How to Write a Damn Good Thriller PDF Download

Author: James N. Frey
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1429913630
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
A quick look at any fiction bestseller list reveals that thrillers make up most of the titles at the top. HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD THRILLER will help the aspiring novelist or screenwriter to design, draft, write, and polish a thriller that is sure to grab readers. Frey uses examples from both books and movies and addresses the following hot topics: *Germinal ideas *Breathing life into great thriller characters *Crafting a gripping opening *Maintaining tension *Creating obstacles and conflicts *Writing a mean, lean thriller scene *Adding surprise twists *Building a smashing climax and many more. In his trademark approachable and humorous style, Frey illuminates the building blocks of great thrillers and gives the reader the tools to write his or her own.

Author: James N. Frey
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1429997850
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
Written in a clear, crisp, accessible style, this book is perfect for beginners as well as professional writers who need a crash course in the down-to-earth basics of storytelling. Talent and inspiration can't be taught, but Frey does provide scores of helpful suggestions and sensible rules and principles. An international bestseller, How to Write a Damn Good Novel will enable all writers to face that intimidating first page, keep them on track when they falter, and help them recognize, analyze, and correct the problems in their own work.

Author: James N. Frey
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1429974133
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Edgar award nominee James N. Frey, author of the internationally best-selling books on the craft of writing, How to Write a Damn Good Novel, How to Write a Damn Good Novel II: Advanced Techniques, and The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth, has now written what is certain to become the standard "how to" book for mystery writing, How to Write a Damn Good Mystery. Frey urges writers to aim high-not to try to write a good-enough-to-get-published mystery, but a damn good mystery. A damn good mystery is first a dramatic novel, Frey insists-a dramatic novel with living, breathing characters-and he shows his readers how to create a living, breathing, believable character who will be clever and resourceful, willful and resolute, and will be what Frey calls "the author of the plot behind the plot." Frey then shows, in his well-known, entertaining, and accessible (and often humorous) style , how the characters-the entire ensemble, including the murderer, the detective, the authorities, the victims, the suspects, the witnesses and the bystanders-create a complete and coherent world. Exploring both the on-stage action and the behind-the-scenes intrigue, Frey shows prospective writers how to build a fleshed-out, believable, and logical world. He shows them exactly which parts of that world show up in the pages of a damn good mystery-and which parts are held back just long enough to keep the reader guessing. This is an indispensable step-by-step guide for anyone who's ever dreamed of writing a damn good mystery.

Author: James N. Frey
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429997826
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
"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.

Author: Larry Beinhart
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0307776050
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
WHODUNIT? YOUDUNIT! So you want to write a mystery. There's more to it than just a detective, a dead body, and Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the candlestick. Fortunately, Larry Beinhart--Edgar Award-winning author of You Get What You Pay For, Foreign Exchange, and American Hero--has taken a break from writing smart, suspenseful thrillers to act as your guide through all the twists and turns of creating the twists and turns of a good mystery. Drawing on advice and examples from a host of the best names in mystery writing--from Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane to Scott Turow and Thomas Harris--plus some of his own prime plots, Larry Beinhart introduces you to your most indispensable partners in crime: *Character, plot, and procedure * The secrets to creating heroes, heroines, and villains ("All writers draw upon themselves and their experience. While the whole of yourself might not be capable of being either a serial killer or an FBI agent, there are parts in each of us that are capable of almost anything.") * The fine art of scripting the sex scene *The low-down on violence ("A crime novel without violence is like smoking pot without inhaling, sex without orgasm, or a hug without a squeeze." ) *And much more! From the opening hook to the final denouement, Larry Beinhart takes the mystery out of being a mystery writer.

Author: James N. Frey
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312300524
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
Offers aspiring authors of novels and screenplays advice on using the classic themes of universal folklore and mythology to structure their works, and provides examples from well-known fiction and films.

Author: James N. Frey
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9780333907597
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
The one book that should be on every fiction writer's shelf...From the author of How to Write a Damn Good Novel, this book offers powerful advanced techniques in fiction writing - how to build suspense, create fresher, more interesting characters, and achieve greater reader sympathy, empathy and identification. Quoting a range of writers from Stephen King and Kafka to Peter Benchley and Stephen Crane, this is a practical, readable, down to earth and concise book which analyses what makes good (and commercial) fiction work and shows how to apply this understanding in an author's own writing. It is a must for any serious writer.

Author: Mystery Writers of America
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1982149434
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Invited by bestselling authors Lee Child and Laurie R. King, seventy of the most successful mystery writers in the business contribute essays and tips on the craft of writing, How to Write a Mystery is an invaluable guide and a must-have for every level of mystery writers Topics Include: Before Writing (rules, genres, setting, character, research, etc.), While Writing (outlining, the plot, dialogue, mood, etc.), Other than Novels (short stories, true crime, etc.), Other Considerations (divers character, copyright, criticism, online platforms, etc.) Book jacket.

Author: Виктор Шкловский
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
ISBN: 9780916583644
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
"Viktor Shklovsky's 1925 book Theory of Prose might have become the most important work of literary criticism in the twentieth century had not two obstacles barred its way: the crackdown by the Soviet dictatorship on Shklovsky and other Russian Formalists in the 1930s, and the unavailability of an English translation. Now translated in its entirety for the first time, Theory of Prose not only anticipates structuralism and post-structuralism, but poses questions about the nature of fiction that are as provocative today as they were in the 1920s. Arguing that writers structure their material according to artistic principles rather than from attempts to imitate "reality," Shklovsky uses Cervantes, Tolstoi, Sterne, Dickens, Bely, and Rozanov to give us a new way of thinking about fiction and, in his most impassioned moments, about the world. Benjamin Sher's lucid translation will allow Shklovsky's Theory of Prose to fulfill its destiny as a major theoretical work of the twentieth century." from back cover.

Author: Laurie Frankel
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1250088550
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
"This is Claude. He's five years old, the youngest of five brothers. He also loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess.When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They're just not sure they're ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes."--