These books have proven useful to our chapter members.

• The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even If You're Not
• The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published
• The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines
• GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, The Building Blocks of Good Fiction
• Guide to Fiction Writing
• How to Grow a Novel
• Scene and Structure
• The Writer's Journey

If you're just getting started writing romance, consider this strategy, penned by one of our members.

The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even If You're Not, by John Vorhaus
ISBN: 1-879505-21-5
Publisher: Silman-James Press
Year: 1994
List Price: $14.95

Reviewed by Kay Hudson

One of my favorite writing books is THE COMIC TOOLBOX: HOW TO BE FUNNY EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT by John Vorhaus. Although the book's main focus is humor, any writer will find good information here. Even if you are striving for drama, look at the chapter on characters for a little comic relief.

The heart of the book is what Vorhaus calls "the comic throughline." As he points out, the differences between drama and comedy are those of tone, not structure ("drama is just comedy without the laughs," he says). The throughline is a terrific story spine, far more comprehensible, in my opinion, than Vogler's Hero's Journey.

Check it out for yourself. Excerpts from the book, including the throughline, are posted on Vorhaus's website, www.vorza.com. I would also recommend Vorhaus's follow-up, Creativity Rules! (2000, Silman-James Press, $15.95, ISBN 1-879505-50-9).

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Your Romance Published, by Julie Beard
ISBN: 002863196X
Publisher: Alpha Books
Year: 2000
List Price: $16.95

This guide is a terrific resource for new writers. It covers market considerations, gives practical advice on plotting and characterization (including do's and don'ts), and tackles the intimidating issues of writing queries letters and submitting a manuscript. Terrific book for newbies.

The Complete Writer's Guide to Heroes and Heroines, by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders
ISBN: 1580650244
Publisher: Lone Eagle Publishing Company
Year: 2000
List Price: $17.95

This book gives a readable, understandable view of 16 archetypes (8 heroes, 8 heroines) that function as the basis of memorable characters. An archetype is a "universal character" type that has been used through myth and fiction since time out of mind. The authors of this guide provide plenty of modern day examples from movies to demonstrate each archetype's attributes, method of handling conflict, and possible career choices.

GMC: Goal, Motivation, and Conflict, The Building Blocks of Good Fiction, by Debra Dixon
ISBN: 0965437108
Publisher: Gryphon Books for Writers
Year: January 1999
List Price: $19.95

Reviewed by Ann Peake

If you’re like me and studying craft is not your thing yet you feel a perverse need to do so anyway, then I’d recommend taking a stab at Dixon’s book. She takes a complex subject (GMC) and explains it with easy, everyday language, using well-known movies as examples. I don’t doubt that, as a result of what you’ll learn, your prose and your characters as well as your plot will improve and all without having to devote countless hours wading through over-stated, intellectual hog wash. Dixon is a writer’s writer. She gets the job done quickly (144 pages, large font, lots of white space) so you can get back to your “real” writing, stronger and more confident in your new knowledge.

Editor's note: You can order this book directly from the publisher at Gryphon Books for Writers or from Amazon.com.

Guide to Fiction Writing, by Phyllis A. Whitney
ISBN: 0871161575
Publisher: Writer
Year: 1988
List Price: $10.95

Reviewed by Sahn Sanaphol

If you're a beginning or even intermediate writer, Whitney's GUIDE TO FICTION WRITING is a solid handbook that covers the basics. Part I handles "Methods and Process", which includes planning, organization, and working habits. Part II deals with "Techniques", some of which include viewpoint, characterization, beginnings, middles, endings, conflict, goal, suspense, flashbacks, transitions, and revisions.

There's nothing ground breaking in the information, but it's delivered in a straightforward and concise 141 pages. Even the busiest writer with stacks of how-to books can squeeze it into her schedule. This book doesn't offer in-depth examinations on the craft, but does explain the essentials of writing a good novel. Reading it before starting your great novel will help you avoid some pitfalls of beginning writers. I liked that I got nearly the same information from this single book as I did slogging through a half-dozen others combined. Did I mention it's 141 pages?

How To Grow a Novel, by Sol Stein
ISBN: 0312209495
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year: 1999
List Price: $25.95

Reviewed by Chuck Emerson

Sol Stein’s pedigree is long, indeed, beginning as an award-winning playwright in 1953, then as an editor, novelist, lecturer, and writing software designer. His seminars have sold out all over the country. HOW TO GROW A NOVEL (think STEIN ON WRITING for the writer who has finished a first draft) was published in 1999, not by Writer’s Market but by St. Martin’s Press and remains in print as a hardcover, although a bit pricey at $25.95 for 240 pages. I found these chapters useful: One (The Reader is Looking for an Experience – the first paragraph on page 14 is super), Two (Is Conflict a Necessity?), Fourteen (Some Fundamentals for Emigrants from Nonfiction – very useful even for a fiction veteran), and Twenty (Appendix One: The Little Things That Damage the Writer’s Authority – practical hints, like which font to use and how to pack a manuscript so the pages don’t slide around). Some of his information may be dated, though. I just noticed on page 222 that he says a good length for a novel “… is 75,000 words, topping out perhaps at 100,000.” I have heard nothing but “right at 100,000” for single titles from editors over the last two years.

Scene and Structure, by Jack Bickham
ISBN: 0898799066
Publisher: Writers Digest Books
Year: 1999 (reprint)
List Price: $12.99

From the Elements of Fiction Writing series published by Writer's Digest books comes this gem, published in 1993.

Bickham takes you through the basic elements of a scene, describes the way scenes are constructed, and then offers discussion on variations in scene structure. The infamous "scene and sequel" discussion you may hear mentioned in critique groups or writing classes has its origins with this book.

However, the editor apparently fell asleep halfway through Chapter 7 and never woke up, so that later chapters read part stream of consciousness, part deadline rush. Still, if you can slog your way through the lack of editing, the book's a real help.

The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, by Christopher Vogler
ISBN: 0941188701
Publisher: Michael Wiese Productions
Year: 1998 (2nd edition)
List Price: $24.95

Reviewed by Cheryl Bolen

Christopher Vogler, who once plotted stories for the Disney company, says all stories have the same plot elements and archetypes found in mythology.

According to Vogler, stories are plotted according to a three-act structure.

Act I is one fourth of the book (or play or movie) and is composed of the Ordinary World, the Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Meeting with the Mentor and Crossing the First Threshold. His book gives examples of each from well known movies.

Act II represents one half of the book and is composed of four steps: Tests, Allies and Enemies; Approach to the Inmost Cave; Supreme Ordeal; and Reward.

Act III is one fourth of the book and includes The Road Back, Resurrection, and Return with the Elixir.

Just as Vogler has reduced plotting to 12 basic steps, he has reduced the cast of characters to the following eight:

• Higher Self
• Shapeshifter
• Threshold Guardian
• Trickster
• Shadow
• Herald
• Ally
• Mentor

Though other editions and variations of the original book have appeared, I still prefer my first edition.