Reddit Reddit reviews How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling

We found 7 Reddit comments about How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling
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7 Reddit comments about How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling:

u/legalpothead · 3 pointsr/scifiwriting


If you want to get pumped, look at James Scott Bell's Write Your Novel from the Middle. The ebook is $4 and it's 100 pages; put it on your phone and you can read it in a couple afternoons. Basically Bell's premise is that in great stories there's a point in the middle where the main character has failed and has a moment of introspection, after which they pick themselves up and try something new. If you can nail this scene, the rest of your story falls into
place.

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I have found Mary Buckham's Writing Active Hooks to be invaluable. I didn't understand how to write until I learned about hooks. You need to periodically hook the reader's attention and engage them emotionally if you want to keep them reading. This works out a lot better if you actually understand what you're doing.

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I'm also a big fan of How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James Frey. It's bare-knuckled, it's got clear, straightforward information and it will get you hyped.

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If you want to be a better writer, sit down and write 300,000 words of shit over the next 6-12 months. Just open a new file called "Pile" and start pounding away. Write down your dreams, what you think about people, do stream of consciousness writing, silly dialogues, character sketches, anything. The problem with most beginners' writing is that it contains hundreds of tiny awkward points that catch at the reader's eye, distracting them from the story. You need to learn to recognize all the awkward phrases in the English language, so that you can avoid using them, and the only way to learn them is to write them all down, it appears. And from the point you realize this fact until the point where you can try to sell a book is about 300,000 words, more or less. You want to train your mind to think in pleasant sounding phrases. Once you can do this, you can just write down what you're thinking, and it will look beautiful on the page. That's the theory anyway; no refunds.

u/underpopular · 1 pointr/underpopular

>I learned a lot reading this book, so before anything thank you to James N. Frey. By far the best non-fiction on writing I've ever read. Please consider purchasing the book itself (here, as no amount of notes will ever be satisfactory substitutes for reading the actual book. And quite honestly the man deserves the sales).
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>Second, apologies for taking so long. A close friend of mine was having some health issues that I had to help her with, and on top of that my internship has been kicking my ass lately. So anyways here are the notes. I assumed .pdf was universal enough, but if someone needs a different format let me know and I'll oblige.
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>I left out the chapters on revising/editing and "the zen of being a novelist," because I myself didn't read them. I wrote a small little checklist at the bottom of the document to ensure you hit all the marks for a 'damn good novel.'
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>https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B29ZBVzB0Z-TWTVkeUtzZE1zQkE
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>edit: I tried to make my notes as readable as possible (you should've seen them before I went through and edited them..). So I'm sorry if you can't read them, or if some parts are incomprehensible, but I did my best! I also included some screenshots of the examples the author used for parts that, I thought, demanded such.
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>edit: Wow. Thank you to the kind stranger that gilded me. What do I do with my hands? I've never been gilded before..
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u/FrontpageWatch · 1 pointr/longtail

>I learned a lot reading this book, so before anything thank you to James N. Frey. By far the best non-fiction on writing I've ever read. Please consider purchasing the book itself (here, as no amount of notes will ever be satisfactory substitutes for reading the actual book. And quite honestly the man deserves the sales).
>
>Second, apologies for taking so long. A close friend of mine was having some health issues that I had to help her with, and on top of that my internship has been kicking my ass lately. So anyways here are the notes. I assumed .pdf was universal enough, but if someone needs a different format let me know and I'll oblige.
>
>I left out the chapters on revising/editing and "the zen of being a novelist," because I myself didn't read them. I wrote a small little checklist at the bottom of the document to ensure you hit all the marks for a 'damn good novel.'
>
>https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B29ZBVzB0Z-TWTVkeUtzZE1zQkE
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>
>
>edit: I tried to make my notes as readable as possible (you should've seen them before I went through and edited them..). So I'm sorry if you can't read them, or if some parts are incomprehensible, but I did my best! I also included some screenshots of the examples the author used for parts that, I thought, demanded such.
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>edit: Wow. Thank you to the kind stranger that gilded me. What do I do with my hands? I've never been gilded before..
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u/nudelete · 1 pointr/Nudelete

>I learned a lot reading this book, so before anything thank you to James N. Frey. By far the best non-fiction on writing I've ever read. Please consider purchasing the book itself (here, as no amount of notes will ever be satisfactory substitutes for reading the actual book. And quite honestly the man deserves the sales).
>
>Second, apologies for taking so long. A close friend of mine was having some health issues that I had to help her with, and on top of that my internship has been kicking my ass lately. So anyways here are the notes. I assumed .pdf was universal enough, but if someone needs a different format let me know and I'll oblige.
>
>I left out the chapters on revising/editing and "the zen of being a novelist," because I myself didn't read them. I wrote a small little checklist at the bottom of the document to ensure you hit all the marks for a 'damn good novel.'
>
>https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B29ZBVzB0Z-TWTVkeUtzZE1zQkE
>
>
>
>edit: I tried to make my notes as readable as possible (you should've seen them before I went through and edited them..). So I'm sorry if you can't read them, or if some parts are incomprehensible, but I did my best! I also included some screenshots of the examples the author used for parts that, I thought, demanded such.
>
>
>
>edit: Wow. Thank you to the kind stranger that gilded me. What do I do with my hands? I've never been gilded before..
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u/bunny_belle · 1 pointr/writing

My favourites are these exact two books, as well.
I like this one too.

How To Write A Damn Good Novel