Lesley Jones


5/5

Creating Literary Stories by William H Coles is a detailed and comprehensive guide and a must for any writer. Unlike many other books on the subject, this guide tackles often overlooked areas such as the development of strong characters and plot in far more detail. You will learn to understand the importance of dialogue that propels the story forward and build characters that readers can relate to on an emotional level. Discover the myths to writing fiction and guidelines to sharpen your skills in structuring characters, plots, narration, and writing memorable and current humor stories plus much more. Learn the various types of conflicts that are essential to any novel, including when and how to include them. Uncover the traps that many writers fall into and techniques that will give your stories that professional edge. Finally, discover your unique writing style that will engage your reader and wow them with your storytelling ability.

As a writer myself, I have read many guides on the art of fiction writing, but I have to say I have never come across a guide as comprehensive as this one. The author has covered every subject on the art of writing plus many areas that I have never seen in other books. I especially thought the section on how effective changing one word in your narrative could be to completely transform the emotions behind the dialogue. The guidelines in section two are invaluable for the planning stage of your novel, the second draft, or when you are simply lost on ways to improve the overall polish of your story. The revision chapter at the end is undoubtedly the most helpful for me, covering the main principles you need to be aware of. I would also recommend any aspiring novelist check out the author’s website for even more helpful articles which will build your creativeness and skills.