Customer Reviews

Novelist's Boot Camp: 101 Ways to Take Your Book From Boring to Bestsell

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'll get the comment about format out of the way first. The book is very, very green that gets a little hard on the eyes.

As for content, references to "civilian" characters confused me by implying there was another 'non-civilian' character type that was never explained. In addition, there's a reference to "character cards" (the book assumes you already know of them) but no illustration or detailed physical description (3x5? 4x6? 8x5?). Format? Layout? Details to include? In fact, I could have used a few more illustrations of these kinds of things.

That said, Todd Stone gets you into the writing process quickly with relevant tasks and without lots of "why do you want to write" stuff.

The 12-week plan is entirely workable, practical, and sensible:

Week 1: Develop your work schedule and plan your genre, story concept, and main characters. Begin research.
Week 2: Develop your characters.
Week 3: Write your story summary and create a list of scenes.
Week 4: Draft 25% of the scenes on the list.
Week 5: Draft 45% of the scenes on the list.
Week 6: Draft 65% of the scenes on the list.
Week 7: Draft 95% of the scenes on the list.
Week 8: Draft 100% of the scenes on the list, and do necessary triage to complete first draft.
Week 9: Mark up copy for revision and rewriting.
Week 10: Complete 30% of revisions.
Week 11: Complete 100% of revisions.
Week 12: Proofread.

Overall, the content is VERY good and the book is well-indexed. This book is much more applicable to a variety of genres than most on this subject (that tend to focus on mysteries and thrillers). I waited for weeks for this book to come out, and it was worth it. Highly recommended.

UPDATE: I stand by my earlier comments, but I'm now over 10,000 words into my third novel and there's some things I particularly loved about this book that now makes it an essential keeper for me.

My best example of the book's value is in Todd Stone's approach to character, which is original and unique. I've tried those fill-in-the-blank character questionnaires and checklists and always ended up with a jumble of disconnected 'facts'. He suggests instead writing a brief Snapshot,A Typical Day, and a Personal History for each character. The Typical Day in particular forced me to really think through all the character details in a "big-picture" integrated way. My characters feel more real and it makes writing their actions, reactions, and dialogue so much easier. On a side note, the tips in his book helped me avoid making my "villain" cartoonish and stereotypical and instead I've been able to give him real and understandable motivations.

If you're serious about writing a novel, I still highly recommend this book.

Novelist's Boot Camp: 101 Ways to Take Your Book from Boring to Bestseller by Todd A. Stone is interesting and funny. Although portions of the book are pretty superficial and I flat out disagree with some of the statements, others offer interesting insight for students of novel-writing.

The pithy, no-nonsense, boot-camp approach certainly sets this book apart from its competition, the other A-Z, concept-to-publication, how-to-write-a-novel books. No doubt, the military analogies that preface each drill (chapter) will be viewed by some readers as hokey, but I found them humorous and refreshing.

Boot Camp passed my "Hi-Liter test." As I read a book, I highlight the meaty parts for further reference. Books with little substance survive relatively unscathed, while information-packed, insightful books get a heavy dose of yellow ink. My copy of Boot Camp is now painted yellow.

Boot Camp faired less well on my "note-taking test." After I finish reading a book, I review the passages marked with the Hi-Liter, scribbling notes to be filed by topic. Some of the chapters were packed with insight and juicy tidbits I noted for future reference, but much of the subject matter was a review for me.

Using a five-star rating system, I rank Boot Camp four stars. I didn't give it five stars because of what's missing from the text. I found the chapters about raising the stakes and description insightful while some subjects such as theme and scene & sequel were hardly mentioned. And the examples could have been better chosen to illustrate the points being made. I consider some of the material outdated for today's writer.

With some revision this book could set a new standard. Future additions might expand treatment of theme and scene & sequel. Outdated references to narrative might be replaced with writing modes as outlined by Evan Marshall in the The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing. There are several chapters that could be trimmed or eliminated if space is an issue.

Bottom line, if asked to select the first how-to book for a novice writer, this wouldn't be my pick. But there's plenty to note for a more seasoned student of novel-writing, and Boot Camp is fun to read. Now hit the deck and do some pushups.

