Review: Superb, a must-read for aspiring (and experienced!) novelists
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 18, 2013
I devoured this short book in two sittings yesterday, and wish I'd had it years ago, before slogging so deep and hard through writing my first novel. Absolutely one of the best "how to write a novel" books I've read over the past decade or two (count me among the experienced writers who like to read about writing almost as much as we love to read and write). Stop reading these reviews and go click the "buy now" button.Still here? Okay: in the first part of the book Rachel Aaron shares her own triangle of essential elements for turning out good word-count faster. Seat-of-the-pants writers, beware: you will have to change your ways. This many not be easy (I'm a bit dreading it), but Rachel will convince you that greater diligence in the planning department will be worth it. In the remaining chapters she covers story development and editing. She does a great job presenting tried-and-true fiction advice in a clear, concise, and readable manner. Beginning novelists, especially, will find this info very helpful.While this book is most applicable to fiction, I also write non-fiction and look forward to putting Rachel's word-count strategies into action on my next project.BTW: I've been known to deduct a star for excessive typos and dropped words, but the content here is so good those little errors are forgiven. Perhaps a later edition will clean them up?