by Mike Klaassen

Created on: August 19, 2008

A while back at a used book sale, I picked up a copy of How to Write a Damn Good Novel, by James N. Frey. I didn't notice until I got home that the title ended with a big Roman numeral II. After flipping through II, I decide I better get I as well. I'm glad I did.

James N. Frey has written two books about the craft of writing novels: How to Write a Damn Good Novel: A step-by-step no nonsense guide to dramatic storytelling (1987) and How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced techniques for dramatic storytelling (1994), both published by St. Martin's Press. Each of these books is interesting and useful; damn good, in fact. They deserve to be included in any list of the best how-to-write-fiction books.

James N. Frey is an American writer and creative-writing teacher. According to Wikipedia, Frey was selected Honored Teacher of the Year in 1994 for his novel-writing classes at the University of California in Berkeley.

Although most of the text in these books is about the craft of writing fiction, Frey shares his philosophy about writing and the process of creating fiction. For example, he warns of pseudo-rules in fiction-writing, but then he puts rules in perspective: ". . . first become a great storyteller who uses the principles of dramatic fiction to create masterpieces of craft before you attempt to break the rules. Yes, the rules may be broken successfully, but for every ten or twenty thousand who try only a handful are successful."

The strength of these two books is that they provide tons of interesting and practical advice and insight into the craft of writing fiction. Many how-to books are as much about the author as they are about craft. Not so with these two; they're all about craft and the business of writing. For example, from the first book: "When a character's will collides with an obstacle that occurs within the character himself, as when duty collides with fear, love with guilt, ambition with conscience, and so on, you have inner conflict."

Some how-to books focus on a particular facet of fiction-writing, while others attempt to cover the craft from A to Z. But even the broadest books tend to focus on subjects near and dear to the author's heart. A book's chapter headings tell a lot about what the author emphasizes. Frey's first how-to book is structured with nine chapters, addressing the following subjects:
Character
Conflict
Premise
Storytelling
Climax and resolution
Viewpoint and flashbacks
Dialogue
Rewriting
The Zen of novel writing

The second

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>