This Year You Write Your Novel,   ISBN:9780316065498

Customer Rating: 

My sister recommended this book and I got it. Excellent! The author shares very simple, yet practical, and absolutely necessary things struggling writers must do to get their task completed - and completed well. Very inspiring and empowering!

Customer Rating: 

This may be a small book but it is packed with information on the various aspects of fiction writing - theme, plot, dialogue...you know the drill and even if you don't, you'll soon get the hang of it. Walter Mosley not only knows his stuff, he's willing to share it with you,the reader, with lots of examples to illustrate his knowledge on what works. If this doesn't motivate you to put pen to paper, nothing will.

Customer Rating: 

"This Year You Write Your Novel" is better suited to middle-school creative writing classes than to serious would-be authors. There's nothing new or interesting here -- just the same, tired old advice we've heard countless times. We KNOW it's important to write every day... and seriously, does Mosley think a person who aspires to write a novel hasn't familiarized him/herself with the various points of view? If you need to review the basics, it may be worth a try, but if you're looking for some new ideas you can really sink your teeth into, try Robert Olan Butler's "From Where You Dream". Bottom line: I'm glad I borrowed this from the library -- even at Amazon's low price, I'd have felt ripped off.

Customer Rating: 

This book is extremely basic. It's a pretty good book at what it does, which is really to provide a motivational kick in the butt - but for in-depth information on the elements and techniques novel-writing, look elsewhere.

Customer Rating: 

I read some of the negative reviews criticizing this book as "nothing new" and positive reviews characterizing this as a book for "novices." I disagree with both. This book will NOT make you a bestselling author (and it doesn't claim to), but it will remove your excuses for not finishing that first novel--and, to me, that's PRICELESS.

In the sense that I have not been published, I suppose I'm a novice. However, I have been aware of and honing my writing talent for most of my life with formal instruction and practice including writing workshops and classes, editing a college newspaper, and writing my own column. In all of those settings I learned many useful things including the differences between poetry and prose and how and when to use AP style along with a lot of the tips Mosley addresses in this book--but none of them taught me a STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS TO WRITING A NOVEL.

I have had an exciting idea for a novel germinating in my mind for over a year. I've created a detailed outline, written a number of scenes, done "research" for the story (which I learned from Mosley is nothing more than procrastination), and shared my progress with numerous people. Nevertheless, I felt stymied by the process of creating my first finished novel.

After reading Mosley's book (in less than one day), I was stirred to action and felt like I had an easy-to-follow plan to get through the process of writing my novel. I am supplementing his basic instruction with a guided fiction writing class to help me be accountable for writing everyday and staying on schedule; it will also give me regular critiques from other writers that I believe will speed up the editing process after completing my first draft.

If you're looking for a spark to light your writing fire and don't want to get dragged into a long-winded instructional guide, I highly recommend "This Year You Write Your Novel." I intend to purchase it for several friends.

Enjoy, and happy writing!!