
The Emotional Craft of Fiction
How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface
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Narrated by:
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Timothy Andrés Pabon
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By:
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Donald Maass
About this listen
Engage your readers with emotion.
While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you.
That's where The Emotional Craft of Fiction comes in. Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers. Topics covered include:
● Emotional modes of writing
● Beyond showing versus telling
● Connecting the inner and outer journeys and much more
Readers can simply read a novel...or they can experience it. The Emotional Craft of Fiction shows you how to make that happen.
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As a fantasy writer, this book was not for me.
- By Wendy on 01-10-21
By: Lisa Cron
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The Author's Checklist
- An Agent's Guide to Developing and Editing Your Manuscript
- By: Elizabeth K. Kracht
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Over time, literary agent Elizabeth Kracht noticed that many submissions had similar problems, so she began to make a list of the pitfalls. She knew that even excellent projects could be rejected based on these surmountable issues because those on the receiving end of proposals most often don’t have the time to walk writers through needed adjustments. The checklist Kracht has created helps writers make their manuscripts good to go. It offers short, easy-to-implement bites of advice, illustrated by inspiring - and cautionary - real-world examples.
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Creating Character Arcs
- The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development
- By: K.M. Weiland
- Narrated by: Sonja Field
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Have you written a story with an exciting concept and interesting characters - but it just isn't grabbing the attention of readers or agents? It's time to look deeper into the story beats that create realistic and compelling character arcs. Internationally published, award-winning novelist K.M. Weiland shares her acclaimed method for achieving memorable and moving character arcs in every book you write.
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Why We Read (Listen To) These Books
- By C. Deputy on 06-07-18
By: K.M. Weiland
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Writing for Emotional Impact
- Advanced Dramatic Techniques to Attract, Engage, and Fascinate the Reader from Beginning to End
- By: Karl Iglesias
- Narrated by: Karl Iglesias
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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There are three kinds of feelings when reading a story: boredom, interest, and wow! To become a successful writer, you must create the wow feeling on as many pages as possible, and this requires writing that engages the reader emotionally. In his best-selling book, screenwriter Karl Iglesias explored the working habits of A-list Hollywood scribes. Now, he breaks new ground by focusing on the psychology of the reader.
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Best audiobook by far for writing screenplays
- By FilmmakerSuperNova on 07-04-20
By: Karl Iglesias
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The Seven Basic Plots
- Why We Tell Stories
- By: Christopher Booker
- Narrated by: Liam Gerrard
- Length: 38 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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This remarkable and monumental book at last provides a comprehensive answer to the age-old riddle of whether there are only a small number of "basic stories" in the world. Using a wealth of examples, from ancient myths and folk tales via the plays and novels of great literature to the popular movies and TV soap operas of today, it reveals that there are seven archetypal themes which recur throughout every kind of storytelling.
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Save your time and money, the book is worthless
- By Kindle Customer on 08-20-20
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Save the Cat!
- The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need
- By: Blake Snyder
- Narrated by: George Newbern
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Here's what started the phenomenon: This book has been a best seller for over 15 years and has been used by screenwriters around the world! Blake Snyder tells all in this fast, funny, and candid look inside the movie business. Save the Cat is just one of many ironclad rules for making your ideas more marketable and your script more satisfying.
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Don't waste your time
- By Amazon Customer on 02-05-20
By: Blake Snyder
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Help! For Writers
- 210 Solutions to the Problems Every Writer Faces
- By: Roy Peter Clark
- Narrated by: Roy Peter Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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The craft of writing offers countless potential problems: The story is too long; the story's too short; revising presents a huge hurdle; writer's block is rearing its ugly head. In Help! For Writers, Roy Peter Clark presents an "owner's manual" for writers, outlining the seven steps of the writing process, and addressing the 21 most urgent problems that writers face. In his trademark engaging and entertaining style, Clark offers 10 short solutions to each problem.
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Good advice, but novelists beware
- By Robert Jason on 06-17-20
By: Roy Peter Clark
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The Writer's Guide to Emotions and Expressions
- By: S. A. Soule
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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UPDATED 2022 EDITION! These two bestselling writing and editing handbooks, “The Writer’s Guide to Character Emotion” and “The Writer’s Guide to Character Expression” have been updated and combined to create one remarkable single volume! This comprehensive edition contains descriptive writing tools to help writers craft a riveting novel that instantly grabs a reader’s attention. Writers will gain the essential skills needed to craft realistic emotions, visceral responses, and body language to deepen characterization that you can easily and quickly apply to your own writing. ...
