Book Review: OUTLINING YOUR NOVEL: MAP YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS by K.M. Weiland

Title: Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success

Author: K.M. Weiland

Publisher: PenForASword Publishing (2011)

Format: Book

Source: Borrowed from library

Genre: Non-fiction, writing

Goodreads 

Description: Writers often look upon outlines with fear and trembling. But when properly understood and correctly wielded, the outline is one of the most powerful weapons in a writer’s arsenal. Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success will:

Help you choose the right type of outline for you
Guide you in brainstorming plot ideas
Aid you in discovering your characters
Show you how to structure your scenes
Explain how to format your finished outline
Instruct you in how to use your outline
Reveal the benefits:
Ensures cohesion and balance
Prevents dead-end ideas
Provides foreshadowing
Offers assurance and motivation
Dispel misconceptions:
Requires formal formatting
Limits creativity
Robs the joy of discovery
Takes too much time
Even if you're certain outlining isn't for you, the book offers all kinds of important tips on plot, structure, and character. Includes exclusive interviews with Larry Brooks, Elizabeth Spann Craig, Lisa Grace, Dan L. Hays, Jody Hedlund, Carolyn Kaufman, Becky Levine, Roz Morris, John Robinson, and Aggie Villanueva, answering important questions:

Can you describe your outlining process?
What is the greatest benefit of outlining?
What is the biggest potential pitfall of outlining?
Do you recommend "pantsing" for certain situations and outlining for others?
What's the most important contributing factor to a successful outline?

Review: Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K.M. Weiland focuses on ways to outline without destroying creativity.

Writers are often divided into two types: plotters and pantsers, but both sides can learn from each other. Outlines don’t have to kill creativity nor take away the thrill of discovering the characters and plot. Through various tools, the writer can learn about their novel in way that doesn’t bore the person. This book also includes interviews with various authors and how they do or don’t outline.

Outlining Your Novel opened my eyes to various ways to outline from in-depth character interviews to brief key points. So much more goes into the best novels beyond good storytelling, and outlining can save a writer from wandering lost in the woods for a hundred pages. The author interviews honed in that every writer outlines differently. There is no one correct way to outline. Weiland often uses her own experience with outlining to show what works for her. Best of all, this book helps a writer focus on the key ingredients that need to be in a novel.

K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success is a brilliant tool for any person wanting to learn more about the craft of writing.

Five Bookworms = I loved it!

Book Review: HOOKED by Les Edgerton

Title: Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go

Author: Les Edgerton

Publisher: Writers Digest Books (April 12, 2007)

Format: Kindle eBook

Source: Purchased

Genre: Nonfiction

Goodreads

Description: *The first pages are the #1 key to acceptance or rejection of manuscripts--most agents and editors claim to make their decision on a manuscript after the very first page, which means that no writer can afford to have a weak story beginning

*The first and only fiction-writing book that focuses exclusively on beginnings--no other book on the market addresses story beginnings in a comprehensive manner

Agents and editors agree: Improper story beginnings are the single biggest barrier to publication. Why? If a novel or short story has a bad beginning, then no one will keep reading. It's just that simple. Hooked provides readers with a detailed understanding of what a beginning must include (setup, backstory, the inciting incident, etc.); instruction on how to successfully develop the story problem; tips on how to correct common beginning mistakes; exclusive insider advice from agents, acquiring book editors, and literary journal editors; and much more.

Review: Les Edgerton’s Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go delights in its knowledge to writers and witty humor.

Any writer knows the first pages of a manuscript are the key to acceptance or rejection by agents, publishers, and readers. If the writer can’t grab their readers at the beginning, then that writer has little chance of keeping readers. Hooked tells writers how to create those intense first chapters by focusing on the elements of opening chapters as well as focusing the writer on the story worthy problem. Edgerton uses his own experience as well as many examples to tell his valuable lessons to writers.

Hooked grabbed me from the beginning. Edgerton uses humor and examples to teach writers how to write those stellar openings. With a focus on the story worthy problem, the inciting incident, and the surface problems, writers learn the correct place to start their story as well as how to create that first sentence hook that will make agents, editors, and readers needing to read more. As a writer, this book was an “ah-hah” book. Everything clicked and made sense and excited me to keep writing with new focus. Although Hooked focuses on book’s openings, the lessons from it will help a writer with pace and the underlying tension that creates a page-turning novel.

Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One and Never Lets Them Go by Les Edgerton is a must-read for those studying the craft of writing.

Five Bookworms = I loved it!