abandon.

I find libraries depressing. All those books locked in there. They remind me of pigeon lofts. The floors are covered in poopy old newspapers and no matter how many times you throw open the door, the inhabitants can never truly fly away and be free.

wordmonkey said:

Save your money. Or buy some classic works or just popular works and study them yourself.

King's, for my money, is the only one worth the price and he basically says, "this works for me, but you have tofind what works for you and I'm not gonna tell you what that is." Refreshingly honest. There's no magic formular, just work and learning and rejection.

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Right on, Word Monkey. Read the works of writers you admire.

Janet

My personal favorite is Roget's Thesaurus.

I have Writing the Thriller--it was the book I discovered when I realized I'd always been trying to write a thriller and didn't know it. Would I recommend it? Well ...

It suffers from two problems. The first is that a lot of the book is about general writing techniques that you can find in any writing book. It looks like she didn't have enough material to write about thriller, so she filled with writing technique details. The second problem is more of an issue--thriller is not really well understood in general and doesn't have an official definition. She does better than How to Write Killer Fiction (I kept wondering if that author had actually read a thrillers), but it does fall short. There are key elements of thriller that she never brings up that are obvious if you read lots of them.

If you're interested in thriller, here's a list of useful links: http://www.hackman-adams.com/articles/index.htm