Review: Read it today, increase your word count tomorrow!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 18, 2012
2K TO 10K: WRITING FASTER, WRITING BETTER, AND WRITING MORE OF WHAT YOU LOVE by Rachel Aaron is a new e-book inspired by her blog posts about increasing her word counts and plotting a novel. Although you may be asking yourself why you'd pay for blog posts that you can get for free, let me just say that this e-book contains not only expanded versions of the blog posts, but also chapters on plotting, character development, editing, and confronting problems with motivation. All that, and this e-book is literally cheaper than a pack of gum. What's not to love?Rachel Aaron has written and sold several fantasy novels, so these aren't crackpot theories. In theory, she could do NaNoWriMo in five days. Heck, she wrote a novel-from the spark of an idea to complete product-in under two weeks. And she sold that book to her publishers too. Don't you want that kind of result?This book is full of writing tips that seem head-smackingly obvious after you read them, but Rachel Aaron has such a friendly, humorous tone, so you never feel like an idiot for not thinking of them. You just want to start applying those tips ASAP.Rachel Aaron advises a lot of data recording and creating some supplemental documents. And while you may think that this extra work will take away from time you spend writing, I think you will find that these tips will help you learn a lot about your writing style. You can then create the conditions that are most favorable for writing.But look, it's not all data analysis and making little tweaks. When reading this e-book, you will see the joy Rachel Aaron receives from being able to produce at a high level every day. And I think that is a huge benefit of her system. Not only can you increase your word count, but you can find the joy of writing again. That will keep your but in the chair, and help you complete your story.I recently started using her 2k to 10k plan to improve my word count, and I've had some great success. But in reading this book, I have been able to identify a handful of tactics that I overlooked after reading the blog posts. This is a quick read that will definitely reward re-reading. If nothing else, the checklists Rachel Aaron provides more than justify the price of this e-book. I can't recommend it more highly.