Many people harbor the urge to turn their personal stories into a novel. With this in mind, some start writing. But before they can finish even a couple of lines, they realize that they can't come up with good plot ideas, and have difficulty sorting out a storyline. At this point, they become frustrated, thinking that writing is so hard that only gifted people can handle it. Finally, they put down their pen and give up.

In this book James Scott Bell uses his personal experience to tell us techniques and exercises for crafting a plot that grips readers from start to finish.