Genre: non-fiction/help/comedy
Authors: Sandra Newman & Howard Mittlemark
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date: [US by harper collins 2008], Great Britain 2009
Suitable for... Wannabe writers, or people who enjoy reading. Probably age 13-15+ since there’s a few swear words and a few (albeit hilarious) examples of where graphic sex-scenes in books can go horribly wrong.
Price: it depends. About £9.99
Rating: 9/10
Review
It seems I’m becoming somewhat of a collector of non-fiction help-style books. They’re usually entertaining, interesting and really informative, even for a passing glance, and since I had soem birthday money and a few voucher points knocking around on my Waterstone’s card, I decided I’d buy this little gem.
Let me start of by saying that any book where the front cover is a gun pointing at a kitten is ok with me. For one, it’s funny, and I think it has a vauge meaning to the old writing phrase ‘murder your darlings’ - in other words, when you’re editing your story, nothing is sacred.
So, How not to write a novel steps in, and starts the writing-kitten massacre. By scathingly and sarcastically laying out all the worst (and bafflingly idiotic) mistakes a writer can make, it says that it aims to help you write the worst novel in the world. Really, it offers you great tips with a brilliant sense of humor, that’ll keep you from tripping over the most common (and uncommon) writing mistakes that can spell doom for a potential novel.
I ended up reading it quite quickly and enjoyed every minute of it. It’s divided into amusing and small sections within bigger headers, all with weird but enlightening titles.. (eg Endings:and Jesus lived happily ever after ; ‘but a meteor could land there, right?’ ; ‘Yo Charlemagne, how dost thy big war?’ ; ‘the vegan viking’ etc). Perfect as a book you can pick up for snatching a bit of reading between tasks.
If you’re genuinely wanting to write one day, then it’s a great book to help you, and - as well as giving you warning for mistakes you might be making in your novel - it also will give you confidence as you laugh at other people’s mistakes. After the end of it all, you should have a happy feeling of “wow, I guess my work isn’t that bad after all.” - and a confidence boost is often great medicine wink
So in short, It’s a useful and entertaining read, and I’d thoroughly recommend it biggrin
I’ll leave you with an extract that especially made me laugh:
Quote:
Giving a reader a sex scene that is only half right is like giving her half a kitten. It is not half as cute as a whole kitten; it is a bloody godawful mess.
