- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (Dec 1995)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312136080
- ISBN-13: 978-0312136086
- Product Dimensions: 24.4 x 16.2 x 2.7 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,013,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
"The best reading experiences", says Sol Stein, "defy interruption". With Stein's assistance, you can grab your reader on page one and not let go until "The End". Stein--author of nine novels (including the best-selling The Magician) and editor to James Baldwin, W H Auden, and Lionel Trilling--offers "usable solutions" for any writing problem you might encounter. He is authoritative, commanding, and neither cheerleader nor naysayer. Instead, he rails against mediocrity and demands that you expunge it from your work. Perhaps the concept of scrutinising every modifier, every metaphor, every character trait sounds like drudgery. But with Stein's lively guidance, it is a pleasure. Stein recommends that you brew conflict in your prose by giving your characters different "scripts". He challenges you, in an exercise concerning voice, to write the sentence you want the world to remember you by. He uses an excerpt from E L Doctorow to demonstrate poorly written monologue and a series of Taster's Choice commercials as an example of dialogue that works. Stein's bottom line is that good writing must be suspenseful. Your job, says Stein, "is to give readers stress, strain, and pressure. The fact is that readers who hate those things in life love them in fiction". --Jane Steinberg
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
This is not a book of theory. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
This is not a book of theory. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I have read several books on writing, and this is the best by far. If you are like me, and are looking for a writing book that does more than encourage and empower you, that doesn't waste time talking about overcoming your "fears," then this is the book for you. Sol Stein will teach you how to control the pacing of your scenes, develop characters that work, create a "crucible" and more. I read it to the last page, turned back to page one and started again.
There may be people who need empowerment to write. This is not for them. Stein on Writing is professional advice for writers who want to be professionals themselves.
There may be people who need empowerment to write. This is not for them. Stein on Writing is professional advice for writers who want to be professionals themselves.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Writing non-fiction has been my living for 12 years now. Add a number close to 30 published mystery and horror short stories, and you have my experience in the craft. Always seeking to learn more, I have spent a significant amount of money on "How to write"-books. Three years ago I bought Steins masterpiece of teaching. Believe me: Save your money and buy Stein on Writing today. It is the only book of its kind you will ever need. Tips, tricks and techniques from a master. Easy to understand, even if it digs deep into the darkness of writing tales people believe. Let Steins book become your writers bible. Use it daily. It may bring the hardest working among you to the bestseller lists. At least you risk getting published.
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Sol covers a lot of ground here, and it's all good advice from an authentic master. But I found many of the examples badly selected, so that the point was made with less precision than I would expect. It was also heavier to read than the other reviews here had led me to expect.
I found Plot (Ansen Dibell) and Characters & Viewpoint (Orson Scott Card) more readable and clearer. However, between them they only cover half the ground that Sol covers.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Opinionated but...
I enjoyed this book. Quite a lot from Sol telling you how great Sol is, but lots of good advice too. And you feel he's on your side. Read more
Published 5 months ago by SJJones
Wise & inspiring.
This is my textured Graceland. I read this before I ever got anything published then again when I had and it just goes on making sense.
Published 11 months ago by JJ Diamond
A few quibbles
Unlike many other books in this genre, Stein is not solely concerned with helping the reader produce a publishable,'rattling good yarn'. Read more
Published on 16 Dec 2002 by Morphy
Some good information, but overall dissapointing.
I found Sol Stein to come accross as full of himself, and his writing style of this non-fiction book as talking down to the reader. Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2002 by P. Holmes
I admit, I havent read his novels but I gonna!
I stayed up all night reading this book, I was magnetised to its pages. I've had this experience with good fiction before but a text book - never: my husband thought I'd gone mad. Read more
Published on 7 Feb 2001
A 'Must' for any prospective novelist
What more can I say? Stein covers everything that you want to know. Read this before setting pen to paper and you'll save yourself a lot of time and effort.
Published on 4 Dec 2000
Publisher, editor and writer sharing his knowledge
As a literary agent I did business with Sol in previous years when he was the publisher of Stein & Day, I saw the manuscripts he edited, and I have read the novels he has... Read more
Published on 19 Jan 2000
Wonderful! Enormously helpful and practical.
I have been trying very hard to find a computer program bearing his name that serves as a guide for writing a novel. Does Amazon.com carry this type of product?
Published on 7 April 1999
A French Canadian Amateur English Writer
In the Quebec region, "Sol" is a great philosopher-artist whose monologues possess a super "manipulation" of the French language to some envious perfection. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 1999
Great book for novice writers!
Novice writers don't waste your time or money on other books! Stein is both informative and inspirational. He practices what he preaches...I couldn't put the book down! Read more
Published on 30 Jan 1999
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