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The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great by Donald Maass
radchik1313's review against another edition
5.0
Great exercises and some good points. Sometimes a little heavy on the examples but definitely worth a read.
I recommend this to new writers that aren’t sure where to begin.
I recommend this to new writers that aren’t sure where to begin.
nottoolate's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
The exercises at the end of each chapter are the most helpful part of the book.
abigailfair's review against another edition
5.0
The qualities of exciting plot prose that makes readers want to keep turning pages are not nebulous and mysterious, but definable and doable! Maass's book gives a bunch of great advice that'll be most useful to someone who's already got a manuscript underway.
daaan's review against another edition
4.0
More useful advice from Donald Maass. Not quite as good as 21st century fiction or Emotional craft, but I have basically read his books in reverse order.
littlenyssa's review
5.0
This book was extremely helpful for my own writing, even though the sources & examples he uses are a slightly different type of literature than I am trying to write.
robintz's review
5.0
Seriously, one of the best books on writing I've ever read. Great examples as well as fun and easy exercises to do at the end of each chapter. Very, very useful and definitely a book I will refer to over and over again.
cemo's review
4.0
The Fire in Fiction is a pretty standard book of writing instruction. I think what Maass brings to the table is a focus on revision and a plethora of examples from various novels.
In terms of the revision aspect, this book is geared toward those who have already completed manuscripts. The exercises call upon readers to pull from their finished manuscripts and revise scenes, or suggest types of drafts an author might do. For instance, Maass suggests doing a draft solely focused on revising the first and last lines of chapters. Overall, in a world of writing instruction that focuses on getting it down right the first time, it's refreshing to see a book like The Fire in Fiction which centers around getting it right once it's finished.
Maass uses a plethora of examples (the list of books he cites is several pages long) which was helpful in getting across his points. By citing multiple novels, he also shows the different ways one can employ his writing techniques. My only gripe is that there was an obvious bias toward thrillers and murder mysteries, which at points left other genres in the ditch.
For instance, Chapter 6 is titled, 'Making the Impossible Real' and focuses on making fictional scenarios believable, even if there's no way those scenarios could happen in the real world. Before reading the chapter, I thought it might delve into making a realistic fantasy world, but instead the chapter focused entirely on... thrillers. In fact, Maass seemed to assume the reader was writing a thriller:
I hope you like research. If you do, that's good. You'll need tons of it no matter what kind of thriller you're writing. But wait, can't you just postulate the crazy idea behind your story and ask readers to go with it? After all, science-fiction and fantasy writers have been doing that for eons.
Sorry. SF and fantasy readers know that what they're reading isn't real. Thriller writers haven't got that luxury
Now at the end of the chapter Maass reminds the reader that these techniques apply to all types of fiction, even if he's been talking exclusively about thrillers, but I wonder if that's true? I feel as though this chapter definitely could have gone deeper into stories that are set in worlds entirely different than ours, perhaps with magic systems, and the importance of clear rules and internal logic. The chapter seemed to skim over two genres that are built entirely upon making impossible things seem real, which I thought was a pity.
Of course, all books on writing have their own biases, which is why it's important to read so many of them. But asides the thriller/mystery bias, I also found that Maass doesn't touch much on overarching story structure or character arcs. Based on the text citations he uses, Maass is more focused on the quality of prose.
All criticisms aside, I would definitely recommend reading this book, particularly if you are beginning the revision process. It may give you ideas of how to change your manuscript (it sure has for me).
In terms of the revision aspect, this book is geared toward those who have already completed manuscripts. The exercises call upon readers to pull from their finished manuscripts and revise scenes, or suggest types of drafts an author might do. For instance, Maass suggests doing a draft solely focused on revising the first and last lines of chapters. Overall, in a world of writing instruction that focuses on getting it down right the first time, it's refreshing to see a book like The Fire in Fiction which centers around getting it right once it's finished.
Maass uses a plethora of examples (the list of books he cites is several pages long) which was helpful in getting across his points. By citing multiple novels, he also shows the different ways one can employ his writing techniques. My only gripe is that there was an obvious bias toward thrillers and murder mysteries, which at points left other genres in the ditch.
For instance, Chapter 6 is titled, 'Making the Impossible Real' and focuses on making fictional scenarios believable, even if there's no way those scenarios could happen in the real world. Before reading the chapter, I thought it might delve into making a realistic fantasy world, but instead the chapter focused entirely on... thrillers. In fact, Maass seemed to assume the reader was writing a thriller:
I hope you like research. If you do, that's good. You'll need tons of it no matter what kind of thriller you're writing. But wait, can't you just postulate the crazy idea behind your story and ask readers to go with it? After all, science-fiction and fantasy writers have been doing that for eons.
Sorry. SF and fantasy readers know that what they're reading isn't real. Thriller writers haven't got that luxury
Now at the end of the chapter Maass reminds the reader that these techniques apply to all types of fiction, even if he's been talking exclusively about thrillers, but I wonder if that's true? I feel as though this chapter definitely could have gone deeper into stories that are set in worlds entirely different than ours, perhaps with magic systems, and the importance of clear rules and internal logic. The chapter seemed to skim over two genres that are built entirely upon making impossible things seem real, which I thought was a pity.
Of course, all books on writing have their own biases, which is why it's important to read so many of them. But asides the thriller/mystery bias, I also found that Maass doesn't touch much on overarching story structure or character arcs. Based on the text citations he uses, Maass is more focused on the quality of prose.
All criticisms aside, I would definitely recommend reading this book, particularly if you are beginning the revision process. It may give you ideas of how to change your manuscript (it sure has for me).
captainflint's review
2.0
Helpful at times, but neglected to give actual advice, just tons of examples without dissecting those examples thoroughly enough to make them truly useful
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