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hannahsmanyhobbies's review against another edition
2.0
Not the best advice....but thats just me. It sounded borin gin tone of voice.
mrkat's review against another edition
5.0
This was an excellent book about creating a plot that can help carry a work and why certain things are important while others are not. It was super inspiring to me and now I'm going to go continue working on my own story.
*this book was assigned to me by a college course on creative writing, but I do feel that this book applies to anyone who wishes to create any kind of story.
*this book was assigned to me by a college course on creative writing, but I do feel that this book applies to anyone who wishes to create any kind of story.
wandering_not_lost's review against another edition
2.0
The first half of this book is boring. It's mostly lists of things to think about when building characters, from background to physical appearance and mannerisms. If you need that type of help fleshing out a character, ok, but it was a damn slow beginning to a book titled "ways to bring fiction to life".
And then one of the few times the author switches from a generic-character-"he" to contemplation of a woman as a character, and the very first thing he suggests you think about is "are her breasts large or small?". I rolled my eyes so hard I hurt something and dropped the book literally on the floor right then and there.
I picked it up later, skipped through the rest of the stuff on character design, and it got good enough to finish. Particularly the chapters on plotting, context, and suspense had some useful reminders and tips. But really this book didn't earn a spot on my shelf: I took less than a page of notes and tossed it on the donate pile.
And then one of the few times the author switches from a generic-character-"he" to contemplation of a woman as a character, and the very first thing he suggests you think about is "are her breasts large or small?". I rolled my eyes so hard I hurt something and dropped the book literally on the floor right then and there.
I picked it up later, skipped through the rest of the stuff on character design, and it got good enough to finish. Particularly the chapters on plotting, context, and suspense had some useful reminders and tips. But really this book didn't earn a spot on my shelf: I took less than a page of notes and tossed it on the donate pile.
shilo1364's review against another edition
4.0
Some good ideas, a few good exercises, but much longer than it needed to be. Also a tendency to ramble. A lot of the ideas/points feel like he's stating the obvious - but then sometimes that's useful. Some were actually very useful and made me stop and think. If it were cut to the size of Strunk & White's Elements of Style, and written in more bulleted list form - instead of rambling all over the place with overly long examples - it would be more compelling / useful.
UPDATE: after re-reading my notes, I am forced to conclude that I was a bit harsh. Upgrading to 4 stars, on merits of there being a lot more useful information than I realized at first. It could still be condensed - my original opinion was lower at least in part because of the necessity of slogging through the overly wordy and lengthy examples to get at the good bits.
UPDATE: after re-reading my notes, I am forced to conclude that I was a bit harsh. Upgrading to 4 stars, on merits of there being a lot more useful information than I realized at first. It could still be condensed - my original opinion was lower at least in part because of the necessity of slogging through the overly wordy and lengthy examples to get at the good bits.
londonmabel's review against another edition
3.0
As others have said, the first few chapters are a bit too "list-ee" to be useful. And not all writers agree you need to know your characters to the degree he's suggesting. And given his talent is as an agent, not as a writer, I had trouble seeing him as an authority on that end of things (the stuff that doesn't make it to the page.)
But after that he has lots of useful ideas. If you're looking to generate ideas for increasing suspense, conflict, etc., then you'll probably get something out of it.
I found sometimes he lacked examples, though. For example in describing multidimensional characters, he talked about how difficult it is to achieve and gave examples of successful one-dimentional characters, without giving successful examples of multi. (He gave one example, Serpico, but didn't say why/how.) As I took notes I was often just taking a moment to come up with my own.
But after that he has lots of useful ideas. If you're looking to generate ideas for increasing suspense, conflict, etc., then you'll probably get something out of it.
I found sometimes he lacked examples, though. For example in describing multidimensional characters, he talked about how difficult it is to achieve and gave examples of successful one-dimentional characters, without giving successful examples of multi. (He gave one example, Serpico, but didn't say why/how.) As I took notes I was often just taking a moment to come up with my own.
emilypaull's review
2.0
Not as engaging as other books on writing I have read. Made the craft seem like work rather than magic: endless questions, tedium. Things I already knew.
xterminal's review
4.0
Noah Lukeman, The Plot Thickens: Eight Ways to Bring Fiction to Life (St. Martin's, 2002)
One would probably pick this book up thinking that it's about plot. And it is, to an extent; Lukeman's belief (which I agree with) is that plot stems naturally from characters, so in actuality this is a book about character development. And that is a good thing. I've read a whole lot of novels over the years, and static characters have always been one of my complaints. Lukeman here attempts to engage budding (and established, perhaps) writers to break out of the static-character mold. Once your characters are living, breathing beings, he posits, your books will come alive on their own.
As with Lukeman's other how-to-write books, The Plot Thickens is structured as exercise and explanation, but it's much, much heavier on the exercise this time around; fully a third of the book is nothing more than Lukeman firing questions at you. And given the length of the book, this should give you an idea of how thoroughly he wants you to know your characters. He comes up with questions I'm not sure anyone's thought to ask the people they know, let alone characters in a novel. And that's Noah Lukeman's strong point: he gets you to think, not just to follow along. I have to say that I liked this one even better than The First Five Pages. If you're an aspiring writer, Noah Lukeman is a goft; use him wisely. ****
One would probably pick this book up thinking that it's about plot. And it is, to an extent; Lukeman's belief (which I agree with) is that plot stems naturally from characters, so in actuality this is a book about character development. And that is a good thing. I've read a whole lot of novels over the years, and static characters have always been one of my complaints. Lukeman here attempts to engage budding (and established, perhaps) writers to break out of the static-character mold. Once your characters are living, breathing beings, he posits, your books will come alive on their own.
As with Lukeman's other how-to-write books, The Plot Thickens is structured as exercise and explanation, but it's much, much heavier on the exercise this time around; fully a third of the book is nothing more than Lukeman firing questions at you. And given the length of the book, this should give you an idea of how thoroughly he wants you to know your characters. He comes up with questions I'm not sure anyone's thought to ask the people they know, let alone characters in a novel. And that's Noah Lukeman's strong point: he gets you to think, not just to follow along. I have to say that I liked this one even better than The First Five Pages. If you're an aspiring writer, Noah Lukeman is a goft; use him wisely. ****
ivydally's review
3.0
I really enjoyed the chapters on inner characterization and Transcendency. I'd like to return to this book after completing my first draft.
celli's review
2.0
Skimmable, but probably worth keeping as a resource in case I get stuck on something specific.