title: Is Life Like This?: A Guide to Writing Your First Novel in Six Months
author:  John Dufresne 
description: There seems to be a trend lately for authors of how-to-be-a-writer books to supply the reader with a time frame: six months, a year, whatever. Most novelists would probably tell you that writing a book takes as long as it takes, but you cant deny that having a schedule forces you to buckle down and actually write, as opposed to thinking about writing. And thats Dufresnes goal: to get you writing. He covers the usual groundcharacter, plot, dialogue, etc.but what makes this guide especially interesting is the way the author takes you through his own story-development process, beginning with a simple character observation and building it, detail by detail, motivation by motivation, into a fully fledged plot. Watching how its done, and not merely reading about the process, could be a definite boon to some would-be novelists. Recommended highly for its hands-on, user-friendly approach. --David Pitt
zlib_text: **Table of Contents**
  
   ___Title Page_ __
  
  ___Copyright Page_ __
  
    
  
  CHAPTER 1
  
  CHAPTER 2
  
  CHAPTER 3
  
  CHAPTER 4
  
  CHAPTER 5
  
  CHAPTER 6
  
  CHAPTER 7
  
  CHAPTER 8
  
  CHAPTER 9
  
  CHAPTER 10
  
  CHAPTER 11
  
  CHAPTER 12
  
  CHAPTER 13
  
  CHAPTER 14
  
  CHAPTER 15
  
  CHAPTER 16
  
  CHAPTER 17
  
  CHAPTER 18
  
  CHAPTER 19
  
  CHAPTER 20
  
  CHAPTER 21
  
  CHAPTER 22
  
    
  
  ___ABOUT THE AUTHOR_ __
  
  > _“I wrote my first short story when I was seventeen and wrote dozens more
  > before any of them were accepted for publication. Luckily most of these
  > stories have been lost. I switched to plays and they were worse. Finally,
  > after World War II, at the age of twenty-eight, I started my first novel. I
  > knew immediately that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my
  > life.”_
  
  _—MARIO PUZO_
  
  First published under a pseudonym in 1967, _Six Graves to Munich_ was Mario
  Puzo’s literary predecessor to his legendary novel, _The Godfather_ . In this
  unsung classic, Puzo’s trademark unflinchingly stark writing style, vivid
  descriptive skil