How to Write Action/Adventure Novels

by Michael Newton and Michael Newton

Book Overview

Fast-paced plots, white-knuckle moments, heart-stopping adventure. Learn how to pack your pages with action, from beginnings that grab to endings that leave your readers begging for more from the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898793580
• ISBN13: 9780898793581
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 159 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A lively & useful writing guide

I've got a couple of books in print, but for leisure I comb the libraries & bookstores for older "how to write" books, especially of category ("genre") fiction styles. As a fan of hard-boiled mystery with an occasional foray into action stuff, I thought Newton's book would be a lark. Imagine my surprise as it unfolds into a very good analysis of the genre markets, a deft guide to the craft of modern fiction writing, & a glimpse into the life of the best-selling novelist -- not the gazillionaires like King or Koontz of Mailer or whoever, but the scrivener who just makes a nice living at cranking out entertainment for the rest of us. Newton shows you many passages that don't quite make the grade (but went to press anyway, because that's often how it works) & chunks that he feels are golden. He berates you to make it all larger-than-life -- that's the market! -- but also stops you short of falling to mawkish self-parody. This is certainly a vital book for the mystery writer & those who do war stories, but I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a tonic before writing Western, Gothic, space adventure, or quest fantasy. It's worth ten bucks, & certainly a fiver, even though the world has changed so much since 1989 -- another great book Writer's Digest has allowed to languish.