Acknowledgments

I must thank all of the generous and thoughtful writers who have given us, in books and articles, their collective wisdom on the art of fiction. When I finally figured out that the craft was something that could be taught, I dove into a massive reading program and found a body of advice that gave me hope I could someday learn to write.

While I can’t possibly thank all of those who have helped me, I want to give credit to at least the following books that I continue to turn to:

Bickham, Jack, Writing and Selling Your Novel

Bishop, Leonard, Dare to be a Great Writer

Block, Lawrence, Writing the Novel

Browne, Renni & King, Dave, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

Bradbury, Ray, Zen in the Art of Writing

Cleaver, Jerry, Immediate Fiction

Conrad, Barnaby, Complete Guide to Writing Fiction

Egri, Lajos, The Art of Creative Writing

Frey, James N., How to Write a Damn Good Novel I & II

Hall, Oakley, The Art & Craft of Novel Writing

Kernen, Robert, Building Better Plots

King, Stephen, On Writing

Koontz, Dean, How to Write Best-Selling Fiction

Maass, Donald, Writing the Breakout Novel

Morrell, David, Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing

Stein, Sol, Stein on Writing

Swain, Dwight, Techniques of the Selling Writer

Whitney, Phyllis, Guide to Fiction Writing

Thanks also to some writer friends who looked at early portions of this work: Angela Hunt, Randall Ingermanson, and Janelle Schneider. And special thanks to my editor on this project, Kelly Nickell, and to all the folks I work with at Writer’s Digest magazine, who know that writing can be taught and prove it every day.