nancyfulda ([info]nancyfulda) wrote,
@ 2008-05-27 09:51:00
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Donald Maass -- Writing the Breakout Novel
Just finished this book. Much of it was variations on stuff I've heard before, but there were some real gems, too. As I was reading it I had several flashes of inspiration for my novel-in-progress.

The most useful tidbit relates to character motivations. Maass suggests taking a scene and asking yourself what the protagonist's motivation is. The answer might be something like "needs to get information from the bad guy" or "trying to stay alive" or "looking for clues to solve the mystery". Now, Maass says, dig deeper. Dig all the way to the fundemental motivations, the ones that sound a bit corny. Deep down, the character may be motivated by the search for truth, or respect for life, or love.

Maass then says to flip it around; make the deep, underlying motivation (as opposed to the immediate goal) the character's most significant motivator during the scene, and see whether he or she behaves differently.

Ooh, I thought. Good idea.

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[info]jp_davis
2008-05-27 10:04 am UTC (link)
Funny, I just read the workbook for Writing the Breakout Novel this weekend, thinking it was the whole thing. How is the main book? I found the workbook to be like most writing advice-- some things to keep, some to throw away, mostly reminders of things I already knew but hadn't brought front-of-mind in awhile.

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[info]nancyfulda
2008-05-27 10:41 am UTC (link)
That about sums up the book. I felt that Maass was a bit wordy at times--on the other hand, if I'd been a new writer hearing most of the advice for the first time, I would have needed the extra explanations. He hit on a couple of topics that really resonated with me, including character motivations and stakes.

He also has an interesting section at the beginning where he debunks the view that publicity, self-promotion and publishing houses are what sell books. Bull, he says. Word of mouth and quality writing are what put books on the bestseller lists. And you know, he made the argument so effectively that I'm inclined to agree with him.

Not that I don't think publicity is important--you need a certain critical mass to get things rolling. But I think Maass is right that authors tend to blame failed publicity/lack of publisher support for novels that don't sell well rather than admitting that, hey, it just wasn't that spectacular of a novel.

Made me stop and think a bit, you know?

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[info]david_de_beer
2008-05-27 10:34 pm UTC (link)
interestingly enough my perception on reading it was that what motivated Maass to write the book, and who it's aimed for, is the midlist authors whose careers have stalled first, and the beginning novelist second.

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[info]wishwords
2008-05-27 11:49 am UTC (link)
I'm reading this book. I quickly learned to keep a notebook with me. It seems like every few pages I think of something that can be done to my novel.

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[info]sboydtaylor
2008-05-27 01:22 pm UTC (link)
Hah! :) That is a good idea -- goes back to the refrain that [info]toddalcott uses when analzying or writing scripts ("What does the Protagonist want?"), but applies it on a scene by scene basis. Sounds like a good way to figure out what's wrong with a scene (no stakes, because the Protagonist doesn't want anything).

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[info]ellevate
2008-05-29 01:02 pm UTC (link)
Awesome tip! Thanks for sharing. Now I'm just going to have to hunt the book down.

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