The Novelist's Notebook

Rating:
Summary: A first-aid kit for novelists
Review: "The Novelist's Notebook" is a neat idea. It's a journal (there are blank spots on pages where you're supposed to write things) in which you play with exercises and ideas in an effort to improve and aid your novel-writing. It's broken up into six sections: Planning, Beginning to Write, Necessities, Possibilities, When You're Stuck, and Double-Checking and Revising. The table of contents helpfully lists out every exercise, so you can find whatever you need at a moment's notice. Even the shortest chapter has 13 exercises; the longest has close to 30. So whatever your novel-writing inclinations, there should be plenty of things in here that you can make use of.

Perhaps the best detail about the book is that it unabashedly makes use of variety. Where you find material on planning out your novel, you'll also find material on writing without an outline. Where one novelist is quoted as saying that only insane writers allow their characters to decide what happens, another is quoted as explaining that this is the key to her success. The book shows by example that what works for one author will not work for another. It merely suggests that you play with all of the various tools available until you find the ones that work *for you.* This might help the beginning writer to find the confidence to pick and choose her own techniques, rather than mindlessly doing what some opinionated writer once told her to do. Seeing such contradictory and decisive quotes from writers makes it clear that just because one writer thinks it's the only way to do things doesn't necessarily mean a thing.

If this book has any flaw at all, it is that you'll probably only find a couple dozen pages with material that will work for you over and over again, and many of these techniques have been covered in other books. However, as long as you copy the exercises rather than writing in the book, you'll be able to use them over and over with each successive novel you write. You can even photocopy the ones that work for you and keep them together in an individually-tailored packet.

Rating:
Summary: Not your traditional writer's workbook.....
Review: So if that sort of thing scares you, check this book out anyways.

Let me start out by saying that I loathe the 'How To Write' books that give you corny exercises that have absolutely nothing to do with your book. You know, the "If my character was a flavor of ice cream, he would be ____" type things. Ugh. I can't see myself working for hours on insipid exercises that have nothing to do with the story I want to tell.

That's mostly the reason why I love this book. It's chock full of exercises, but of the sort that actually PERTAIN to what you want to write. Gasp! Shock! Laurie Henry has hit the nail on the head exactly with the Novelist's Notebook. She encourages you to think out your story in phases -- the book is divided into sections : Planning, Beginning to Write, Necessities, Possibilities, When You're Stuck, and Double Checking and Revising. Basically the idea is to take the idea you have, and to try out different ways of seeing a particular character, theme, or idea. Expand and revise! I didn't think I needed help in these areas, and yet I find this book (and continue to find it) immensely helpful.

Each page is a different exercise, and I can't think of one that isn't particularly helpful. Examples : Write a family tree out, Create an obnoxious character, try writing in a different voice, try a crowd scene, etc. It sounds average in this review, I know, but the way it's presented in the book is nothing short of wonderful. Each page is also complete with a quote on writing from famous authors that are just as fun as the writing exercises themselves.

On a visual note, this is one of the finest looking writing books I've happened to run across. Silly to grade a book on this, I know, but you definitely feel like you're getting your money's worth. The book is slimmer than I imagined, and it's hardcover (another thing that surprised me). Even the paper on the inside is of fairly high quality, and not the glossy type, since you are going to be writing all over this book. I couldn't have been more pleased with my purchase. You may laugh at me grading this, but given the fact that I carry it around with me everywhere, it is a very classy volume to tote around with you, and not in the least embarassing (unlike those obnoxiously orange Complete Idiot's Guides).

Rating:
Summary: No Lollipop
Review: This book was so so . I have seen and read it before and frankly it wasn't worth the money.
It also would have been nice if they had quoted a few more GREAT writers instead of current "pops" whose main thing was to tell us all their belly aches. Who cares if Anne Rice "lost" her Catholic faith? She never had it any way if mere death could do it -- there would be NO Christians!!
Ditto for the others.
This is more like a shrink in a book and the readers are the sounding boards.
Don't waste your cash on this one.