Book ReviewsIf your characters spend the whole book sighing and nodding, this booklet of physical reactions by body part is built for you. The problem is real, but the Emotion Thesaurus does the same job with far more craft context, and…
Book ReviewsA worldbuilding guide that works on the craft side instead of the encyclopedia side: how to make a world vivid, memorable, and woven into character, theme, and plot. A solid corrective to worlds that are flat or over-stuffed, built on…
Book ReviewsThe broadest of the Writer's Digest anthologies, surveying the whole of fiction craft, character, plot, structure, viewpoint, dialogue, revision, from many contributors. A genuinely useful beginner's map, but covering everything means each element gets only a survey. A sampler and…
Book ReviewsA compilation gathering many authors on dialogue, strong on subtext and character-revealing speech. The breadth is real value, but the anthology format trades a unified method for variety, the pieces repeat and vary in depth, and the synthesis is left…
Book ReviewsThe pick of the Writer's Digest compilations, because it aims many strong contributors at a single element, character, producing depth through accumulation instead of the shallowness of the everything volumes. Strongest on motivation and interiority. The usual anthology unevenness applies,…
Book ReviewsA reference on how crimes are actually committed, the methods and patterns that lend mystery fiction authenticity, with the sharp angle that a criminal's method is both a character signature and a clue. The mid-1990s specifics are dated, and it…
Book ReviewsWhen a character is shot, stabbed, or thrown from a car, what actually happens to the body, and how long do they have? A surgeon answers, with the treatment window and realistic odds of survival. Stronger than most crime references…
Book ReviewsA physician's forensic reference on death, autopsy, and the procedures that follow, the companion to a wounding guide. Competent on the timeless basics, but its early-1990s detail is badly dated in a field transformed by DNA. A foundation to verify…
Book ReviewsThree linked skills, character, emotion, and viewpoint, built around the idea that fiction lets a reader live inside another mind. Kress is exceptional on point of view's close, middle, and distant distinctions, and smart on tying character to plot through…
Book ReviewsA reference on how law enforcement actually operates, administration, detective-division structure, rules of evidence, so police characters ring true instead of following TV shortcuts. The 1993 specifics are dated by changes in technology and practice, but the institutional grounding and…
Book ReviewsA working PI on the real craft of finding people, grounding both the method and the investigator's character so a missing-person plot rings true. The 1997 search methods are heavily dated by the digital era, but the fundamentals and the…
Book ReviewsA forty-four-page primer covering the basics of believable characters: motivation, distinct personality, consistent behavior. A serviceable orientation for an absolute beginner, but too thin for anyone past that, oversold by its marketing voice, and quickly outgrown for the fuller character…
Professional ghostwriting for executives, founders, coaches, and authors who want to get the book done right. 113+ books authored. 54+ ghostwritten for clients.
Ready to discuss your book?
BOOK YOUR PRIVATE CONSULTATIONNo pitch. No pressure.
© 2026 Richard Lowe. The Writing King. All rights reserved.
