How to Grow a Novel: The Most Common Mistakes Writers Make and How to Overcome Them

by Sol Stein

Book Overview

Each year thousands of fiction writers, from beginners to bestselling author, benefit from Sol Stein's sold-out workshops, featured appearances at writers' conferences, software for writers, on-line... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312267495
• ISBN13: 9780312267490
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A professional author book written for the beginner

If you want to write or, have been writing and would like a refresher course, this book will do the job of twenty. Detailed, step by step, process on how to write fiction, nonfiction, or a better email. I received this book with no delay. Purchase, shipment and delivery was smooth, easy and fast. I recommend THIFT BOOKS for your next used book order. Build your own library.

No Serious Writer Should Be Without This Guide

Writers of all experience levels know you have to constantly hone your craft. "How to Grow a Novel" takes an in-depth look at every aspect of writing. From the common problems that plague writers to what a reader really wants out of a book, this guide to writing is one of the best on the market. Chapters cover: * Conflict* Characters * Plots * Dialogue * Point of View * Crafting Your Words * Revision * Nonfiction Emigrants Each chapter tackles important fundamentals writers often struggle with. Stein uses real-life examples from popular novels to illustrate his point, making it even easier to apply his suggestions to your own writing. Whether you're a published author or just beginning your writing venture, Stein's experience can definitely help. He talks candidly about what works and what doesn't. "How to Grow a Novel" also spells out the key ingredients your novel should contain as well as how to incorporate them into your own writing.

Another excellent "How To" book by Sol Stein

I have spent a long time and written a lot of articles going over many of the techniques necessary for a writer to become a novelist. Some of these techniques are as basic as grammar and spelling, and some of them as complex as developing an underlying premise. In all of them, I have said that you should approach the novel with the end in mind. Little did I know that I was mistaken in what the end is. How to Grow a Novel has shown me the error of my ways. It clued me into the knowledge that the end I was always seeking in my writing was ultimately selfish, and therefore doomed to failure. Even if my own novels sold a million copies each (an amazing feat, since I have yet to publish even one), I would still have failed. They would only be shallow reflections of what they could be because I wouldn't have been seeking the correct end. Sol Stein's insight into this one valuable piece of information is worth the price of the book alone. The book is packed so full of excellent and useful insight that this one piece of information is almost lost in the grandeur of it's craftsmanship. What was this mistake I was making? I'll tell you in a minute.Mr. Stein goes over many of the common mistakes we writers make, and offers solutions to them in a way that is so direct and incisive, that you will wonder why it is you never thought of them in the first place. Many of these mistakes make perfect sense to the reader, but are somewhat murky to the author, and it is this very viewpoint he approaches the problems with that makes the book so worthwhile.How to Grow a Novel is a book that is uniquely concerned with the true focus of novels: The Reader. Everything a novelist does should convey that piece of insight, yet many of the aspiring authors who set out to write their first works never realize that this is the case. It was true for me, and I was aware that I was writing for the readers. Unfortunately it wasn't for the right ones.That's what my mistake was. I was writing for the wrong readers... Those that have already been told what they want to know about the story, or who are reading it for a critique. The readers I should have been writing it for are those out there that know nothing about it other than that someone told them it was good.For me, it's back to the drawing board now. I have some serious revising to do...

Yet another sharp arrow for your literary quiver

Coming right on the heels of Stein's "Stein on Writing", I was apprehensive that "How to Grow a Novel" might be a rehash of it. With the former seeming to be such a full treatment of both fiction and nonfiction, what more could Stein have to say?A lot. I will offer one example. Chapter two of "How to Grow a Novel" focuses on conflict. He reminds us that conflict need not be a knock-down-drag-out fight. He writes, "Many people ... bristle at the term `conflict' because of memories and overtones, and so I propose another term for their consideration, `adversarial... The conflict is often verbal, not high drama, sometimes even mundane."While reading Stein's words on conflict, I was reminded of a scene in "Emma" by Jane Austen that so clearly demonstrates low-key, verbal conflict.Emma's governess, who has evolved into the dearest friend Emma has in the world, has married and gone. The conflict within Emma over the loss of Miss Taylor, and shared by her father ("Poor Miss Taylor," he said at their first dinner without her, "What a pity it is that Mr. Weston ever thought of her!") has been exposed in detail when an intimate friend of the family drops in. Mr. Knightly is a man some 18 years older than 21-year-old Emma and "one of the few people who could see faults in Emma Woodhouse, and the only one who ever told her of them."The absent Miss Taylor is, of course, on their minds and tongues. Mr. Knightly observes, "Every friend of Miss Taylor must be glad to have her so happily married.""And you have forgotten one matter of joy to me," said Emma, "and a very considerable one -- that I made the match myself. I made the match, you know, four years ago; and to have it take place, and be proved in the right . . . And after such a success, you know! Everybody said that Mr. Weston would never marry again."Mr. Knightly shook his head at her. "I do not understand what you mean by `success,' Success supposes endeavor. Your time has been properly and delicately spent, if you have been endeavoring for the last fours to bring about this marriage. A worthy employment for a young lady's mind! But if, which I rather imagine, your making the match, as you call it, means only your planning it, your saying to yourself one idle day, `I think it would be a very good thing for Miss Taylor if Mr. Weston were to marry her,' and saying it again to yourself every now and then afterwards -- why do you talk of success? Where is your merit? What are you proud of? You made a lucky guess; and THAT is all that can be said."After more debate, Emma said, "And as to my poor word `success,' which you quarrel with, I do not know that I am so entirely without claim to it. You have drawn two pretty pictures; but I think there may be a third -- something between the do-nothing and the do-all. If I had not promoted Mr. Weston's visits here, and given many little encouragements, and smoothed many little matters, it might not have come to anything after a

Showing not telling

I am a composer and published author. What Rimsky-Korsakov did for Orchestration, Sol Stein has done for writing, first in Stein on Writing and now with How to Grow a Novel. Stein practices what he teaches: his book shows writers how to structure their fiction and orchestrate every expressive element. A worthy sequel to his classic text and a must read practical guide to the perplexed novice or the experienced pro.

A must for writers

After reading Stein's invaluable STEIN ON WRITING, I thought I'd never need another book on writing. But HOW TO GROW A NOVEL is an outstanding companion volume for fiction writers of any level. He doesn't just inspire but offers practical guidelines, craft points, and solutions. And the chapters on what really goes on in publishing are refreshing in their candor.