I am not a novelist. I have no ambitions to become one. But I do write and publish books, and have many friends who write fiction for a living. Most of the self-publishing advisory books I have read have been strong on marketing, strong on how-to-publish, but skip the actual how-to-write-a-book side of things.
My own writing career began with The Swordsman’s Companion, which owes much of its readableness and coherence to one man: my old friend and fellow swordsman M Harold Page.
He was then in the tech-writing business, and took my first draft of incoherent drivel, ripped it to shreds, and showed me how to write instructions properly. He went so far as to create and send me a template to work from. Now that’s a friend. He is also the man responsible for making me learn to touch-type.
He is now a published novelist, making a living from his writing. His stuff is great (get Marshal Versus the Assassins for a very enjoyable medieval adventure romp), but I am even more excited by his latest effort: Storyteller Tools.
In it he leverages his years of experience writing technical manuals to come up with a clear and concise set of outlining and story-crafting techniques that will make it as easy as possible for you to get your long-buried novel out of your head and into readers’ hands.
Even if you don’t intend to write a novel any time soon, if you have read and liked any of my how-to books, buy this one too; I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. I’ll go a step further: buy it, read it, and if you don’t think it’s worth the money, let me know and I’ll send you any one of my ebooks you like for free, to make up for it.
What are you waiting for? Get it from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk.
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