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  • The Emotional Craft of Fiction

  • How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface
  • Written by: Donald Maass
  • Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
  • Length: 7 hrs and 36 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (10 ratings)

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The Emotional Craft of Fiction

Written by: Donald Maass
Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
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Publisher's Summary

Engage your readers with emotion.

While writers might disagree over showing versus telling or plotting versus pantsing, none would argue this: If you want to write strong fiction, you must make your readers feel. The reader's experience must be an emotional journey of its own, one as involving as your characters' struggles, discoveries, and triumphs are for you.

That's where The Emotional Craft of Fiction comes in. Veteran literary agent and expert fiction instructor Donald Maass shows you how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers. Topics covered include:

● Emotional modes of writing

● Beyond showing versus telling

● Connecting the inner and outer journeys and much more

Readers can simply read a novel...or they can experience it. The Emotional Craft of Fiction shows you how to make that happen.

©2016 Donald Maass (P)2020 Tantor

What listeners say about The Emotional Craft of Fiction

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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic. Unbelievable.

Game-changer. The reason why this audiobook doesn’t have more 5-star reviews is because its material forces writers to put pause to what they’ve learned and have heard touted again and again all over social media from various hacks whose qualifications are strictly having studied the very recycled information which they tout and is doomed to be recycled again.

Bought a physical copy upon completion and was able to put these lessons to immediate work in a WIP.

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  • Jae
  • 2023-04-08

Not what I was looking for

I expected a book on writing craft that I could apply to novels. This is more of an exploration of fiction with some dogmatic views about storytelling sprinkled in. The author presents his personal preferences as “the right way” without reason or explanation. The pace is also slow and meandering. I found myself extremely bored and didn’t get much value from this one.

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  • Overall
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Book for writers

I found it too repetitive so it becomes boring and I decided to stop and delete.

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  • Reed Ramlow
  • 2020-08-08

Read this if you're a writer

My writing instructor, a successful author, referred me to Donald Maas’s The Emotional Craft of Fiction, and I am glad he did. Maas makes an airtight case for instilling emotion in works of fiction, and I will take heed. His emotional mastery checklists will come in very handy. I just finished the book and am already re-reading it to ensure a fuller understanding. If you’re an aspiring writer, and seek instructional material, choose this one. I am reading another book by another writing guru, but already I want to put it down. That one is formulaic; Maas’s book is inspirational.

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16 people found this helpful

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  • Rebecca R
  • 2020-05-18

Witty and worthwhile

This craft book of emotional enhancers is as much a commentary on the human condition as a how to or tool kit. The narrator is phenomenal and I felt empowered as a writer and as a human being when I was finished. A necessity for any author-aspiring or accomplished.

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12 people found this helpful

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2020-06-02

For Writers

Its a long book in comparison to some other shorter books that bring you to the craft of writing but it helped me ask the right questions about my characters and their emotions. I had been stuck in the editing process and after listening to this book I've come back to my work with all the questions and reflections. A useful book.

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10 people found this helpful

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  • Nancy Simat
  • 2022-01-29

Can’t get passed the excerpt selections

there are plenty of great novels that can be used as examples to illustrate your point that are not about Pedophila, RAPE, or molestation.

How distracting and annoying, plus why are these the examples that stick out in your mind to use?

after the third example i couldn’t finish it and wanted my money back.

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7 people found this helpful

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  • sam k.
  • 2020-09-06

not that great

I expected better from Maass. And the vocalist's delivery put me to sleep. I pass.

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6 people found this helpful

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  • sunwood
  • 2022-01-28

A fine book

A fine book, my only issue was with the narrator not saying when a quote begins and ends. Since the book is full of them and there was no audible (hehe) way of discerning quote from author voice, it was often confusing and hard to follow.

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4 people found this helpful

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  • joey carbo
  • 2021-12-20

Terribly written, ironically

The exercises may well prove helpful but the way this guy writes sounds like the worse Hallmark card. “I love necklaces. I’m not a hippy or a cross dresser…”
For real. And the flaccid narration makes it even worse.

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  • Anna D
  • 2021-11-12

non stop reciting of very long passages

ridiculous book. very disappointed. it has no substance. don't buy. trust me. there are ridiculously long citations from books that are majority of book and they really don't substantiate anything. im going to try to refund.

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  • James E Tilley
  • 2020-09-18

Insightful

Thoughtful and insightful this makes a great companion to the print version. I recommend having a copy of the print version or writing down the end of chapter exercises for later referencing.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 2023-11-26

👍

Very soft spoken and well written. This book is one of the best teaching books I have ever read or had read to me. It's extremely informative and insightful. It gives tangible details to grow your craft and exercises involving not just word play, but different ways to convey your ideas.

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