There was a three week gap between release of the paperback and the ebook edition. Several of you have asked to be notified when the latter goes live… this is me doing that.
Below is the summary shown on the Amazon.com page. I think they did a good job of capturing the essence and intention of the book, which is fresh and edgy within the writing craft niche. Many writing books, especially by successful novelists, tends to push process – theirs – instead of the criteria for the end product. The famous writing book “Bird by Bird,” for example, is almost exclusively about process. And Stephen King’s book “On Writing” suggests you write your novels the same way he writes his… even though you don’t know a fraction of what Stephen King knows about how a novel is conceived and built.
From the “Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves” page on Amazon.com:
Story is the exploration of something that has gone wrong, and a lot has to go right during the telling of that story to render it a success. Yet one of the most common questions new writers ask professional writers is about how the author wrote their book, what was their process for storytelling (and from this we get plotters and pantsers)? But really the question should be about the general principles and nature of story–does every part of a story have what it needs to keep readers turning the pages (regardless of how the author got there)? Does every scene, every part of the story support the strategic narrative objective of providing new information a scene will inject in the story (the key principle of writing fiction)?
In Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves, Larry Brooks has developed a series of detailed checklists backed by tutorial content for novelists of every level and genre to refer to as they write regardless of which writing method they prefer. Beginning with the broadest part of story, the early checklists help writers to ensure that their book is based on a premise (aka plot) rather than an idea, or how you can elevate your idea into an actual premise where other story elements can be developed. Great Stories Don’t Write Themselves gradually hones in on other story elements like hero empathy, dramatic tension, thematic richness, vicariousness of story, narrative strategy, scene construction, etc. each with their own checklists with specific, actionable items that ensure that key principle (providing information to move the story forward) occurs.
The bn.com link is HERE.
If you’d like a broader introduction to the approach this book takes, and what makes it unique and perhaps even life-changing, scroll down to the previous post, or click HERE.
