Writing the Blockbuster Novel
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Narrated by:
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Michael Russotto
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By:
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Albert Zuckerman
About this listen
Every novelist dreams of it - writing the book that rockets to the top of the best-seller lists. Now, they can see how it's done, up close, in an audiobook by an agent who has sold manuscripts that turned into hits. Here Albert Zuckerman covers the essential elements of the blockbuster novel and shows writers how to put them to work in their books. Zuckerman covers the subject thoroughly, from creating outlines and building larger than life characters to injecting suspense and more. His instruction is decisive, direct and clear and is supported with examples from Gone With the Wind, The Godfather, and other blockbusters.
©2013 Al Zuckerman (P)2013 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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The Last Love Song
- A Biography of Joan Didion
- By: Tracy Daugherty
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 26 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne, whom she met while the two were working in New York City, when Didion was at Vogue and Dunne was writing for Time. They became wildly successful writing partners when they moved to Los Angeles and cowrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction.
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Riveted for 1591 miles
- By Kaysi12 on 04-11-16
By: Tracy Daugherty
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Reading Like a Writer
- By: Francine Prose
- Narrated by: Nanette Savard
- Length: 8 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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In her entertaining and edifying New York Times bestseller, acclaimed author Francine Prose invites you to sit by her side and take a guided tour of the tools and the tricks of the masters and discover why their work has endured. Written with passion, humor, and wisdom, Reading Like a Writer will inspire listeners to return to literature with a fresh eye and an eager heart.
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Practical, literate, generous
- By Gare on 04-13-08
By: Francine Prose
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Zelda Fitzgerald
- The Tragic, Meticulously Researched Biography of the Jazz Age's High Priestess
- By: Sally Cline
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 17 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Zelda Fitzgerald was the mythical American Dream Girl of the Roaring Twenties who became, in the words of her husband, F. Scott Fitzgerald, "the first American flapper." Their romance transformed a symbol of glamour and spectacle of the Jazz Age. When Zelda cracked up, not long after the stock market crash of 1929, Scott remained loyal to her through a nightmare of later breakdowns and final madness.
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The Beautiful and the Bungled
- By Silverthorne on 12-08-17
By: Sally Cline
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Romantic Outlaws
- The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Her Daughter Mary Shelley
- By: Charlotte Gordon
- Narrated by: Susan Lyons
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Charlotte Gordon's new work is a fresh look at the lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley, who together comprise one of the most illustrious and inspiring mother-daughter pairs in history.
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Tons of info, poor format choice.
- By Gotta Tellya on 02-06-17
By: Charlotte Gordon
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Inga
- Kennedy's Great Love, Hitler's Perfect Beauty, and J. Edgar Hoover's Prime Suspect
- By: Scott Farris
- Narrated by: Scott Farris
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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In addition to her romance with Kennedy, Arvad married four times - including to an Egyptian prince, the brilliant filmmaker Paul Fejos, and the famed cowboy movie star Tim McCoy. She had affairs with Wall Street financier Bernard Baruch, the noted surgeon Dr. William Cahan, and Winston Churchill's right hand man, Baron Robert Boothby. But by all accounts her admirers among the European and American elite loved Inga not for her physical beauty, but for her joie de vivre.
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Excellent Kennedy Read
- By James P. Barraza on 04-14-17
By: Scott Farris
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The Sisters
- The Saga of the Mitford Family
- By: Mary S. Lovell
- Narrated by: Annie Wauters
- Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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This is the story of a close, loving family splintered by the violent ideologies of Europe between the wars. Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; the ethereally beautiful Diana was the most hated woman in England; and Unity Valkyrie, born in Swastika, Alaska, would become obsessed with Adolf Hitler.
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Great story, terrible reader
- By Victoria on 02-27-14
By: Mary S. Lovell
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Careless People
- Murder, Mayhem, and the Invention of the Great Gatsby
- By: Sarah Churchwell
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its publication in 1925, The Great Gatsby has become one of the world's best-loved books, delighting audiences across the world. Careless People tells the true story behind F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, exploring in newly rich detail the relation of Fitzgerald's classic to the chaotic world he in which he lived. Fitzgerald set his novel in 1922, and Careless People carefully reconstructs the crucial months during which Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald returned to New York in the autumn of 1922.
