Прочитала за порадою Ростислава Семкова. Прикольний порадник, написаний з гумором і дохідливо. Класний загалом для розуміння сторітеллінгу, ну і щоб краще розуміти як зроблені тексти, теж годиться. Дуже раджу!

Ich fand es sehr hilfreich. Das Buch liefert einen guten Überblick zu verschiedenen Ebenen des Schreibens. Wie bei jedem Schreibratgeber sollte man natürlich im Hinterkopf behalten, dass das keine Regeln sind, sondern einfach Tipps, und dass man selbst schauen muss, was für einen selbst funktioniert. Dann kann man einfach kritisch auf manche Tipps blicken, sie zur kenntnis nehmen und nicht oder nur teilweise anwenden.

To many people who critisize the narrowminded focus the book by Frey seems to convey I would recommend it as a book not on initially coming up with an idea and drafting a novel as such, but for looking back on the first draft and trying to answer that daunting question on: "how can I do that better - because better it has to be." It is somewhat telling, that Frey has a chapter on revisiting which actually is kind of a summary of the whole book up to that point. For this kind of necessary rewriting Frey gives some really helpful tipps, advice and insight. Non of it is an earthshattering theophany, but rather along the lines of "hm, thats true I never really was that much aware of it". As he himself writes: principles are not rules. Don't misunderstand his quite direct, at times somewhat arrogant tone which is iously the attempt to give clarity and a firm route to the struggling young writer. Not the best book on writing with the most unique advice, but certainly a useful one.

"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." - Albert Einstein
James N. Frey is a master. This is one of the best whole-process how-to's there is.

Written in 1987, this great book provides great inspiration. Building characters from the ground up, inner conflict and tips like "Every dramatic story has one and only one premise," kept me reading this book until the end. A treasure trove, a page-turner and all those other writer cliches one should avoid, but you get the idea, this book has useful information presented in a compelling way. Frey writes that scenes include character, conflict and conclusion; he asks what is the genera of your book and what is the universal truth of your book? Writing fiction is a craft, a skill and art form and this book delves into just what makes a compelling story sizzle. There's lots to digest in this book to check back in again and again. The ending is a bit dated with typing, word processing and publishing since we all use computers now and the self-publishing era happened after the 80s.

Was good, I raed it while I was writing my debut novel.

I hadn't even thought of some of this stuff until now. Rather embarrassing at this point.

It's pretty rigid and set in its ways, though.

With National Novel Writing Month fast approaching, I look upon my shelves and see I own six books on writing. The ones by Lawrence Block and Stephen King are by far the ones I've gotten the most use out of. The others are by authors I've never heard of and are like asking a psychic for winning lottery numbers. If they already know the winning numbers, why are they giving them to you instead of using them themselves? Surely being a millionaire pays better than psychicing over the phone.

I'll be honest, I don't remember much about this book other than Frey's methods sucking all the spontaneity out of writing. If I need 50-75 pages of documentation about characters and setting before I ever type a word, I'm probably going to run out of steam during the preparation.

As for my analogy about phone psychics and the lottery, Frey has 12 books to his credit. 5 are about writing. How about holding on to those lottery numbers for yourself?

Do you want to be a writer? Do you want to construct masterful narratives and compelling characters with realistic motivations? Well, How To Write A Damn Good Novel could help you out.

James N. Frey wrote How To Write A Damn Good Novel way back in 1987. What he says still applies to the techniques of story craft, though. People have no interest in a story about a person who has breakfast. Things have to happen to the characters. The book is clear and concise. It helps that it gets all its advice in under 200 pages.

Frey has some favorite examples that he refers to repeatedly. He uses Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, and Gustav Flaubert's Madame Bovary.

I enjoyed the book. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

meh.

it's not useless, mind, but... i've read a fair number of these books over the years, and this one struck me as particularly dull. first off, it's mistitled. it does not teach you HOW to write a damn good novel, it conveys pointers as to what types of things go into writing a novel. there is a difference, but i am not sure mr frey would appreciate the nuance.

which brings me to why only 2 stars when it's "not bad". i docked the book for several shortcomings. for one, it's a repackaging of The Art Of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives -- he quotes from it frequently. maybe a modernized version was needed, but why then use as examples writers most of us read in school, but not for pleasure? yes, yes, they were masters, but nobody who buys this book will ever write like dickens or even want to. could you even get published today if you did? ;) that's what makes the book dated, not that it was written in the 1980s (i think we can all extrapolate from references to typewriters and whiteout).

lastly, the dogmatic tone turned me off. he has his way, and that's apparently the one true way. no, thanks. especially not since IMO he is just plain wrong when it comes to premise, and he's much too limiting in how to start a novel. and he's sadly judgmental and narrow-minded about imagists, but that's more a matter of taste.

in short, this is alas not a damn good book about novel writing.

Uzreiz teikšu - šī nav grāmata par to, kā sarakstīt labu romānu; tā ir par to, kā sarakstīt New York Times bestselleru, kas, manuprāt, lielākoties ir antonīms labai grāmatai. Tieši tāpēc es sagaidīju daudz vairāk to Freja izslavēto triku, kā piesaistīt un noturēt lasītāju. Toties ūdens liešanas gan netrūka...

No pozitīvajām lietām - man patika viņa no bullshit approach un vieglā lasāmība. Laba pļauka bija sadaļa par 7 rakstnieku grēkiem un draudzīgi brutālais atgādinājums, ka viens talants bez smaga darba, kas var likt ziedot ļoti svarīgas lietas, nav nekas. Lēnais un apņēmīgais bruņurupucis vienmēr uzvarēs iedomīgo trusi, kuram visu laiku atrodas attaisnojums nerakstīt (traucē darbs? Pamet to! Traucē partneris? Pamet to arī! Iestājies rakstnieka bloks, jo uzskati, ka nevari šobrīd uzrakstīt tekstu, kas atbilstu taviem augstajiem standartiem? Nu tad tu esi nejēga!)

3,5 zvaigznes, bet nenoapaļošu uz 4, jo esmu piekasīga un riebīga :)

Really don't like the boastful tone of the author, but can't deny I learned a lot from the book.