"How To Write A Page-Turner" by Jordan Rosenfeld is a valuable guide that offers insights and techniques to keep readers engaged and turning the pages in your own writing, making it a must-read for aspiring authors.

This is a great and easy read for those looking to learn to create a book that will hold interest. There are lots of books out there that promote the same outcome, but this author presented information in an interesting way (book title checks out! Ha!). This would be a good resource to tab areas of weakness and keep by your writing desk to refresh your memory on ways to strengthen your story.

Honestly I spend more time reading about writing than actually writing. But in the case of Rosenfield's book that is not necessarily a bad thing! A few valuable lessons were about how central tension is to a plot. Not tension in the sense of everyone has to be fighting with each other, but rather that readers have to feel what the characters are feeling, worry for them, have faith in them. I also learn better from examples so I was glad that aside from tips and tricks Rosenfield also included deep-dives on modern classics!

First off, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be a writer, or just about anyone who has an interest in the process of writing a book. It had wonderful tips and insights on what creates a captivating read, but more than that, it explained how to go about achieving that yourself. This was done in a clear/easy to read manner, too. There was no extra "padding," but the author explained what needed to be said in order to teach someone to write a bestselling novel.

It's a very easy to read but well done book that offers a nice variety of advice. Of course it should not necessarily new or never head before adivce but it's still formulated in a good way and overall it's a well done book that deifnelty delivers what the title promises!

Discover ways to increase the tension in your story to create an exciting book.

The author breaks this book down into four sections: Essential Tension Elements, Tension With Characters, Plot Tension and Tension in Exposition. The sections include how to create more tension, examples and tension takeaways.

According to the author, there is one important truth about storytelling: “A good story is a created , stylized and crafted version of reality but is at once sharper and more intense as well as condensed, carved down to is most interesting essentials …”

At the end of a section, Jordan Rosenfeld asks the reader how they can apply to lessons learned in that section to their own asked the reader how they can apply to lessons learned in that section to their own work (i.e. “I guarantee there’s a place in your story (or scene) where you can take that element of tension up a notch. Challenge yourself to find one new place in the beginning, middle and end to add more danger.”

This book is definitely recommended.


I received an ARC from Writer’s Digest Books (F&W Media) through NetGalley. This in no way affects my opinion or rating of this book. I am voluntarily submitting this review and am under no obligation to do so.

Wow. What a great book. Not your normal how-to book by a long way. Full of great advice with examples. Now I need to put it all into practice. Recommended.

Great reference for all those that want to write, dream of writing, or are looking for inspiration. Recommend to all.

This was a great book, full of good advice for writers. The premise that tension is key to a page turner was explored in depth, with many examples from fiction. The style of writing was informative and friendly, you really felt that you were learning something from this book. A useful addition to any writer's library.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an advance ARC copy of this book.

How to Write a Page-Turner by Jordan Rosenfield is a practical book for novelists. What is your story missing? What can you add? What will make a reader not be able to put it down? This novel answers all these questions and more. I particularly liked all the examples in this book. It made the suggestions easier to grasp and easier to apply to your own writing. I loved it. I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

An excellent, helpful writing guide! Loved it!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

How To Write A Page-Turner
by Jordan Rosenfeld

If your new to writing or looking for help in writing for English Class, this book will help you through the process. It will take you through creating elements for a story. Building the plot using the created elements. Then your onto developing your characters and their place in the plot.

This would make a great reference tool.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#Netgalley

This was an interesting book. I thought the information presented was well laid out and flowed well. I really enjoyed reading it and want to try and start implementing some of what I read.

I have a journalism degree and have been writing marketing copy and news article type stories for more than 20 years. But being tired of the "same old thing," I decided that I would take on a new personal challenge: to write a fiction book. Because fiction writing is so different from what I've done in the past, I've been poring over books that will help me learn all about the craft of fiction writing. That's why Jordan Rosenfeld's "How to Write a Page-Turner: Craft a Story Your Readers Can't Put Down" caught my eye. I was happy to have the opportunity to read and review it, thanks to NetGalley and Writer's Digest Books.

