Story Trumps Structure

This one is hard to rate. If you can ignore some things then this does have some good advice. I have a lot of highlights. Problem is the author inserts a lot of his opinions and they are rude and insulting in many cases!

My biggest problem? He craps on indie authors so immediately that's a big issue for me. Next, he is a “my way is the only right way” kind of guy. There isn't one way to write. And it annoys me that a pantser that has undoubtedly been told that's the wrong way is going to spit that back. Some people work better as discovery writers and some people's brains do not work that way and that's okay.

I also feel that a lot of his advice is very strongly wrapped up in thrillers. And older thrillers at that.

I checked out when he repeated that having sex scenes removed tension and basically was lazy and made it a lesser novel. To me, everything can be done well. You can have plenty of tension and also a lot of sex.

I dislike nonfiction books that slam and diss other people just because they can't do what they do and that is what this felt like.

He is very biased. But there is good info which is why I eventually finished this book but it took a while after the comments about romance/sex scenes. I made notes and am going off that.

It would be a 5 star if he didn't put down other authors that are indies, in another genre, or just generally don't write like him. It's distracting and infuriating!

I read Writing in the Dark after starting this one and am happy that Dean Wesley Smith put a disclaimer saying there is no right or wrong way to write. I think his book is better because of that and because he works to lift other writers up instead.