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review 2019-04-06 09:16
A comprehensive and concise summary for creating fictional characters

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Creating Legends - How to craft characters readers adore ... or despise! is a comprehensive and detailed graphic eBook that includes tips and tricks for creating compelling, engaging, relatable characters.

 

In forty-five concise pages, Kathy Edens and Lisa Lepki, writers at ProWritingAid, an online writing editor and personal writing coach, have summarized almost everything important I’ve learned about developing characters including:

 

- Belief, Emotional Involvement, Clarity: what every character needs,

- Why you should throw your main character under a bus - to raise the stakes,

- Digging beyond life to create realistic characters.

 

There’s also a nifty graphic detailing The Psychology of Characters, links to character traits and character analysis worksheets, and even a therapist’s quiz you can take you yourself (I’m highly conceited, snobby and vain).

 

Its graphic style uses larger fonts for headlines and blocks of color that make it easy and fun to read.

 

This little, unpretentious book is big on practical tips and ideas that can be easily incorporated by authors with immediate and positive results.

 

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review 2017-11-20 06:36
Duties, responsibilities and the author's obligation to tell the truth
The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers - John Gardner

 

One of the most interesting things about this book is how attitudes have changed in regards to what it means to be an author.

 

The Art of Fiction - Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner, was published in 1984, long before the advent of online platforms that make self-publishing free and easy to any and everyone.

 

This is not your "How to Write a Novel for Dummies" and Gardner definitely would not have supported "everyone's right to publish" as proclaimed by many indie authors and the entire self-publishing industry.

 

Gardner felt that aspiring to be an author was almost akin to a "higher calling" and required rigorous study and practice. As well as hard work and sacrifice such a career choice came with duties and responsibilities.

 

The most important of which is telling the truth, and not just getting facts right, but making sure your fiction is believable and not perceived by the reader as a lie. Foremost it must "affirm moral truths about human existence".

 

Good fiction according to Gardner "creates a vivid and continuous dream" for the reader.

 

Though the book contains good suggestions on craft they're not presented point by point but rather embedded within the text. That means enduring a lot of with Gardner's rather academic, elitist attitude.

 

Is it worth it? Definitely - if you're serious about becoming an accomplished author.

 

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review 2017-08-10 00:00
Fiction-Writing Modes: Eleven essential tools for bringing your story to life
Fiction-Writing Modes: Eleven essential ... Fiction-Writing Modes: Eleven essential tools for bringing your story to life - Mike Klaassen *I received a copy from the author for review. This in no way affects my review*

Another great read that I plan to keep close by! As I start writing again, I find that there are many things to be learned, and like any art or craft, writing takes practice, but more than that, it helps to have a mentor. So I seek out books like this to help me learn, and to better understand what all goes into writing a book. This book has eleven different aspects of writing fiction that every author should know. From sensation and emotion, to action, description, and narration, to name a few. All these and more are important in all works of fiction. Seeing them broken down and laid out helped me better realized not only that they are all important, but also when and where each should be used.
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text 2017-06-29 09:51
Goods insights into two important aspects of writing fiction.
Characters & Viewpoint (Elements of Fiction Writing) - Orson Scott Card

There's nothing new in books about writing fiction, only on how they're presented.

 

Some are written by academics and you need to be one to understand them. Others are written by authors who use them as a means of self-aggrandizement constantly quoting examples from their own work. These may not necessarily be good examples of what they're trying to demonstrate, but they're not about to let an opportunity to promote their work slip by.

 

In Characters and Viewpoint, author Orson Scott Card uses straight forward prose and not a lot of examples from his own work and gives good insight into these two important aspects of writing fiction.

 

This is a solid book about what is stated in the title.

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review 2017-05-10 00:00
Writing Fiction for All You're Worth: Strategies and Techniques for Taking Your Fiction to the Next Level
Writing Fiction for All You're Worth: St... Writing Fiction for All You're Worth: Strategies and Techniques for Taking Your Fiction to the Next Level - James Scott Bell I thought it'd be about, you know Craft and how to improve writing considering the title, but it felt very...vague and not as helpful as one might think. Plus there were the whole agents, query, stuff that has nothing to do with the writing and fiction writing, but with making it as an author/getting published.

I'm disappointed but heh, it could have been worse I suppose, but there's better books out there actually about the writing, and improving writing. I'm currently also reading [b:Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life|357464|Wild Mind Living the Writer's Life|Natalie Goldberg|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388186159s/357464.jpg|943430] which is actually being very helpful with craft. Both brought up Freewriting, but I felt Wild Mind is giving me ways to actually do it, instead of "go write for 10 minutes without stopping", and gives prompts to get you going, which really helps! [b:How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play|8254282|How to Be a Writer Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play|Barbara Baig|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348784542s/8254282.jpg|13102018] also brought up Freewriting (I'm not very far into both books because I was reading this one and also they seem longer than this one heh), but didn't go into as much detail or as helpful as Wild Mind.

My conclusion is: not worth it for improving your actual writing, the advice is vague and there's better books out there giving more insightful advice.
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