Writing the Breakout Novel

Writing the Breakout Novel
by Donald Maass

A breakout novel is one that rises out if its category - such as literary fiction, mystery, romance, or thriller - and hits the bestseller charts. Maass explains the elements that all breakout novels share and shows readers how to use these elements to write a novel that has a good chance of succeeding in a crowded marketplace. They'll learn to: - Create a powerful and sweeping sense of time and place - Develop larger-than-life characters - Sustain a high degree of narrative tension from start to finish - Weave sub-plots into the main action - Explore universal themes that will interest a large audience (description taken from Amazon.com)

This book was only somewhat helpful for me. There were some very similar tips to books I had already read. The section about plotting, developing things to the next level...really pushing the characters...I think I found that the most useful. Some chapters seemed a lot less helpful without really good examples.

I would skip this one in favor of some other books in the same field.