Book cover of The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Emotional Craft of Fiction as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

One of the most important elements, to me, in a novel is emotionality. Regardless of genre, a great commercial novel in any genre needs to trigger emotion in readers. But it’s very hard to do and do well. Maass’s book is so unique. I love his objective to burrow deep under the surface of the plot, characters, and structure to get to the heart of any story.

If you want to write a great book, you have to engage readers’ emotions—it’s that simple. He explores the inner and outer landscapes of emotion, the emotional world of your story (great for…

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