Reading Paper Hearts, Volume 1: Some Writing Advice

Bird by Bird meets Save the Cat in this new writing advice book by NY Times bestselling author Beth Revis. With more than 100000 reads on Wattpad, this newly expanded and rewritten edition features 350 pages of content, including charts and a detailed appendix.
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Fight the blank page.

When it comes to writing, there's no wrong way to get words on paper. But it's not always easy to make the ink flow. Paper Hearts: Some Writing Advice won't make writing any simpler, but it may help spark your imagination and get your hands back on the keyboard.

Practical Advice Meets Real Experience

With information that takes you from common mistakes in grammar to detailed charts on story structure, Paper Hearts describes:

-How to Develop Character, Plot, & World

-What Common Advice You Should Ignore

-What Advice Actually Helps

-How to Develop a Novel

-The Basics of Grammar, Style, & Tone

-Four Practical Methods of Charting Story Structure

-How to Get Critiques and Revise Your Novel

-How to Deal with Failure

...And much more!

BONUS! More than 25 "What to do if..." scenarios to help writers navigate problems in writing from a NY Times Bestselling author who's written more than 2 million words of fiction.

Review

"Each book [in the Paper Hearts series] is refreshingly well organized and accessible. ...Revis gets straight to the heart of matters such as story structure, offering tools and sample outlines. The books are very much focused more on the 'how' to write than the 'why.'" --Joanne O'Sullivan, Asheville Citizen Times

"Revis's book should find its way to the keeper shelf of both aspiring and accomplished writers." -- Publisher's Weekly

From the Author

I used to be a teacher.

When I say this, I do not mean that it was my job. I mean that it was a part of my identity. Of course, there were some bits of the job I didn't like (grading, politics, more grading), but the part I did like--teaching--was something that I loved so wholly that it became an ingrained part of who I was.

Or perhaps it was who I always was, and I just didn't know it.

Whenever there was a concept or theory or problem that I couldn't quite grasp, I taught myself by breaking it down into its elements and thinking of how I was learning, not just what I was learning. My notes when I was a student were always a mess of charts and arrows and connections between ideas (and short stories and poems scribbled in the margins).

Everyone has a different way of thinking, and my way of thinking tends to be an analysis of how an idea develops. I do not at all believe in muses, although I do believe in inspiration. I don't get writer's block--I discover bad story structure. Stories themselves are layers--not just in history and symbolism, but also in structure and plot and character development. Just like when I was a teacher and would find lesson plans in the oddest places, now I read stories and tend to see beyond the words, Matrix -like, into the scaffolding.

I say this now so that you understand any advice I give is merely what has worked for me, and this all comes from my own self analysis. I am not at all an expert, and you should never entirely trust anyone that tells you "how to write." Write the way you write--if it gets words down on paper, it's more than good enough. But this book is the sort of thing that would have helped me when I was starting out, so I thought I'd share it with you.

From the Back Cover

Complete Your Collection

Paper hearts, Volume 2: Some Publishing Advice discusses the different paths to publication; the advantages and disadvantages of both traditional and self publishing; how to write a query, cover copy, synopses and more. This book is a must have for any writer seeking any mode of publication!

After publication, your best resource to get started in marketing is Paper hearts, Volume 3: Some Marketing Advice. This book will get you started with social media, shows you the steps of how to plan a book tour (online and in real life), what swag is essential and what can be avoided, and much more!

About the Author

Beth Revis is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Across the Universe and its sequels, as well as The Body Electric, more than a dozen published short stories, and a forthcoming YA novel from Penguin/Razorbill. She currently lives in rural North Carolina with her boys: one husband, one son, and two massive dogs.

Prior to becoming a full time novelist, Beth spent a lot of time writing books that didn't sell. Paper Hearts is the book she wished she had during that time.