What Is FictionMaster®?

FictionMaster is used by writers whose books you may have read as well as by smart beginners. It provides practical techniques for character and plot development the writer will find in no other course or program. It is especially valuable for writers who already have drafts of material they want to improve for publication.

FictionMaster guides the writer in making characters truly memorable, unveils the Actors Studio technique for creating instant tension in any scene, shows exactly how to master suspense throughout a novel, and demonstrates a surprising and new way to revise a novel that avoids the hazard of starting on page one and growing cold on your own manuscript.

How It Works

FictionMaster enables you to transfer a paragraph, a page, or a chapter of your own writing into the program, improve it under the expert guidance of Sol Stein, and transfer it back out to whatever word processor you're used to. The learning curve is near zero. You can concentrate on writing and learning new techniques and not on computing. Novelists, playwrights, and screen writers use the extensive dialogue module in FictionMaster to make their dialogue jump off the page.

FictionMaster enables you to show a story instead of telling it, to bring flashbacks and background into the present, to master point of view, and even how to come up with the best possible title and handle for your work. (The "handle" is what you use to describe your novel to an agent or publisher; many writers rely on a synopsis of the plot, which is the worst possible thing you can do.)

Though designed for the experienced writer, it is being used successfully by smart beginners and is credited by them for helping to get their first novels accepted for publication.

The New York Times said, "We all want to write stories. Admit it. That prize-winning novel, short story, stage or screenplay is trying to get out. When he is not writing novels, Sol Stein gives lessons in the writing of fiction. These lessons have been distilled into two software series, first WritePro and now FictionMaster...FictionMaster is for writers, perhaps even published ones, with a better idea of where they are heading. You insert your own ideas into the program, characters, plots, dialogue and overcoming obstacles to publication. [Stein] is doggedly persistent, just what a writer needs from a teacher. The program could not be easier to install and use."

FictionMaster consists of 4 programs, each with a specific function:

1. Creating Memorable Characters: Characters can be blah, ordinary, interesting, intriguing, or truly memorable. How to get to "truly memorable" with every character you ever imagine.

2. Developing Page-Turning Plots: The three keys to plotting success; Crucible, Clash and Surprise; the Actors studio technique for creating conflict; how to keep the reader reading; mastering suspense and tension; building your novel step by step; and how to test your plot before the first editor sees it.

3. The Dialogue Doctor: Editors say the most common fault of rejected novels is "unbelievable dialogue." This exclusive program by a prize-winning teacher of dialogue enables you to test and improve every line of dialogue you ever write.

4. Overcoming Obstacles to Publication: How to show a story instead of telling it, how to master point of view, how to bring flashbacks into the present, how to exploit particularity, and how to come up with the best possible title and handle for your work.

Who is behind FictionMaster?

The creator of FictionMaster, Sol Stein, is a prize-winning playwright produced on Broadway, an anthologized poet, the author of nine novels including the million-copy-seller, The Magician, plus nonfiction books, screenplays, and TV dramas. He has edited and published some of the most successful writers of our century: James Baldwin, F. Lee Bailey, David Frost, Jack Higgins, and Elia Kazan, none of whom had published major work until they came under Stein's guidance. Most important, Stein won the Distinguished Instructor Award from the University of California for his amazing work with beginners.