Books : The Weekend Novelist Writes A Mystery
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.3872
EAN: 9780440506584
ISBN: 0440506581
Label: Dell
Manufacturer: Dell
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publisher: Dell
Release Date: April 06, 1998
Sales Rank: 74645
Studio: Dell
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Like Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, Sara Paretsky and Thomas Harris, you, too, can learn the trade secrets of quality detective fiction.
It's true. Just one year from now, you can deliver a completed mystery novel to a publisher--by writing only on weekends. Authors Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick guide you through the entire mystery-writing process, from creating a killer to polishing off the final draft. Each weekend you'll focus on a specific task--learning the basics of novel-writing, the special demands of mystery-writing, and the secrets professionals use to create stories one scene at a time, building to a shivery, satisfying climax. Using Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library as a model for the classical mystery tale and Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park for the hard-boiled mystery, this unique step-by-step program gives you all the information you need to reach your ultimate goal: a finished book in just 52 weeks!
Let two successful masters of the genre show you how...
Discover:
Why you must create your killer first
The tricks to writing dialogue that does it all--moves your plot, involves your reader, and makes your style sizzle
How to "bury" information (and corpses) for your reader to find
Why you should NOT build your book around chapters
Special techniques for clearing writer's block
Plus: examples from Sue Grafton, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Cornwell, Thomas Harris, Raymond Chandler, and more.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
This seems to be a very well conceived and helpful book. It has a detailed plan for taking one from a blank page to a finished novel in a year's time. I haven't read through the whole book yet. NOR have I worked through many exercises yet, but found the first several exercises very helpful. Already my characters are coming to life. I expect great things in the weeks ahead.
Rating:  -
This book got me going, but that's where it ended. It's good for someone who needs lots of structure throughout the process. I found it too confining,but that's just my taste. If you need a step-by-step, here it is.
Rating:  -
Writing fiction is like painting a landscape. A lot of artists can do it, and each one has an individual way they do it. It is the same with writing. Many people have written good novels; each one approaches it differently. So when someone like Ray Robert tells you how it's done, don't believe him. I'm not saying that his method doesn't work for him. What I am saying is it probably won't work for you. (It didn't work for me.) You have to figure out what works for you. Check out Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver. You won't regret it.
Rating: -
This was the single most helpful book I found to help complete the process of writing an entire mystery. Its most valuable section is on plotting, devoting the appropriate amount of time and space to each of the critical parts of a novel. Much of the advice here is to be found else where--the back story, the characters, the scene writing--but is better organized and more comprehensible in this volume. So, if you plan to only buy or use one book on writing, this is the one I believe would be the best place to concentrate your time and money.
Rating:  -
I bought this book to learn more about creating a suspenseful story (not necessarily a traditional mystery novel). It was successful in that respect, but the biggest benefit I reaped was all the help in plotting (a weakness of mine). High recommended.
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