Watt makes his living screenwriting in Hollywood, as a novelist and as a creative writing teacher to the stars. This book is no gimmick, just a smart, direct approach to guiding you through writing your novel. The best practical guide to the nuts and bolts of writing fiction out there. Absolutely worth your time if you are working on a novel.
Watt is one of the best writing instructors out there. He wrote the go-to book on novel writing and here has written another gem on revision. Insightful, smart, easy to approach, and supremely practical, this book makes tackling revising your writing more manageable and easier. Not to be missed.
Like Nathanael West, Burnett takes us deep into the dark corners of Hollywood here. In a sharp, smart, funny and masterfully written novel, Burnett uses the tropes of a mystery to take a hard look at Hollywood and its vices. All of it is told by the narrator, B.K. Troop, one of the best characters created in recent memory. Marvelous.
In the tradition of John Fante and Jim Thompson's "Now and on Earth," Newman's novel centers on the struggles of a writer trying to make it. Funny as it is honest, Newman nails it. The book shines with great prose, superb characters and an honesty all too often lacking from too much of today's fiction.