Telling Lies for Fun & Profit: A Manual for Fiction Writers
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the best 'how-to' guides around,
By
This review is from: Telling Lies for Fun and Profit (Paperback)
This somewhat quirky 'how-to' book on novel writing is really worth the money. Block covers all the aspects of commercial fiction writing and includes a lot of excellent examples from his own highly varied background. And he ain't pedantic about it. In many areas he makes suggestions, but tells you to find out what works for you. I read a 'Matt Scudder' novel after I finished this book (for the second time), just to see how Block puts his theories into practice. He does, right down the line. But he also violates some of the conventional wisdom regarding modern writing. For example, most guides tell you to get 'it' written first, then revise the hell out of it. Black says he doesn't do very much re-writing, and you can see this very clearly in his novels. He goes into a lot of detail about New York places and neighborhoods where the novel takes place, but it will be gibberish to you if you're not a native New Yorker. If you're reading critically, you'll see quite a few things that supposedly agents and publishers just won't go for, but obviously they have in Block's case.
This guide will pay off handsomely if you read it carefully, then re-read it after you've done some fiction writing of your own. Block does not waste words. Virtually every sentence contains some useful information, but you won't absorb it all the first time. Highly recommended
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best book on fiction writing i have ever read,
This review is from: Telling Lies for Fun and Profit (Paperback)
I'm reading "Telling lies for fun and profit" at the moment and without a doubt it is the best book I have read on the subject so far. There are so many things that Block has told me, that make such perfect sense, that I have no idea why I wasn't doing them in the first place, and plenty of other things which have improved my writing significantly. He also uses examples from novels as examples, which seriously helps. It was recommended by several sucessful writers including Sue Grafton, and Holly Lisle, which was one of the reasons I picked it up. I recommmend this book to anyone who wants to get into writing professionally, or anyone who is writing professionally and just wants the answers for some of their problems. This book is so easily readable that I have hardly put it down since I bought it a few days ago.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Telling-Lies-Profit-Lawrence-Block/dp/0688132286/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295785648&sr=8-1
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing,
By
This review is from: Telling Lies for Fun and Profit (Paperback)
This book is based on magazine articles; they are chatty and informal. This style of book and content did not suit me. Mr Block was not serious enough. This is a personal thing. The book does cover useful points but if you already have a book on creative writing, I imagine there will be very little new in this. A more useful general book is Sol Stein's Solutions for Novelists. I understand that Sol Stein has published two titles but they have been reprinted under different titles ( four titles in all) so be careful you don't buy the same book twice. The other title is On growing a Novel.
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