Book ~ "The Fiction Writers Handbook" (2012) Shelly Lowenkopf

 From Goodreads ~ The Fiction Writer’s Handbook is the definitive volume to explain the words and phrases that writers and editors use when they talk about a work. In a highly competitive publishing world, today’s writers need to stay ahead of the competition and make every sentence count. 

This book will help new writers who need an understanding of the writing process and it's also for seasoned writers who need inspiration. It’s a powerful tool.

This book is laid out like a dictionary, with everything and anything to do with writing listed from A to Z ("act" is the first one and "zeitgeist" is the last one).

There are explanations for things that are well-known like "attitude", "pace", "subplot" and "writer's block".  But there are also some terms that I'd never heard of before like "bildungsroman", "the choking Doberman", "fish in a barrel" and "verisimilitude".

If there is a word in small caps in an explanation, it means it has its own explanation in the book.

For me it isn't a book I could read from front to back ... it's one that I picked up and read a couple explanations and then put down until another time.  I found it more interesting to randomly open the book and read whatever explanation I had come across.