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Awesome
- By Danny Howell on 04-26-24
By: S. A. Soule
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Write Great Scenes
- Master Techniques to Create Scenes That Keep Readers Enthralled
- By: Meg Leader
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 1 hr and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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DO YOU want readers to find your stories un-put-downable?DO YOU want to create stories readers love? WRITE GREAT SCENES gives you a key set of tools to becoming a writer whose works readers can't stop reading. The most fundamental building block of any novel isn't the character or the plot or anything except the scenes. If you learn how to write great scenes you'll be well on your way to creating novels readers can't put down. This book breaks down what makes a great scene, the four critical elements every great scene needs, and provides you with an entire toolkit of Page-Turner Techniques ...
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Perfect solutions to what I needed.
- By Liz E. Sanders on 04-12-25
By: Meg Leader
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On Becoming a Novelist
- By: John Gardner
- Narrated by: Anthony Haden Salerno
- Length: 5 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On Becoming a Novelist contains the wisdom accumulated during John Gardner's distinguished twenty-year career as a fiction writer and creative writing teacher. With elegance, humor, and sophistication, Gardner describes the life of a working novelist; warns what needs to be guarded against, both from within the writer and from without; and predicts what the writer can reasonably expect and what, in general, he or she cannot.
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Great book, slightly irritating narration.
- By mahoneko on 06-06-15
By: John Gardner
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Stein on Writing
- A Master Editor Shares His Craft, Techniques, and Strategies
- By: Sol Stein
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 11 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether newcomers or accomplished professionals. As Sol Stein, renowned editor, author, and instructor, explains, "This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions, how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place."
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Excellent advice and examples for better writing.
- By Jane on 06-22-12
By: Sol Stein
What listeners say about The Emotional Craft of Fiction
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- tristan
- 02-12-25
Greatest Book on Emotional Writing!
This is undisputably the best book on the emotional craft of fiction writing. A must read for all authors. Will definitely recommend.
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- Reed Ramlow
- 08-08-20
Read this if you're a writer
My writing instructor, a successful author, referred me to Donald Maas’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction, and I am glad he did. Maas makes an airtight case for instilling emotion in works of fiction, and I will take heed. His emotional mastery checklists will come in very handy. I just finished the book and am already re-reading it to ensure a fuller understanding. If you’re an aspiring writer, and seek instructional material, choose this one. I am reading another book by another writing guru, but already I want to put it down. That one is formulaic; Maas’s book is inspirational.
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16 people found this helpful
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- James E Tilley
- 09-18-20
Insightful
Thoughtful and insightful this makes a great companion to the print version. I recommend having a copy of the print version or writing down the end of chapter exercises for later referencing.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Morgan Tarpley Smith
- 09-02-22
A fantastic book for novelists!!
Every novelist needs to read this novel. So insightful and eye opening. Great narration too.
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- Ric
- 09-27-22
Learn something new everyday
Like this idea of emotion not to cry and feel sad but a story within a story showing action and real emotion and feeling toward the story. To move one to write something that can cause effect and change lives to write and cause a reader to think about their own life.
This book is great and I would recommend it.
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- Love of Aithne
- 04-27-23
Great book on the craft
This book taught me a lot and left me with inspiration to go and be the kind of writer I want to be.
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- Jo Phillips
- 12-10-23
Helpful for Writers
Maas always explains with examples so that writers write better and deeper. This is my second book of his.
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- maria rivers
- 06-05-21
Better than “am.”
I grabbed this book based on a referral from my beta reading group with hopes that it would help me understand how to become a “better writer.” Not only did this piece successfully accomplish breaking through my expectations, but it also helped me see that I AM through and through, a novelist. The text is priceless with vast knowledge, but beyond this, it helps the true writer understand her purpose of authenticity.
I highly recommend to even the most seasoned, as well as us newbies!
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- Seth Ring
- 03-07-23
Listen and then Listen Again
A gold mine of wisdom and insight into what makes stories and characters pure magic.
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- tumblingdie
- 05-27-22
Moving
I’ve found David Maass’ books on writing to be ‘must reads.’ For me they help to understand the books of others, and help develop my own skills and depth of writing…
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1 person found this helpful