How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II

The acclaimed author of How to Write a Damn Good Novel offers master-class advice on writing gripping, emotionally charged, dramatic fiction.

"Damn good" fiction is dramatic fiction, Frey insists, whether it is by Hemingway or Grisham, Le Carre or Ludlum, Austen or Dickens. Despite their differences, these authors' works share common elements: strong narrative lines, fascinating characters, steadily building conflicts, and satisfying conclusions. Frey's How to Write a Damn Good Novel is one of the most widely used guides ever published for aspiring authors. Here, in How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II, Frey offers powerful advanced techniques to build suspense, create fresher, more interesting characters, and achieve greater reader sympathy, empathy, and identification.

How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II also warns against the pseudo-rules often inflicted upon writers, rules such as "The author must always be invisible" and "You must stick to a single viewpoint in a scene," which cramp the imagination and deaden the narrative. Frey focuses instead on promises that the author makes to the reader—promises about character, narrative voice, story type, and so on, which must be kept if the reader is to be satisfied. This book is rich, instructive, honest, and often tellingly funny about the way writers sometimes fail their readers and themselves.

"In every field of human endeavor there are a few supreme achievements. There's the Sistine Chapel, Beethoven's Fifth, Don Larsen's no-hitter in the 1956 World Series. In books to help fiction writers, there are two: James N. Frey's How to Write a Damn Good Novel and How to Write a Damned Good Novel, II: Advanced Techniques." —Paul Clayton, author of The Cacique Trilogy