(Teensy tiny image from Barnes & Noble)

The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) by Jack M. Bickham is exactly what it says it is - 38 chapters on errors many writers make on the road to publication. As a novelist (according to Wikipedia, he wrote the book that inspired The Apple Dumpling Gang - I used to love that movie!) and writing professor, he looks at book creation from the standpoints of students, beginning writers and professionals. If you're expecting the book to reveal the great mysteries of what publishers really want, you're going to be disappointed. Bickham focuses on the basics: clear story goals, tight plot structure, dynamic characters, etc.

The most instructive chapter for me is 27: "Don't Criticize Yourself to Death." The following really gave me something to think about:

The most common formof lethal self-criticism, it seems to me, is often heard in the young writer's wail, "This story I wrote is really dumb!" Or, "This whole plot line is dumb!"

What writers who uter such lines are relaly saying, I think, might be paraphrased as follows: "This is the best I can do, but I'm deathly afraid it isn't slick and clever enough, and therefore you are going to think I'm a stupid person for having written it."

Such fears are as much a part of writing fiction as headachs, wads of crumpled paper on the floor, and rejection slips. When you write fiction, whether you realize it or not (and at some level you probably do), you are risking revelation of your dreams and deepest emotions. It's frightening to reveal yourself this way, even indirectly. Further, the act of writing is tied very close to a person's ego structure; I have seen students shaky with even a brief paragrpah of factual material. "Criticize my work, criticize my personal essence," the feeling seems to be. The most humdrum piece of writing somehow represents the writer's worth as a person sometimes. Small wonder, then, that the writer of a story or even (horrors!) a novel often gets worried sick - literally - about whether the reader may think it's dumb. Because if it's dumb, the writer is dumb. And if the writer is dumb, he is also, ipso facto, worthless, an object of potential ridicule ... doomed.

Thus, it's perfectly natural for you to worry that some character or bit of dialogue or plot line you just wrote may be "dumb."

It's natural - but it's also dangerous ... So stop it. (77 & 80)

While I didn't find Bickham's book nearly as entertaining as How to Write A Damn Good Novel, I still found it instructive. The chapters are short and to-the-point, but still cover a lot of ground. Much of what he says, especially about scene structure, reminds me of another of my favorite writing books, The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing by Evan Marshall.

Like How to Write A Damn Good Novel and The Marshall Plan, Bickham's book was written in the pre-Internet years. I wonder how the CyberSpace Age has changed the craft, if at all. What's your opinion? And what other writing books should I be reading?

What I'm finding from all these books is that writing fiction really is a no-brainer. Follow the formula and voila! You've got yourself a book. All you published authors make it look so easy ...

Grade: B

If this were a movie, it would be rated: G

To the FTC, with love: I bought this one with my own hard-earned money, and I didn't make it reviewing books. Actually, I didn't make it at all ... my husband did. And not by book blogging, either.