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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Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

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