Book Review: Writing the Breakout Novel

Finished reading Donald Maass’, Writing the Breakout Novel. This is without hyperbole the best book on the craft of writing I’ve read yet. I have found that most of these craft books all say the same thing….character is key, increase conflict, yada, yada, yada. Although Writing the Breakout Novel includes many of these same tips, Maass provides quite a bit more, and most importantly delivers it an extremely easy manner.

There were times in college when I would be blessed with spectacular professors (a rare event in the Texas A&M English Dept). These professors seemed to be speaking directly to me, when in fact I was just one of hundreds in the auditorium. They were the professors of the classes that I looked forward to attending (and were usually spot-lighted by the atrocious professors in the History Dept). Reading Writing the Breakout Novel made me feel as if I was in one of those spectacular classes again.

A short snippet and some of his advice? “A breakout novelist is somewhat maniacal, possibly even sadistic. They discover what is the worst that can happen then make matters worse still.”
The book is filled with great passages that are both insightful and are fun to read.

Maass also stocks the book with passages from books that are representative of breakout novels. A great one, and one I intend to mimic in my book, On the Edge:

“I used to think that a fall was more than likely not the result of one stupendous error, or an unfortunate accident. I hadn’t learned that it can happen so gradually you don’t lose your stomach or yourself landing. You don’t necessarily sense the motion. I’ve found it takes at least two and generally three things to alter the course of a life: you slip around the truth once and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling, for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap.”
Jane Hamilton’s A Map of the World

One of these passages was particularly memorable if only because I remember reading it years ago when I read Snowcrash, and I liked it even then. It’s about a pizza deliver man’s car in the near (dystopian) future.

The Deliverator’s car has enough potential energy packed into its batteries to fire a pound of bacon into the asteroid belt. Unlike a bimbo box or a Burb beater, the Deliverator’s car unloads that power through gaping, gleaming, polished sphincters. When the Deliverator puts the hammer down, shit happens. You want to talk contact patches? Your car’s tires have tiny contact patches; talk to the asphalt in four places the size of your tongue. The Deliverator’s car has big sticky tires with contact patches the size of a fat lady’s thighs. The Deliverator is in touch with the road, starts like a bad day, stops on a peseta.
Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash

Finally, I was astounded by how many of the breakout novels he cited that I have read. One that I apparently need to get, and very soon, is Shogun. He cited that more than any other novel.

Basically, I went into Writing the Breakout not looking forward to it, and thinking that perhaps it wouldn’t be geared to my particular capabilities as a writer. I was wrong. Not only did it have a strong message and easy to read content, but I would recommend it to new writers and experienced authors alike.