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Crack the Code: Craft Your Novel Using Story, Scenes and Words
Unlock the secrets to writing a great book.
Bestselling author, Susan Meier, has taught hundreds of writers how to create compelling, highly memorable novels that will leave readers wanting more. She shares her secrets in Crack the Craft Your Novel Using Story, Scenes, and Words.
Crack the Code is full of strategies for writing the best book possible. Learn where to start your story, how to fix a book that's gone off track, and how to sharpen your prose to make each word matter.
Using tools like one-paragraph story summaries, action/reaction/decisions trains, and nine scene enhancers, Susan makes novel writing an organized, happy process. The concepts are simple. The tools are easy to use.
If you're struggling with cracking the code of the mechanics of executing your great idea, this how-to is for you.
Bestselling author, Susan Meier, has taught hundreds of writers how to create compelling, highly memorable novels that will leave readers wanting more. She shares her secrets in Crack the Craft Your Novel Using Story, Scenes, and Words.
Crack the Code is full of strategies for writing the best book possible. Learn where to start your story, how to fix a book that's gone off track, and how to sharpen your prose to make each word matter.
Using tools like one-paragraph story summaries, action/reaction/decisions trains, and nine scene enhancers, Susan makes novel writing an organized, happy process. The concepts are simple. The tools are easy to use.
If you're struggling with cracking the code of the mechanics of executing your great idea, this how-to is for you.
212 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 7, 2021
About the author
Susan Meier
608 books456 followersGood morning! It's a beautiful sunny beginning to the day here in Western, Pennsylvania. I'm working on my 75th book. 75th! I'm very excited about that.
I've written some fun things ... those are the Silhouette Romance titles. I especially liked SNOWBOUND BABY which was book 3 of the Bryant Baby Bonanza series which also included BABY BEFORE BUSINESS and PRINCE BABY. But my favorites for Silhouette where the books of the Brewster Baby Boom series THE BABY BEQUEST, BRINGING UP BABIES and OH, BABIES! Where three bachelors inherit triplets. Those were fun to write. I go back every now and again and read them myself for a laugh!
My Harlequins are a little (sometimes a lot) more serious than my Silhouettes, but I always deliver a heart warming story that reminds readers that family and love go hand in hand.
You'll especially see that in FALLING FOR THE PREGNANT HEIRESS where Trent Sigmund decides to help his best friend Seth's baby sister Sabrina McCallan hunt down her on-again/off-again boyfriend, Pierre, to tell him he's about to be a father. Trent tries not to fall. So does Sabrina. Who knew real love had been in their backyard all along.
Sexy or sweet, funny or sad, my characters make some serious lemonade out of their lemons! :)
Because that's how I see life. I have three kids...one of whom has epilepsy. Raising him taught me (and my husband and our other two kids) that sometimes a situation that seems bad can have its blessings.
I've written some fun things ... those are the Silhouette Romance titles. I especially liked SNOWBOUND BABY which was book 3 of the Bryant Baby Bonanza series which also included BABY BEFORE BUSINESS and PRINCE BABY. But my favorites for Silhouette where the books of the Brewster Baby Boom series THE BABY BEQUEST, BRINGING UP BABIES and OH, BABIES! Where three bachelors inherit triplets. Those were fun to write. I go back every now and again and read them myself for a laugh!
My Harlequins are a little (sometimes a lot) more serious than my Silhouettes, but I always deliver a heart warming story that reminds readers that family and love go hand in hand.
You'll especially see that in FALLING FOR THE PREGNANT HEIRESS where Trent Sigmund decides to help his best friend Seth's baby sister Sabrina McCallan hunt down her on-again/off-again boyfriend, Pierre, to tell him he's about to be a father. Trent tries not to fall. So does Sabrina. Who knew real love had been in their backyard all along.
Sexy or sweet, funny or sad, my characters make some serious lemonade out of their lemons! :)
Because that's how I see life. I have three kids...one of whom has epilepsy. Raising him taught me (and my husband and our other two kids) that sometimes a situation that seems bad can have its blessings.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 24, 2021
Having been fortunate enough to attend Susan Meier's workshops in the past, the minute I heard she had written a book on crafting your story, I knew I had to have it. I was not disappointed. Following the simple steps in the book, I feel like I'm armed and ready to write that bestseller. Thank you Susan for this amazing tool. I know I will be keeping it handy and referencing over and over again. If you are looking for the next great how-to book, you have found it.
September 26, 2023
Have you ever had an editor or contest judge tell you something like your character wasn't likable or your story just wasn't working for them or the biggie "revise and resubmit" only you have no idea how to do that?
Those are hard things to hear, and that last one comes with a glimmer of hope...if only we knew what to do...(enter this book!)
First of all, I'm a Susan Meier fan...and if you've read Susan's books you know she knows what she's doing. And even if you haven't if you take one look at her catalog and see she has written over 75 books...well, need I say more?
This book took me nearly a year to read because it is jam-packed with a master's class worth of information—basically, the entire thing is highlighted in my Kindle.
She takes the concepts so many of us have struggled with for years and makes them less daunting. It's like having a friend along with you as you dive into those things that will make the writing AND editing process easier by taking you on a step-by-step journey to "the end" and beyond.
And in such ingenious ways that it makes it all seem, well possible, so that when you close this book you feel like, FINALLY, you just might be able to do this.
Those are hard things to hear, and that last one comes with a glimmer of hope...if only we knew what to do...(enter this book!)
First of all, I'm a Susan Meier fan...and if you've read Susan's books you know she knows what she's doing. And even if you haven't if you take one look at her catalog and see she has written over 75 books...well, need I say more?
This book took me nearly a year to read because it is jam-packed with a master's class worth of information—basically, the entire thing is highlighted in my Kindle.
She takes the concepts so many of us have struggled with for years and makes them less daunting. It's like having a friend along with you as you dive into those things that will make the writing AND editing process easier by taking you on a step-by-step journey to "the end" and beyond.
And in such ingenious ways that it makes it all seem, well possible, so that when you close this book you feel like, FINALLY, you just might be able to do this.
June 10, 2025
3.5 rounded down.
Overall very technically interesting, though it did seem to push a specific "formula" which I don't think is 100% necessary at this point. My favorite parts were editing/revisions, and the section about summarizing your story in a paragraph.
Overall very technically interesting, though it did seem to push a specific "formula" which I don't think is 100% necessary at this point. My favorite parts were editing/revisions, and the section about summarizing your story in a paragraph.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews