Donald Maass

Donald Maass heads the Donald Maass Literary Agency and teaches the craft of fiction. The Fire in Fiction, published by Writer’s Digest Books in 2009, examines how novelists can create stronger emotional energy, purposeful scenes and memorable characters. Its chapters combine examples from published fiction with exercises intended for a writer’s own manuscript, reflecting Maass’s experience evaluating and developing novels across genres. Penguin Random House identifies him as both an agent and an author of writing guides, while Writer’s Digest emphasizes the book’s practical focus. The result is a craft book concerned less with rigid formulas than with the choices that make readers care about a story.