19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Wets Your Palette but Leaves you Lacking, May 6, 2008
This review is from: Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise Novels with Creative Writing Tips, Tools, and Strategies (Perfect Paperback)
This book is about 95 pages long (not including some blank worksheets, index, table of contents.). The exercises at best will serve anyone who is attending the author's retreat. In comparison to other writing books, the price of this book is way to expensive for the very little it has to offer.
Perhaps an extreme beginner can find a few exercises helpful. The author's website has much more useful information than this book has. You'll also find almost all the info in the book in her site as well. I give it 3 stars, because with all book reviews, it is subjective to one's own expectations and background. I'm sure that this book would work best in tangent with attendance to the author's retreat, which allows for feedback and more intense study and practice of the exercises she illustrates in this book. However, her self-discovery questions at the end of each chapter, leaves one with more questions than answers.
Check out Martha Alderson's "Blockbuster Plots" for process and James V. Smith's "The Writer's little Helper" for help on craft instead. The issue with this book is that it is not insightful enough. There is not enough "meat" in it to substantiate it's price and usefulness.
Perhaps a "Revision" on this book with in depth discussion on craft and process would benefit this book. Buy it if you are attending her workshop. At best it will serve as a "light" workbook on revision. But for "self-learning" it is very lacking.
The biggest annoyance is that she refers you to reading another book on "Revision" from the start, because her book simply doesn't cover those basics (well that defeats my point in getting her book on revision...).
On the plus side, she has a nice list of "Books Recommended for Further Reading", although I had many of them already, it is helpful for someone who needs some guidance.
All in all, there are at least 2 basic tools within this book that are useful for revision. So the book does have some merit.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
At Last - Real Help for Novel Revision!, March 27, 2008
This review is from: Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise Novels with Creative Writing Tips, Tools, and Strategies (Perfect Paperback)
Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways To Revise Novels with Creative Writing Tips, Tools, and Strategies, delivers on its promise of genuine hands-on revision techniques. Figuring out what to do after completing a draft and how to identify where strengths and weaknesses are can be pretty overwhelming. It is for writers with a finished draft that Darcy Pattison's latest book offers hope and help in spades. She takes the writer through a series of specific exercises designed to help (or force!) the writer to really see his or her book anew. From tracking the narrative and emotional arcs of the work to an ingenious method of "shrunken pages" which allows an at-a-glance picture of the strength of each chapter or section and how it fits in with the whole, from identifying the heart of the story to understanding why that is a critical task, this book maps out strategies for making your book the best it can be. It is difficult to imagine a writer who wouldn't benefit from some or all of the techniques discussed, and the suggested reading list at the book's end is a valuable resource in itself. Well suited for small group work but also workable for the lone or isolated writer, Novel Metamorphosis is genuine strengthening medicine for serious writers ready to take their novel drafts to the next level.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get Ready to Love Revising!, March 25, 2008
This review is from: Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise Novels with Creative Writing Tips, Tools, and Strategies (Perfect Paperback)
Novel Metamorphosis is based on the Novel Revision Workshop that Ms. Pattison has taught for a number of years. I attended the workshop in 2006, and it remains the single most helpful writing workshop I've ever attended. With Ms. Pattison's techniques, I feel equipped to take on massive overhauls of my stories.
Novel Metamorphosis is full of exercises, worksheets, examples and questions. This is not one of the hundreds of writing books that offer tiny insights here and there; this is the book that will help you make your good story great. You will not just *read* this book, you will *use* it. A lot. You will work. Hard. But it will be worth it. I say this having sold my novel after using Ms. Pattison's revision techniques.
Every writer should own this book. It is not going to gather dust on the shelves next to your other writing books. You will refer to Novel Metamorphosis again and again.
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