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1. A page-turning "high concept."
2. A controversial issue of the day.
3. A setting against the backdrop of an important time or place in history.
4. A main character ejected from his/her childhood home/country/Promised Land (e.g., Tara).
5. High information about a topic the reader likely knows little about (nuclear subs, the Holy Grail).
6. A secret society
7. City mouse vs. Country mouse
8. Grappling with one's concept of a higher power
9. The American Dream (or nightmare)
10. Rebels, misfits, loners -- characters who feel out of place among their peers
11. Broken families

Unlike the other TAs, I don't think I have a "favorite" craft book per se. I have dozens that I have found quite helpful at particular times for particular purposes.  Recently most of my reading has focused on that thorny area of plotting, particularly internal vs. external plot.  Some texts that have been esepcially useful:
20 Master Plots and How To Build Them by Ronald Tobias
The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master by Martha Alderson
Steal This Plot: A Writer's Guide to Story Structure and Plagiarism by June Noble and William Noble

I want to mention another book in this vein that may not exactly qualify as a craft book but that I have been reading with great interest.

Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the Twentieth Century's Bestsellers, by James W. Hall, provides an academic's literary analysis of 12 common qualities of 12 top-selling (adult) novels, from To Kill a Mockingbird to Gone with the Wind to The Godfather. 

Whether or not one is intentionally setting out to write a "commercial" novel, this is an informative and fasciating book.  Some of Hall's conclusions are certainly subject to debate, but I think I will always view popular literature (and perhaps my own ideas) through a different lens now that I've read this book. --Jeanne Marie

Hit Lit: Cracking the Code of the 20^th Century’s Biggest Bestsellers, by James W. Hall, performs a group autopsy on the biggest blockbusters of the last century.  

From Gone with the Wind to The Da Vinci Code, a dozen mega-novels reveal their common story elements:

• The heroes are mavericks.
• Forget about characters’ interior dialogue.
• The novels all contain a secret society…
• And a clock ticking down to disaster.
• An extreme sexual act of some kind, etc., etc….

I’ve tacked the list to my wall.  And as I begin my new blockbuster novel…something’s wrong.  It’s false start after false start.  These tips are short-circuiting the inspiration that normally gives my story its unique shape. 

Writing manuals — do they really help?

When I published my own writing manifesto, Story Structure to Die for, I doubted its efficacy for the same reason.  My super-simple story overview reduces the dramatic thrust to its most basic idea…and yet…

Writing to formula is no way to proceed. 

James A. Hall agrees.  In a “Bonus Chapter”, Hall warns writers against forgetting their “honest passion”.  Knowing the rules of fiction is not enough.  In Hall’s own experience… 

“I had to figure out how each [rule] expressed a deeply rooted emotion of my own.”  Hall quotes the American poet, Robert Frost:

“No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader.”

In other words, says Hall, “It had to matter to me before it could matter to anyone else.”

So, regarding all these “how-to” writing manuals, here’s MY ADVICE TO MYSELF:

• Read them.
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