Brewing Fine Fiction

This will, I believe, turn out to be a very useful book for a want-to-be author, such as myself. Why the doubt? Nothing to do with the book but because of my stinginess. I bought a very cheap electronic notebook PC to use for e-books and, naturally it was a disaster. Following an excellent recommendation from a friend, I have now ordered a Kindle but, there is a delay due to low stocks.

I have been reading this tome upon my PC and, as a founder member of the Luddite Union, I do not enjoy the experience - although my son assures me that it is the only way to read!

Between grumbles, caused by the above, I have found this to be a practical book giving sensible advice and helpful projects to start the flow of creative juices. When I have a show more better means of reading same, I feel that it may well be a five star book and so, apologies for the meanness on my part of only awarding it four. show less

When I won "Brewing Fine Fiction" from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, I was a little confused. Why did I get a book about writing? Wasn't this some cheesy collection of essays by losers who couldn't get their stuff published anywhere else?

Was I ever wrong. This anthology of practical writing advice featured work by many accomplished and widely published writers; but not only were the authors successful, they also all approached this project with wit, grace, and humor. Every essay prompted me to try something new in my (painfully amateur) writing. Topics ranged from scheduling writing into busy days, to the nitty-gritty of research for fiction, to considering alien intelligences in your work. The pages abound with wisdom and show more encouragement for the novice.

Although the book's writers work in many genres, this book is most useful to those interested in writing science fiction and fantasy. I found the warnings about literal metaphors in science fiction simultaneously humorous and useful--heck, the whole book was humerus and useful. I have many books "on writing" in my collection, but most of them collect dust forever on my shelves, with only their authors' egos blowing off the page every now and again. Alternatively, "Brewing Fine Fiction" made for lovely evening reading, as enjoyable as an educational experience can possibly be. A fine array of essays--I will recommend this to everyone in my writing group. show less

This book was given to me through the Early Reviewers-program.

Brewing Fine Fiction (love that title!) is basically a how-to-book regarding everything that goes in to the craft of writing; from the task of writing itself, to publishing and marketing; from getting the creative juices flowing, preventing and/or curing the dreaded writer's block, to how to write a good synopsis of your work; and everything in between!

Now, I'm not an aspiring author and I still found this book, or rather collection of essays, both very interesting and informative. I felt I learned a lot about the craft of writing - and, unexpectedly, quite a bit about horses too! Striking the balance between good hard facts, (seemingly) wise advice and a good dose of humor, show more Brewing Fine Fiction makes for an informative and satisfying read.

Personally, I found the chapter "On Being a Professional Amateur" by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff to be the most helpful and informative of the bunch. By using sample sentences as examples of common errors or clumsy formulations, explaining what makes them mediocre and sometimes downright badly written and then showing ways in which to improve them.

As earlier stated I have no interest in pursuing writing as a career and neither do I have any experience writing fiction, therefor I feel that I'm not really one to judge whether these are good advice or not; I lack the experience needed to assert the value of these pieces of advice, the trick and tips offered in [Brewing Fine Fiction]. Good or not, all I know is that they sure have me convinced! :) show less

No book on the techniques of fiction writing is going to transform someone into a great writer, but a good book can help a writer improve, no matter what stage their career. And undoubtedly 'Brewing Fine Fiction' is a fine volume on the craft and techniques of writing.

It's good to see it dispense with the oft-used sequential approach (plodding from ideas to drafting to finding an agent to marketing, etc.) which can be a tad tiresome for anyone other than an absolute novice. Instead, the book offers an eclectic mix of articles that run the whole gamut of problems faced by writers at all levels of the game. Big Name Authors are doling out the advice, people who know what they are talking about. (At the risk of upsetting those not show more mentioned, the likes of Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, and Patricia Rice spring to mind). By way of example, we get some brilliant down-to-earth advice on plotting from Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff (developing the bridge metaphor), key insights into what makes a good title from Brenda Clough, Irene Radford's observations on how to bring landscape into the story without slowing the plot -- and dozens more besides.

