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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: THETA on September 07, 2008, 05:54:09 PM
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How NOT to Write a Novel: 200 classic mistakes and how to avoid them--A misstep-by-misstep guide
by Howard Mittelmark, Sandra Newman
I recommend this guide for any aspiring writers and definitely those whose been sending in their works to publishers. I picked up this book just passing by the isle in Barnes and Nobles and before i knew it i was 100 pages in, absorbing and best of all, laughing. This guide is not in any way a dry read. It's witty and funny, hell it uses profanity at times. Also, it gives classic examples of mistakes every beginning writer is bound to make. It points out when cliches are acceptable and when you're on the verge of losing your audience. In fact i think the first chapter was named: How to lose your reader in the first ten minutes of reading.
It had stuff like:
-Making the unintentional relationship (you know, when you accidentally decide to describe a sister while the brother is hugging her just a little too intimately)
-Gay characters, an insight to both female and male perspectives, however books are not sitcoms, they better as hell serve some kind of purpose
-The difference between mirroring real life and making your book just as mundane as real life
-It is okay to use "he said, she said, they said ect" a billion times in your novel. It's just a bridge tool and readers hardly notice.
I really liked it and some of the stuff i was like, "Oh my God, i hate when i read that kind of shit." and other times where i was like, "...dammit, how many times have i done that?" and also, "Wow, that's a great idea.". It's a great tool for all aspiring writers.
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I picked this up, and almost choked on a cookie while reading the second paragraph of the introduction. So wrong, but so funny.
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tks for the heads up.
I stand by a drier read called, "Self Editing for Fiction Writers" as well.
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Yeah, i've read that one. Very informative, but then so is my calc book.