"Novelist's Boot Camp" is a start-to-finish plan designed to get you through the process of writing a novel, from inspiration straight through revision. It's meant to get your butt in the chair and your hands moving--no whining, no complaining. If you truly want to get your book written but you never seem to get much of anywhere, this book might well give you the discipline and stamina you need, not to mention the tools.

The book starts off at the very beginning, with mental preparation and mission planning. It follows up with invention and development. The next order of business is drafting your novel, with plenty of tips on everything from characterization to style & voice. Mr. Stone has a refreshingly down-to-earth approach. I might not always agree with his assertions, and as always advice which works for one writer won't work for all (which he acknowledges), but many people could benefit from his approach. In particular anyone who wants to make a living writing commercial fiction should try out the methods in this book--if you need to put out novels on a deadline and take such things as genre considerations into account, you'll find an incredible wealth of help between the pages of this book.

I only have two gripes about this book. One is particularly minor and dependent on the reader. While the "boot camp" metaphor lends great insight in places and entertainment value in others (it certainly helps to keep the book from sounding like all the others out there!), sometimes it felt overdone. The other gripe is that sometimes I believe the author overdoes the advice to push your details to the extreme. He's always exhorting writers to make their characters more, bigger, larger-than-life. While to a certain extent I agree, I think it's also far too easy to take this too far, and he didn't include enough cautions along these lines.

The best part of this book (aside from the revision guidelines!) is the short, to-the-point, pithy nature of the drills. It's easy to face reading one or following its instructions when you're only facing 1-3 pages of text with easy bullet lists and plenty of sub-headings. The author is particularly good at distilling valuable advice into quick, easy-to-assimilate passages.

I looked at over a dozen similar books and picked this army green book as the best. This is a humorous but powerful book that I highly recommend. It contains 100 general guidelines for writing a novel, including dealing with outside influences and the publishing industry. I bought the book and have no regrets or second thoughts. It is a great value and a good guide.

This book has a humorous theme. The author, Todd Stone, talks to the reader as a drill sergeant might in a military training course. Having gone through military training and knowing something about books and writing, I loved the approach. But, most "civilians" will like the entertaining approach as well: and "no sniveling allowed."

The only small flaw in the book is that the page numbers are in black over dark green trim and sometimes it is hard to read page numbers. They should be moved into the white part of the pages. The whole book has a dark green military color including the edges of all the pages. He has included various military drawings, maps, and sketches sprinkled through the book. So, it is a combination of text and visual stimulators.

As Stone points out, the new novelist is his target audience. He wants them to get their first novel published and to do that he outlines objectives that are reasonable and achievable in a finite time period. He suggests (or commands here as Stone would say) that potential writers keep focused on certain objectives and follow certain guidelines. One can save the super creative and unique novel for a later novel. Goal #1 is to write a novel that will be entertaining throughout, emotional, have good characters, and will capture the publisher and the readers.

I recently read a number of books by Doris Lessing (the 2007 Nobel literature winner) and it was clear that her first novel was modest and straightforward. Her first novel, The Grass is Singing, is relatively simple in structure and has just a few characters. Then after she was established, she came out with her complex novel The Golden Notebook. There are many other examples with other famous writers including Joyce. They started simple.

So, as Stone, says, there are many ways to shoot a gun but military training camp shows you only one way. Stone limits your options. He gives definite guidelines to follow and has many suggestions, mostly all great. I thought his comments about character development and dealing with the publishing industry, including editing scams, were all very good ideas.

This is a great book.

Among the few fiction writing books I've purchased, "Novelist's Boot Camp" is the only one that treats fiction writing like a military campaign. You do it, soldier. And author Todd Stone makes it seem like you have no choice.

It's a refreshing approach, using military analogy as substitute for the usual inspirational heart-to-heart used by other how-to's. Stone also includes a 12-week program for putting together a novel. It's not very practical on the onset--unless you can buy extra time--but it admittedly gave me a confidence boost.

And maybe this is the best benefit this book has. When you're tired of listening to the soft talk, "Novelist's Boot Camp" may give you the adrenaline rush you need. I give this just three stars, however. When the initial thrill passes, so does the novelty. Stripped of all the army-themed trappings, this book is simply passable.

It serves its purpose, just like a good soldier should.

Having a small to medium collection of "How-To-Write" books, I can say that this is easily one of the better ones. With focused exercises that put your creativity in gear and your mind focused for the task at hand (write a book) this is one book that an author should not be without.