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Fascinating study of the Fitzgeralds and Jazz Age
- By Sand on 06-11-14
By: Sarah Churchwell
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The Voice is All
- The Lonely Victory of Jack Kerouac
- By: Joyce Johnson
- Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie
- Length: 16 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Voice Is All, Joyce Johnson - coauthor of the classic memoir Door Wide Open, about her relationship with Jack Kerouac - brilliantly peels away layers of the Kerouac legend to show how, caught between two cultures and two languages, he forged a voice to contain his dualities. Looking more deeply than previous biographers into how Kerouac's French Canadian background enriched his prose and gave him a unique outsider's vision of America, she tracks his development from boyhood through the phenomenal breakthroughs of 1951 that resulted in the composition of On the Road.
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Kerouac's Voice
- By Robert L. Stofel on 09-26-12
By: Joyce Johnson
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Without Lying Down
- By: Cari Beauchamp
- Narrated by: Holly Palance
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Cari Beauchamp masterfully combines biography with social and cultural history to examine the lives of Frances Marion and her many female colleagues who shaped filmmaking from the early teens through the 1940s. Frances Marion was Hollywood's highest paid screenwriter - male or female - for almost three decades, wrote almost 200 produced films and remains the only woman to win two Academy Awards for original screenwriting (The Big House and The Champ).
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A Must Read
- By Robert Wallace on 03-19-19
By: Cari Beauchamp
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The Novel of the Century
- The Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misérables
- By: David Bellos
- Narrated by: David Bellos
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Putting a century of scholarship on one of the world's most enduring popular novels into accessible, narrative form, this new approach to a classic of world literature is written for a wide general audience. Packed full of information about the book's origins and later career on stage and screen, The Novel of the Century brings to life the extraordinary story of how Victor Hugo managed to write his novel of the downtrodden despite a revolution, a coup d'etat, and political exile.
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how hard to write a book
- By James Grohs on 08-06-24
By: David Bellos
What listeners say about Writing the Blockbuster Novel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Josiah
- 10-25-16
The Exception
Much of the writing "self-help" guides out there are similar to celebrity rehab facilities, rarely beneficial and most likely a lost cause. Zuckerman's guide is the exception. Full of practical examples and actual outlines, first drafts, and revisions, Writing the Blockbuster Novel takes your from the crib to the grave of the writing process.
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- Victoria Evangelina
- 09-27-14
treasure
A treasure for writers, willing to put a lot of hard work in their manuscript, in order to make it as commercially good as possible.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dan Portnoy
- 10-29-15
Crucial for Authors or soon to be authors!
The outlining tutorials, revising stakes and beats in each chapter were so helpful. Zuckerman helps you visualize what your book can be.
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- Chinwe
- 09-13-16
Awesome!
The way he used real examples from existing novels to show the journey of the outline through 4 drafts is priceless. Highly recommended
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- PB&MO
- 12-23-21
Helpful
I’ll be honest. I knew most of what was discussed in this book and from more engaging sources. Still, what was covered was good. A lot doesn't work well as an audiobook, such as examples of work that's been rewritten for study purposes. I'd recommend buying the paperback for that reason.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Virginia
- 07-13-15
Good but unnecessarily toooooo long
He makes some great points but I get lost in all the long written examples. If only this book could be shortened, and we don't have to hear long examples of other books, it would be a much much better book. It seemed as though he had to fill a word count for a publisher.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Aaron
- 07-22-24
A Masterclass for Novelists
I read this book 20 years ago, and recently discovered the Audible version. Zuckerman’s insights into the publishing industry are illuminating, and his critical analyses of ‘The Godfather,’ ‘Gone with the Wind,’ and two more bestsellers are authoritative and always interesting. This book is equal to a semester or more in an MFA in creative writing program.
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- Jaro
- 10-04-13
Disappointed
What disappointed you about Writing the Blockbuster Novel?
The book was heavily dated, inexact and sweeping in its descriptions of writing techniques, and it leaned too much on lengthy examples without distilling from them the core of the craft.
You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?
No redeeming qualities, alas.
Any additional comments?
One wonders why audible does not instead produce the really good books on writing, such as Dwight Swains Techniques of the Selling Writer.
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7 people found this helpful