"How to Write a Page-Turner" is filled with ideas and information that will turn your writing into compelling stories that the reader can't put down. Rosenfeld discusses the essential element of tension, and how to achieve it with scenarios that involve danger, conflict, uncertainty and withholding.

She shows how you can use your book's main and minor characters to create tension, not only through power struggles, but also through the use of specific words, timing and internal struggles.

Then she moves on to discuss how you can add tension to your story through plot elements. A well-placed and unexpected twist in the story can keep readers on the edge of their seats, for example. She also talks about how important it is to eliminate unnecessary words, which can deflate the rising tension.

There's so much information in this book that I read it twice. I love that at the end of each chapter, there are some recommended exercises to help you apply the techniques she's mentioned. She recommends taking your current work in progress, and asking yourself a variety of questions about tension and timing. This is very helpful.

For each of her suggestions, she includes passages from fiction books which successfully created tension using her recommended techniques. It was very helpful to read tight, descriptive passages that often built tension in just a few words or sentences. These passages were so compelling that I found myself jotting down the names of these books and adding them to my "Books I've Got to Read" list.

And that's the biggest disadvantage of this book: I now have a huge list of well-written books that I'm dying to read. When am I going to have time to write my own fiction story? (smile)

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who is interested in writing a fiction book that will capture and hold your readers until the very end!

How to Write a Page-Turner is an invaluable resource when it comes to the craft of writing fiction, whether short stories or a longer work (novella, novel, etc). It breaks down the principle elements of tension within both plot and characterisation, and offers tools and techniques to tighten your story and build/increase tension, where required.

Drawing on a number of examples from within fiction, Rosenfeld illustrates how to use tension, danger, inciting incidents, and conflict to elicit an emotional response from your reader. Bullet points at the end of each chapter offer useful summaries and points of reflection, whilst prompts and exercises encourage you to try out the elements for yourself, either within your main work or a shorter piece of experimental flash fiction.

This book is packed full of advice, tips, and tricks about the art of using tension effectively within your creative writing. It is a goldmine for any writer seeking to take their writing deeper and make their stories more powerful. A brilliant addition to any writer’s bookshelf.

I received an e-ARC from the publisher, Writer's Digest, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

How To Write A Page-Turner is a style manual and tutorial guide for story crafting by Jordan Rosenfeld. Released 19th March 2019 by F + W Media, it's 240 pages and available in paperback and ebook formats.

Apart from workshops and classroom instruction, there's a dearth of good technical information for the aspiring author. This book looks at different types of tension, how to create and maintain dramatic tension (and how much is enough and not too much), and gives tips and written examples along with the tutorial text.

This -is- a technical writing manual, and will probably have limited interest for people who aren't writers or aspiring writers. The writing examples are clearly written and the sections encourage the reader to use the lessons on their own characters and plots. The author also cleverly uses actual excerpts from illustrative passages from other works of fiction (credited of course) to illustrate the points she's making. I was interested enough in some of the works she quotes with which I was previously unfamiliar to go and follow them up.

This is a useful guide. Four stars.

This book provides great insight. The author has laid out a plan that seems easy to follow. Everything is explained in a way that a hobby writer can benefit. I'm going to share this book with my writing group and suggest they buy a copy.

4.5 Stars

Super fast, to the point, and enjoyable. More of a guide to tension as opposed to a general writing advice book, it focuses on how to ramp up tension in different ways and maintain it, only touching briefly on other aspects. I genuinely love the approach of writing specialized advice books for different areas of writing instead of lumping them all into one title.

I would say this is more of a reference book you can refer to again and again while writing or revising your books, as more of a field-guide than a one-and-done read. It features examples from current popular books which I think will especially help beginning readers grasp what they're being told and absorb it. Check this out if you're looking to keep your skills sharp, a refresher is always nice.

Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy!

This is a fab book for those looking to write their own New York Times Best Seller. It goes through everything you need and is good to read all the way through to get your head in the right space and keep by your side throughout as a reference point.

How to Write a Page Turner is a useful tool for both new and experienced writers. I know I will refer to it when writing. The book has an easy-to-follow format with helpful summaries at the end of chapters. I also like the illustrative examples.