Essential. Maas describes the elements of a “breakout” novel, showing how to make any plot or story more compelling. He pulls examples from recent (well, recent to the year 2000, which is when the book was written) novels to illustrate each of his points, and even has exercises in each chapter you can do for your own novel.
I’m already mixing in his approach as I prepare for NaNoWriMo. It’s given me another set of questions to ask about my characters, plot, and setting, to help me push them to a higher level.
Three things I learned about writing:
- People have been talking about the death of the mid-list since the 1970s. Don't let it phase you.
- Escalating stakes doesn't mean making the one danger greater. It means adding more, different, dangers for the protagonist.
- Characters need to be larger-than-life. Find the extraordinary in ordinary people, and bring that to life.
