From the time I first picked up Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass I knew I had found one of those rare books in which the author practices what he preaches. Every suggestion Maass makes in his books to writers he observes in his own writing. The Fire in Fiction follows that same principle. Everything here is practical, explained and written as a call to action to the serious writer. Consider these excerpts from the introduction.
Status Seekers and Storytellers
“Some want to know how to make their manuscript acceptable. If If do this and I do that, will I by okay?”… That is a status seeker talking …
A Storyteller, by contrast, is more concerned with making his story the best that it can be, with discovering the level of elements that are missing, and with understanding the techniques needed to make it all happen …
Status seekers will grumble about publishers, spend on self-promotion (or spend nothing at all), and expound as experts on getting ahead…
Storytellers look not to publishers to make them, but to themselves. They wonder how to top themselves with each new novel. … Storytellers take calculated risks with their fiction. Mostly they try to make their stories bigger…
Which type of fiction writer are you? …
The proof is in your passion and whether or not it gets on the page.
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The Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York City is a literary agency for professional novelists. Donald Maass’s pioneering work and writing about the development of fiction careers has made DMLA a leading agency for fiction writers. Agents Donald Maass, Jennifer Jackson, Stacia Decker, Cameron McClure, and Amy Boggs together represent more than 150 novelists and sell more than 100 novels every year to leading publishers in the U.S. and overseas.
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I don’t sell anything here at teGeorge.com so, if you are story teller and want Fire in Your Fiction, you’ll have to pull up Amazon or if you are really passionate get in your car and put down a few bucks for one of the best writing books to come out in a while.
