FICTION | NONFICTION | POETRY | TTRPG

Nonfiction

Jackson Dean Chase writes practical nonfiction for authors who want useful answers, stronger craft, and tools they can apply immediately.

His writing books focus less on abstract literary theory and more on the problems writers actually face:

How do you hook a reader quickly?
How do you create characters worth following?
How do you build convincing monsters, villains, worlds, and disasters?
How do you find the right words when the scene in your head is clear but the language is not?

Across his nonfiction, the guiding principle is simple:

Give writers tools they can use.

Jackson’s writing advice has helped thousands of authors develop stories, characters, settings, and stronger prose.

The Ultimate Author’s Guide

The Ultimate Author’s Guide series focuses on core fiction-writing problems and breaks them into practical systems writers can understand and apply. Rather than treating craft as mysterious inspiration, the books examine specific elements of storytelling and show how those elements can be strengthened deliberately.

Writing Dynamite Story Hooks

Writing Dynamite Story Hooks focuses on one of the most important moments in any story: the beginning.

The book examines effective opening strategies for novels, novellas, short stories, and memoirs, including common weak openings, stronger alternatives, and ways to combine multiple hook techniques.

This is a revised and expanded edition of my first writing guide, How to Start Your Novel.

“Great resource for authors of all genres.”

— Amazon customer review

Writing Heroes and Villains

Writing Heroes and Villains focuses on character creation across the entire cast.

Heroes matter.

Villains matter.

Supporting characters matter too.

The book explores how to create memorable protagonists, antagonists, supporting characters, and character arcs for fiction and screenwriting.

This is a revised and expanded edition collecting three of my out-of-print guides: How to Write Realistic Characters, How to Write Realistic Men, and How to Write Realistic Women.

“Fantastic book. Fast-paced and to the point.”

— Amazon customer review

Writing Monsters and Maniacs

Writing Monsters and Maniacs expands character design into darker territory.

The book covers monsters, maniacs, aliens, robots, supernatural threats, powers, and speculative antagonists across horror, fantasy, science fiction, post-apocalyptic fiction, comics, screenwriting, and roleplaying games.

It also includes more than 150 plot ideas.

This is a revised and expanded edition of How to Write Realistic Monsters, Aliens, and Fantasy Creatures.

“This book has great ideas... [it] gives you everything you need.”

— Amazon customer review

Writing Apocalypse and Survival

Writing Apocalypse and Survival focuses on apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic worlds, disasters, survival horror, zombies, and the breakdown of civilization.

The book includes four complete plot templates (two apocalyptic and two post-apocalyptic), world-ending scenarios, survivor psychology, villains, zombie infection progression, survival situations, and worldbuilding tools.

This is a revised and expanded edition of How to Write Realistic Zombies and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction. It adds in a ton of non-zombie apocalyptic advice, including natural disasters and end of the world scenarios. My goal was to balance out the zombie and non-zombie sections so it would be of use to a wider range of writers.

“Excellent book! Thorough view on all aspects of the apocalypse.”

— Amazon customer review

Writing Reference Books

Jackson’s Writers’ Phrase Books take a different approach.

They are designed as creative reference tools: large, organized collections of descriptive language, ideas, genre-specific vocabulary, and writing prompts intended to help authors move faster and break through creative blocks.

The goal is not to tell a writer what to say.

It is to provide enough raw material to help them find the right way to say it.

Horror Writers’ Phrase Book

Horror Writers’ Phrase Book contains more than 3,000 descriptive ideas covering death, gore, hauntings, monsters, weapons, dark emotions, ghosts, demons, cults, curses, and other horror elements.

It also includes exercises intended to help writers strengthen their own descriptive instincts.

“The perfect guide for writing horror.”

— Derek Ailes, author of Zombie Command

Post-Apocalypse Writers’ Phrase Book

Post-Apocalypse Writers’ Phrase Book contains more than 4,000 descriptive ideas for apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, dystopian, prepper, and zombie fiction.

Topics include alien invasions, artificial intelligence, EMPs, natural disasters, nuclear war, plague, robots, survivors, mutants, ruins, scavenging, radiation, weapons, vehicles, and more.

“An amazing book! A handy guide for any apocalyptic author.”

— Amazon customer review

Action Writers’ Phrase Book

Action Writers’ Phrase Book focuses on combat, movement, danger, and physical conflict.

It includes more than 2,000 descriptive ideas for blades, bows, explosions, fistfights, firearms, martial arts, vehicles, weather, corpses, injuries, and combat across modern, historical, and futuristic settings.

“Invaluable!”

— John D. Blair, author of Phoenix Assassin

Fantasy Writers’ Phrase Book

Fantasy Writers’ Phrase Book focuses on fantasy and medieval historical fiction.

It includes more than 3,500 descriptive ideas covering combat, magic, monsters, emotions, weather, animals, treasure, psychic abilities, religion, titles, money, and worldbuilding terminology.

“An extremely helpful book for fantasy writers of all kinds.”

— Christina Ochs, author of Hammer of the Gods

Science Fiction Writers’ Phrase Book

Science Fiction Writers’ Phrase Book contains more than 4,000 descriptive ideas for science fiction, space fantasy, space opera, military SF, cyberpunk, dystopian fiction, and time travel.

It includes aliens, robots, weapons, wounds, planets, starships, space stations, combat language, and science-fiction worldbuilding tools, including a starship name generator.

“An awesome addition to my library.”

— Amazon customer review

Romance, Emotion, and Erotica Writers’ Phrase Book

Romance, Emotion, and Erotica Writers’ Phrase Book focuses on emotional language, attraction, relationships, romance, intimacy, and character interaction.

It includes more than 3,000 descriptive ideas along with reference material for emotions, body language, terms of endearment, historical forms of address, paranormal romance, science-fiction romance, and related genres.

“This is a great book... It doesn’t matter what genre [you write].”

— Amber Daulton, author of My Valentine Adventure

Important Note Regarding the Writers' Phrase Books Series:

There is substantial overlap between these books. That is intentional in order for each be a complete, stand-alone resource. Unless you write in multiple genres, you likely do not need to own more than one of these phrase books — whichever one best matches your preferred genre.

The Action Writers' Phrase Book has the most overlap. It is almost entirely made up of the combined action, weapons, and wounds phrases taken from the Horror and Post-Apocalypse Writers' Phrase Books.

The Romance, Emotion, and Erotica Writers' Phrase Book has the least amount of overlap with the prior volumes in the series. Although targeted to satisfy romance and erotica writers, it is useful to any author struggling to inject romance, intimacy, or sex scenes into their chosen genre.