Structuring Your Novel

Rating:
Summary: Finally a book that delivers......
Review: This slim volume packs an in-depth writing class into a few hundred pages. Each chapter teaches a single point in developing a novel from the inception of the idea, to plotting, to finally getting down and getting the thing written. At the end of each chapter, the authors offer excercises that reinforce the lesson just covered. THis format will be invaluable if you've ever wanted to write a novel but feel overwhelmed at where to start....or if you're an experienced writer but want to brush up a particular area of weakness.

Rating:
Summary: Structuring Your Novel: The One to Buy
Review: Would be novelists most often write novels that never see the light of publishing day. The reasons for rejection are as many as the number of things the writer can do wrong. There are many books that teach How To Write a Novel (and I've read most of them), but only STRUCTURING YOUR NOVEL by Meredith and Fitzgerald discuss how to do it well. Both authors know what works and what does not work in getting a novel published. They recommend that after the novelist thinks of His Bright Idea, he ought to look at his idea in the way that an agent or publisher will. They recommend concepts as basic as the following:
1) Can the intention, attitude, and purpose be written as one
sentence each?
2) How can the conflict be developed?
3) Who or what is the protagonist, setting, significance?
4) How will the author create causally related events?
5) Is there a dramatic driving device for the protagonist?
6) What is the viewpoint? Omniscient? (avoid) First Person?
(Maybe) Third Person (best bet)
7) How will the author inform the reader about the relevant
details of the novel?
8)What about dialogue? (when/how much) Characterization? (how)
The above points are usually omitted by rookie authors, and their ignorance of them is the most common reason for rejection.
The value behind forcing a writer to think like a publisher is to anticipate pitfalls and correct them before too many hastily written words hit the paper. This book should be required reading for anyone who hopes to write and publish novels, and not have to wonder why their career is going nowhere.