There is certainly some justified criticism with this book, chiefly that some aspects of writing are only briefly mentioned and some aspects are simplified. However, this is more than made up for by the book's strengths. This book will help a budding author kick bad habits, ideally before they have a chance to form, such as:

1. Reviewing material already written before continuing a draft
2. Revising a draft before it's done
3. Writing in the margins of a book when researching (get yourself a
notebook! It's easier, more efficient and it makes it a lot easier to
keep your notes straight!)
4. At the risk of possibly lifting some of the wording from the book,
using dialogue to provide back story instead of what it should only be
used for: A tool or weapon for characters to use to fight for what
they want.

At the end of each exercise (or "drill") there is a handy key that refers the reader to similar "drills," making cross-referencing and finding similar concepts that apply to other areas of writing that much easier. This is definitely something other authors who write books on writing should take to heart.

Stone also outlines how to make several writing aids that help an up-and-rising author to have a tangible source of information while they draft. I am working on an epic length novel, and using Stone's writing aids is proving to be a big help in keeping my characters and plot straight. Having everything mapped out before beginning the draft is a good way to ensure that writers block is never a problem.

This is certainly not the "end-all, be-all" book on writing, given the sparse material on many aspects of writing, and to help compensate for this, I would recommend reading four of the five "Write Great Fiction" books, namely, "Plot and Structure", "Description and Setting," "Dialogue" and "Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint."

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone who is having a hard time writing or never has written but wants to know how to do it.

I got the presentation-style overview of this book in person from the author. I took lots of notes so when I had the book in my hand, I more skimmed it than anything else. (Not because it wasn't worth reading through by any means.) The biggest thing I took away was that you have to do a little every day. Write a page. A paragraph. Write something. I took his advice. I had writer's block for 4 months. I broke through it because I thought of Mr. Stone insisting that you keep writing. So I did. And I finished my book. Also, he gives you permission in this book to have your own way of organizing your thoughts when you're writing a book. I hate index cards. With a passion. Everyone wants you to write everything on them and then lay them out all over the floor ... throw them up in the air ... take a bath with them (I don't know.) But now I know it's okay for me to hate them! I wrote a book without one index card. :) Great motivational book for writers.

You just have to love the concept, don't you? Lots of people say they want to write a book, and some even mean it, but most never write that book. Writing a novel isn't done by sitting around waiting for the book fairy to sprinkle you with magic dust. You have to have the discipline to sit your butt in a chair and write, every day, one step at a time. Todd A. Stone is a novelist I've admired for many years, and he's also a former Army Airborne/Ranger Infantry officer with a Master's Degree in English. So if you read his book, he'll give you the tools and the discipline you need to write some books. Why did I write four novels one year, one three years later, and one three years later than that? Because I needed Todd A. Stone to kick my flabby butt and whip my flabby civilian self back into tip top writing shape. He's a fantastic writer, full of useful advice explained well, but I knew that already. I've been reading his articles, and his fiction, for years. Now I've read NOVELIST'S BOOT CAMP, and I highly recommend that you do the same.

I bet a lot of authors don't go looking for a book about how to write novels until they are already in trouble. That was me, as I found this book after my first novel was about a third written and I knew I needed help. Todd Stone helped me get a grip on my story and move it from a lot of intellectual content to include more action - believable action, but more. Also, I was able to use it to expand the scope of the main character, both by moving a back story into the story, and by expanding other character's reactions or contributions to the main character. Thanks Todd!

I think the advice is more applicable to genre's other than action or suspense than some of the other reviewers realize. Who expects a book that explains how to write each genre? Isn't it part of an author's job to figure out their genre? Smart authors can adapt Todd's advice to their genre.

I thought the military analogies were excellent. Sometimes I wasn't sure how he was going to tie the military perspective into the required advice, but sure enough Todd explained it, I was impressed, and I 'got' the lesson point.

The illustrations were fun too. Often done tongue in cheek, they illustrated and augmented the military analogy which increased the impact of the intended points.

Also, the inspiration and no-nonsense approach really works.

This book tells you how to stay focused and write. How to motivate yourself and make game plans. Outlining, scene, description, story elements its all here. Its no nonsense and to the point and its written in a down to earth way. One thing it does say, if you want to write, then do it. Its a great motivator.