The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing a Novel,   ISBN:9781592571727

Customer Rating: 

I bought this for my 12 year old daughter at her request. I know she enjoyed the book, because I enjoyed her occasional summaries of the chapters and hearing her thoughts about the author. She recommended the book to my husband and he too enjoyed reading the book. Great starting point for inspiring writers.

Customer Rating: 

If you ever wondered what all is involved with writing a book, this book has many answers. There is much that people don't know about writing a book. For example, if you wanted to know the minimum education level required to successfully write a book that is acceptable enough to submit for editing, the answer is in this book. I'll go ahead and tell you that the author specifies that that age is actually 8th grade level English and grammar skills. If you're as smart as an 8th grader, then you're practically smart enough to write a book. This can be very comforting considering whether or not you graduated from college or earned a degree in creative writing for that matter. This book is not only filled with lots of interesting information, but the book also continuously motivates your embedded interest in writing the book. It feels like you have a coach sitting right next to you saying "GO GO GO!" As you read through this book which is purely informational and motivational, your dreams of writing that fantastic book will come true because it's all 100% positive!

Customer Rating: 

Tom Montelone has bottled lightning, offering the budding novelist not only instruction, but a vibrant, intellectually engaging and exciting conversation! His wit shines on each and every page, making you smile and realize this guy not only knows the mechanics of novel writing, not only knows the industry, the work ethic, and style, he has a lot of wit packed into his cranium!

From the opening pages, he understands your position, and is ready to guide you along. This might just be the perfect book for you, the aspiring novelist, because I know it was the perfect one for me and many others. There's a reason it has been selling so well, and that's because it's... uh, FANTASTIC! I suspect even if you weren't going to write a novel and try to get it sold, you would be interested in Monteleone's thorough study of the craft, interviews with authors (um, does the name Richard Matheson strike a bell? How about William Peter Blatty?), and easy-going delivery.

Buy this and discover why it receives such praise!

Customer Rating: 

Thomas Monteleone has written an excellent book on the "nuts-and-bolts" of completing the most challenging of projects: The novel. There are valuable suggestions and tips throughout, as well as much practical advice on the formatting and submission of the manuscript. This is the best book on the craft of writing that I have ever read, and believe me, I have read many books of this kind. Now that I have Mr. Monteleone's book to guide and support me throughout the coming months and years of creative writing, I feel that nothing can stop me. Tom, hats off to you!

Customer Rating: 

A solid reference guide for the beginning writer. Monteleone gives advice similar to Stephen King's On Writing, but actually covers a bit more of the nuts and bolts. He briefly touches on everything from story ideas and grammar to rewrites, literary agents, and marketing your novel. He also supplies the names of books, magazines, and websites that are useful tools. King is better able to tap us into the story development part of writing by referencing his more familiar works, but again, Monteleone covers more of the basics. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is that I'd liked to have had more examples in certain sections. However, DO NOT CHEAT YOURSELF & let this deter you from exploring this book if you are a beginning writer. While the only other book on writing I've read was Stephen King's, this is my favorite & I venture to say one of, if not the best on the subject.