Showing results by author "James Scott Bell" in All Categories

what if it's not the beginning or the end that is the key to a successful book? What if, amazing as it may seem, the place to begin writing your novel is in the very middle of the story? According to writing teacher James Scott Bell, that's exactly where you'll find your story's heart and heat. Bell's "Mirror Moment" is the secret, and its power is available to any writer, at any stage of the writing process...Bell presents a truly unique approach to writing a novel, one that will stand the test of time and serve you all your writing life.

Most people think the way to write a best seller is to have a lot of talent and even more luck. As you will learn, there is a recipe for success, and luck may be the least important ingredient in creating a best seller. No one has cracked the code better than James Scott Bell. A best-selling author himself, and the author of the number-one best seller for writers, Plot & Structure, Mr. Bell has been teaching the principles of best-selling fiction for over 20 years, principles that apply to any genre or style.

There is one sure-fire way of improving your novel fast...You may know the fundamentals of how to write fiction. You may be more than competent in plot, structure and characters. But if your dialogue is dull it will drag the whole story down...Don't sabotage your chances of selling your work to readers or publishers because the dialogue is unexceptional. Dazzle them with what the characters say. How to Write Dazzling Dialogue will give you the tools to do it.

Young, idealistic law clerk Rachel Ybarra has just been handed a career-making opportunity - helping in the prosecution of an infamous leader of the Russian Mafia. But when the star witness turns up dead, Rachel discovers the case is not merely a battle for the truth - it's a battle for her life.

Super Structure represents over two decades of research on what makes a novel or screenplay entertaining, commercial, original, and irresistible. Contrary to what some may think, structure is not a nasty inhibitor of creativity. Quite the opposite. Properly understood and utilized, structure is what translates story into a form audiences are wired to receive it.

Mike Romeo is an ex-cage fighter living off the grid in LA. Running from a dark guilt that dogs him, he's finally found a place where he can rest and even heal. Then a church blows up. And with it all of Romeo's hopes to be left alone. When he stops to help an injured woman whose kids are missing, someone decides to put a target on his back.

A man shoots his young wife to death. He drives to a freeway overpass, gets out, shoots himself, and drops 100 feet to the freeway below, crushing a Toyota Camry. Inside is an elementary school teacher named Jacqueline Dwyer, who dies at the scene. Ty Buchanan is a hotshot lawyer. Jacqueline Dwyer was the woman he was going to marry. Ty goes into a tailspin. And it gets worse when a mysterious man finds him at the funeral and says Jacqueline's death may not have been an accident after all.

What are the secrets for writing a great ending for your novel? How do you leave readers so satisfied that they'll want another book by you, right now? What tools and techniques can shape your last 50 pages into a powerful, unforgettable experience? Listen to this audiobook, and you will come away with a thorough knowledge of why great endings work and how to create them for every novel you write.

Learn the inner secrets of selling fiction to an ever-increasing audience of readers! Bestselling author and writing coach James Scott Bell brings you powerhouse techniques and strategies in this collection, much of which is from his popular posts at The Kill Zone blog. If you're serious about selling your fiction, Fiction Attack! is your battle plan for breakthrough.

Public defender Lindy Field puts her faith to the test and risks her reputation - and her life - when she defends a young man accused of a series of grisly murders. After all - he may just be innocent.

Lawyer Steve Conroy has one last chance to overcome the past that has haunted him for 25 years. But he learns that the present can be darker than any nightmare he's ever had. At the age of five, Steve Conroy saw his seven-year-old brother kidnapped from the bedroom they shared. His brother was never found. And the guilt of his silence that night has all but destroyed Steve's life. Now, 30 years old with a failing law practice, Steve agrees to represent a convicted criminal, Johnny LaSalle, who has ties to a notorious family....

From a "master of suspense" ( Library Journal) and writer of "heart-whamming" fiction ( Publishers Weekly) comes an all new suspense collection by James Scott Bell. In the full-length novella One More Lie, high-flying divorce attorney Andrew Chamberlain is on top of the legal world. He buys his suits in Beverly Hills and wins his cases in court. But one day he's approached by a friend to handle the split with his wife. That's the day things start to go very wrong for Andrew Chamberlain...up to and including murder.

How far will a father go to get back his only daughter? And how will he survive in a legal system that crushes those who can't afford to fight back? Mark Gillen has the storybook life other men dream of, complete with a beautiful wife and an adoring five-year-old daughter. Then his wife announces she's leaving him. And taking their daughter with her. The other man is a famous film director with unlimited funds and the keys to stardom and wealth for Paula. How can Mark begin to compete? But the most bitter blow comes when he is kept from seeing his daughter because of false charges....

A suspense novel that asks what if a liberal Supreme Court Justice, and the all-important swing vote, has a religious conversion that changes her whole life--and the way she views the law?

Dallas Hamilton's perfect world is torn apart when her husband, a rising superstar in the evangelical world, is arrested for the murder of a porn star.