IMHO, JSB is a brilliant guy. He's written about 30 novels and about 30 craft books, IIRC. I took his entire course a few years ago. Of all the writers out there, his writing is more like how I write than anyone else. He's my second favorite author (sorry, Raymond Chandler is a god, and hard to beat, James). I've taken a ton of inspiration from him. Stolen all kinds of-Ahem! No, no, never stolen a thing! I swear! He also has a wicked sense of humor, so everything he writes is fun. His Mike Romeo series is pretty great. He's also generous. He's responded directly to me more than once regarding writing questions. And I think it might be time for me to read that book again. His most sage advice? 'Give the protagonist a problem right away'. This causes immediate empathy and helps bond the reader to your character. It works like a charm, bc readers can't help but feel empathy, and empathy bonds them much quicker and much stronger than identification or admiration or voice or attitude, all put together. There was one thing that bugged me, which was he insisted 'no backstory early'. He said the limit is 3 sentences in the first 3,000 words, and maybe 10 paragraphs in the next 10,000 words, or something along those lines. Not 'hard and fast', but generally speaking. This really puzzled me, bc violating this advice still seemed to work just fine. So I was troubled by this. But then it hit me-It's genre-specific. JSB's métier is thrillers. In thrillers, it's important to not wander away from the main narrative, and to push everything toward the climax in Act III. Readers of thrillers are a bit annoyed by backstory (although JSB does include some in his novels). A thriller is more about the destination than is the case in certain other genres. A courtship love story, for instance, is much more about the journey than it is the destination. So we can cut JSB a break on that one. I've read most of his craft books, a number of his novels, and I can heartily recommend all of them. The guy's the genuine article, and having him in the writing world makes me very happy. My favorite quote from him is 'Writing a novel is like falling in love'. Boy, did he ever nail that one.
Thanks. I didn't know about this book. I have Dazzling Dialogue, and Writing from the Middle (the mirror moment epiphany) both books sleek but informative. I like that he gets to the point. No padding. When I get to writing the end of my current story I'd like to read this one to see how I can improve.
Great! Yeah, it helped me a lot even though it’s a small book. (I’m the same way. Get to the point! I don’t need your grandma’s backstory when I just came here for a casserole recipe. 😂 )
IMHO, JSB is a brilliant guy. He's written about 30 novels and about 30 craft books, IIRC. I took his entire course a few years ago. Of all the writers out there, his writing is more like how I write than anyone else. He's my second favorite author (sorry, Raymond Chandler is a god, and hard to beat, James).
I've taken a ton of inspiration from him. Stolen all kinds of-Ahem! No, no, never stolen a thing! I swear!
He also has a wicked sense of humor, so everything he writes is fun. His Mike Romeo series is pretty great. He's also generous. He's responded directly to me more than once regarding writing questions.
And I think it might be time for me to read that book again.
His most sage advice? 'Give the protagonist a problem right away'. This causes immediate empathy and helps bond the reader to your character. It works like a charm, bc readers can't help but feel empathy, and empathy bonds them much quicker and much stronger than identification or admiration or voice or attitude, all put together.
There was one thing that bugged me, which was he insisted 'no backstory early'. He said the limit is 3 sentences in the first 3,000 words, and maybe 10 paragraphs in the next 10,000 words, or something along those lines. Not 'hard and fast', but generally speaking. This really puzzled me, bc violating this advice still seemed to work just fine. So I was troubled by this.
But then it hit me-It's genre-specific. JSB's métier is thrillers. In thrillers, it's important to not wander away from the main narrative, and to push everything toward the climax in Act III. Readers of thrillers are a bit annoyed by backstory (although JSB does include some in his novels). A thriller is more about the destination than is the case in certain other genres. A courtship love story, for instance, is much more about the journey than it is the destination. So we can cut JSB a break on that one.
I've read most of his craft books, a number of his novels, and I can heartily recommend all of them. The guy's the genuine article, and having him in the writing world makes me very happy.
My favorite quote from him is 'Writing a novel is like falling in love'. Boy, did he ever nail that one.
Thanks. I didn't know about this book. I have Dazzling Dialogue, and Writing from the Middle (the mirror moment epiphany) both books sleek but informative. I like that he gets to the point. No padding.
When I get to writing the end of my current story I'd like to read this one to see how I can improve.
Great! Yeah, it helped me a lot even though it’s a small book. (I’m the same way. Get to the point! I don’t need your grandma’s backstory when I just came here for a casserole recipe. 😂 )