The second book (and now the only one available) in Writer's Digest short story handbooks, this volume covers more advanced techniques over the same topics as the previous handbook, as well as a few more. Chapters are written by John Updike, Orson Scott Card, Janet Burroway, and many other well published authors. There's a mix in terms of who writes on the various topics, with some topics being covered by several writers and others only having one chapter by one author. However, it is another book with chapters on everything from getting started to marketing, and includes topics such as making your fiction three dimensional, using symbols, and chapters on three forms of specialized fiction: the short short, literary fivtion, and children's fiction.
Impressions: I actually found this volume to be more at my level in terms of where I am as a writer. Not saying that the previous volume is bad, I actually got quite a bit out of it, but it was more basic than this one. However, volume 2 definitely is for more advanced writers, and, after 3 years of writing classes, I got enough out of them to qualify for a bit more advanced than beginner. ;) I am a bit disappointed that the first volume seems to be out of print and is not being used for the short story workshop/class given by Writer's Digest Schools, though. The two books, in my opinion, work best if read together (or one right after the other).