The articles are grouped into five main sections: Basics, Craft, Research, Marketing and The Writer's Life. Written by a wide-ranging group of authors, each chapter is short, engaging and above all genuinely helpful to anyone who cares enough about their writing to want to improve. It's a book to dip into or read at one sitting; your choice.

A nice touch is the quote that closes each article. (My favorite has to be Sinclair Lewis's "It is impossible to discourage the real writers -- they don't give a damn what you say, they're going to write," which sums up everything needing to be said about determination.

It's a cliche but there really is something for everyone in 'Brewing Fine Fiction'. There are a good few 'how to' writing manuals on my bookshelf but there's only a small number I take down to reread. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those I return to frequently, whether for information or merely inspiration. Highly recommended. show less

I received this book as part of the LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme.

I haven't read many "how-to" books for writers, mainly because those few that I have read have been completely unhelpful. For that reason, I probably wouldn't have read this book if I hadn't get it from Early Reviewers.

I'm extremely glad that I did get hold of a copy. Brewing Fine Fiction is a well written, entertaining and informative guide to all aspects of writing fiction. The short essays cover everything from finding ideas, writing titles, grammar and sentence construction, and finding time to write, right through to what to do with it when you've actually managed to write a book - e.g. finding an agent, figuring out which contracts are good deals and which show more you should turn down, etc.

I have to admit that I don't really harbour ambitions to be a professional writer - I occasionally scribble, but I don't see myself ever completing and selling a successful novel - so the later chapters of the book were of less interest to me. I can see that they would be very useful to someone who actually did want to publish, though. One chapter in particular, 'Market Your Heart' by Patricia Rice, is a very good, honest look at what it actually takes to be a successful writer (i.e. to live off the money made from writing).

The chapters are mostly short and to the point, which makes this an ideal book to dip in and out of. I know I'll go back to certain chapters again, as and when I need to. It's written in a clear, accessible style, and is entertaining enough to hold the reader's interest even if s/he is not an aspiring professional writer. One I'll definitely recommend to anyone at all interested in writing fiction. show less

This is a compilation of pieces by denizens of a website who have been published: the tag line for the book is "Advice for writers from the authors at Book View Café". It is an extremely mixed bag, in content and quality. The overall theme I came away with, funnily enough, is "no one can tell you how to write" ... That, and "Get published? Don't hold your breath."

The e-book is nicely arranged along the chronology of producing a finished, possibly published work, beginning with "The Basics" and "The Craft" and moving on to "Research", "Marketing Your Work", and then to the catch-all chapter for everything that didn't fit elsewhere "The Writer's Life". My understanding is that all of the articles were culled from the website, but some show more of the articles were not only clearly written for another venue entirely but were grafted into this project without any editing to smooth the join.

Some of the articles are funny, some sharp and erudite, many helpful in one way or another. Others are of the sort of writing that give me hope: if this person's writing can be published, surely mine can. It's a gamut of very different voices and messages, with no real binding theme apart from "stuff about writing and getting published" - and, as I said, the latter is spoken of in the same sort of terms as might be used for winning the lottery. I don't know if the intent is to discourage, but if it was it worked. I know that the economy has made it all more difficult. I know the interwebs have changed the game substantially. But this ... I suppose it's better to go into something with no illusions, with a realistic outlook and full understanding that it won't be all beer and skittles. It is, though, a sad thing to have every shred of optimism and hope snuffed out. show less

This wasn't really the book I was looking for. As a series of essays, it crosses the spectrum of writing, and the essays are highly variable. Some of them are focused on the basic mechanics of writing, but I already know that I have to polish my text. What I expected (from the title) was a book on how to work through the process of getting ideas out of my head and into a fully formed piece of writing. The "brewing" process, if you will. While some of the essays will certainly help with this, the end-to-end experience of the book itself is disjointed.

[Edit: Now that I read other reviews, I wonder whether my perspective on this book isn't shaped primarily by my difficulties reading it on screen and making sense of it as a book, rather show more than as a sequence of essays.]

From another reading-experience perspective, this was the first e-book I have read. I missed the paper. I missed the Book. I don't have a reader, so I was stuck sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time, and I didn't like it. Unless I come by a reader, I probably wouldn't get another e-book unless there were no paper version available. show less