Customer Reviews

Novel Metamorphosis: Uncommon Ways to Revise Novels with Creative Writing Tips, Tools, and Strategies

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

When I enrolled in Darcy's workshop, I already had two published novels and I'd been part of a critique group for 10 years. Sure, I expected to take home a few new insights about writing that would help me grow in my craft - that's what happens whenever you immerse yourself in writing or critiquing, right? But I was not prepared for how much I would learn!

Darcy shows you how to come at your writing from many different perspectives, how to analyze what works or lags on each page, from chapter to chapter, and through the pacing and plotting of the whole.

I've recommended Darcy's workshop to many, many other writers.

If you cannot attend one, this book is the next best thing. But I warn you, put on your activewear: This workbook is about DOING - actively analyzing and revisioning your work - not about passively sitting in a chair and reading witty observations.

Gail Langer Karwoski, author of "Quake! Disaster in San Francisco, 1906"

Novel Metamorphosis is based on a course Darcy Pattison has taught for the past 10 years. It's a workbook to help you analyse and fix all the problems with your draft. There are the obvious ones, such as testing the soundness of your plot and your character arcs, to the elements that are much harder to explain - such as how to create depth.

What I like is that the advice is immensely practical. Darcy encourages you to mark up your manuscript with different coloured highlighters, to make word banks, to fill in worksheets and answer questionnaires, to do exercises to get you thinking more carefully about the words you choose. She analyses successful novels and explains what gives them their power. She shows how to give the same lift to your own scene structure, descriptions and dialogue. She illustrates with before-and-after examples - for instance, showing how she rewrote one of her own scenes to make it far more involving. She shows a range of ways to write the same scene to bring out different moods and suit a variety of genres - essential if a scene is going to have the effect you want it to have.

If you've never self-edited a novel before, this book is an excellent primer. And it's pretty valuable for old-timers too - we all have blind spots and her cleverly constructed questionnaires are the next best thing to a fresh pair of eyes. Novel Metamorphosis also helped me find more efficient ways to tackle things I've always handled by instinct (ie trial and error), such as language.

As if all that isn't enough, there's a great reading list with a fair few titles I hadn't heard of, and explanations of what stages they are useful for.

All in all, I found Novel Metamorphosis a thorough and helpful addition to my bookshelf. And not long after it had arrived, it vanished from my desk and took up residence on my husband's.

This is the book, or rather the workbook, that you need if you are ready to revise your manuscript and have never done this before, are a little unsure what or how to revise, or just want one of the best self-guided workbooks to keep you on course so that nothing is overlooked.

When I write something, I become so entrenched in the writing that when I read it over sometimes I read what I thought I wrote and not necessarily what was actually written. For example, I understand the plot, the character motivations, and the ending. If I have left out a crucial area I may not notice since I don't need it to understand the story, but your actual readers will need this. Or maybe a scene is better further along than it currently is placed. All of those areas will become noticeable while you put your manuscript through this workbook.

I review books everyday and find these kinds of problems often, especially in an author's first novel. When I notice these things I must rate lower than I might others rate a book. Even a great story can be messed up if a scene is out of place or not even needed. Darcy's book will help you catch and correct those on revision.

More importantly, she will help you enhance your characters, develop the plot, find areas that need work (a weak scene, loose threads at novels end.). This really is the workbook that can help you stand out to editors and publishers. It will help you get that polished look that is so important especially in the publishing world today. Editors don't hold hands like they use to. It is up to us to get our manuscript as polished as possible. Darcy's book is one of those exceptional things that will help put you on top and keep you out of the slush.

I will never again revise on my own. Some of her methods and requests were a little odd (re-print in font 8 to shrink the manuscript), but the methods make sense once done and more importantly they'll help you write "The Next Great American Novel."

This workbook is the next best thing to a workshop -- and a whole lot cheaper!

I've been a fan of Darcy Pattison's blog for quite a while (she also posts on Twitter as @FictionNotes), so was excited to hear about the publication of NOVEL METAMORPHOSIS: UNCOMMON WAYS TO REVISE.

This is a must-have book for any novel writer. You can either work through the book, one chapter at a time, or turn to any page randomly -- you'll find at least one nugget of advice you can use to improve your novel.

Follow the advice in this book and you WILL become a better writer.

While there's no substitute for taking Darcy's revision workshop in person, this book is the very next best thing. It is full of outstanding and very effective tools, along with the rationales for using them and good examples. Of course, just as thinking about writing a novel won't get one on paper, thinking about the tools and exercises won't improve your manuscript or get your revision done. That's why this is a workbook and not a theoretical tome. It is practical and effective and, perhaps most important, it helps lead you through the hard work. By far the best novel revision tool I've come across; I use it over and over, and I think it actually has more value for experienced writers than beginners, because there's always a gem to take away that I didn't notice or that didn't apply last time I read it.

Novel Metamorphosis, used in Darcy Pattison's wonderful workshop, is full of helpful tips and tricks to whip your novel into shape. Starting with a very helpful outlining exercise designed to help the author see the overall flow of the manuscript, the book follows a logical sequence with which to review and revise a manuscript. The exercises include "big picture" issues addressing plot and tension, as well as more specific tips for addressing scenes, sentence impact, and word choice. Many of the exercises are useful for any type of manuscript (not just novels), and their helpful for writers of all levels, whether just beginning or previously published. This book is a welcome, straightforward, and useful addtion to any writer's toolkit. It doesn't simply tell the writer what to do in the revision process; it walks the writer through the entire manuscript, step by step.

Novel Metamorphosis is an easy revision guide that helps writers unearth solutions to nagging problems in their manuscripts. This user-friendly book is a plus in any writer's reference library!