Customer Reviews

Get That Novel Written! From Initial Idea to Final Edit

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

 

 

I have had a story evolving in my mind for the past few years. When I gave a brief explaination of the story to a friend of mine, she insisted that I write the book. My problem is that I have no idea where to start...until now. This book is extremely useful in providing aspiring writers with a way to organize your thoughts and put that story together right. The concepts are even broken down into Basics for us beginners, then into more complex concepts in a seperate sub-chapter called The Finer Points for when you are feeling a little more confident. Then the last sub-chapter is designed to be read after you have started to give you an ever more refined end product. A must have for those that have never tried to write a novel before.

This is an excellent book for beginners as well as intermediate writers. This is one of the few books if not only one which has the best introduction on Point of View and Story Time (present and past tense options in narrations).

The book is also organized with built-in "Rewriting sections" for each chapter. The character section explores the typical standard in character building, but the plot section has a useful introductory on premise and subplots.

The book loses a star for not including a bibliography, no in depth discussion on dialogue, and because although this book is one of the "finer" ones on learning the basics of fiction writing, the subtitle of the book was a little misleading.

When I read "from Initial Idea To Final Edit" in the title, I was lead to believe that she would show in her book either some kind of outline or mapping system or process of some sort for brainstorming ideas into story form. Levin probably considers some of the end of chapter exercises as enough to stimulate "Idea generating" creativity, but I found it somewhat lacking.

For that reason, I purchased her other book "Get That Novel Started" based on the few mentionings within this book and found that book disappointing as its only a book on cheerleading you to write. I'm so glad that I returned it. That whole book could have probably been condensed into this slim volume for added value.

To make this book more complete, I recommend Jack Bickham's book "Writing and Selling Your Novel". There is very little overlap between the two and both would thus make an almost complete course in writing fiction for beginners and intermediate writers.

On a side note, Levin mentions a novel in progess she has titled "Goodnight Light and the Red Balloon" (hmmm...haven't I heard this title before in a children's book??) but after doing an Amazon search nothing comes up?????? What happened to the book? Perhaps we will find out in her next book "Get that Novel Finished". LOL.

All in all, this is a great book to have. One of the best.

This book does wonders for getting you past your writer's block. Not only does Levin provide terrific articles on the fundamentals of writing a novel, she also provides some very helpful writing exercises to get your creativity going again. I find that I use this book for my short stories as well.

Donna Levin's wonderfully nitty-gritty manual covers characterization, dialog, plots, sub-plots, point of view, voice, etc. She takes the novice fiction writer through these topics, giving numerous examples from simple to advanced. She includes practical writing exercises incorporating her lessons after each chapter.

When Levin is done revealing the intricacies of novel creation, readers have learned how to write a book of their own. Get That Novel Written! will benefit those with a serious interest in writing fiction.

I love this book.

Donna Levin really understands the craft, not just as an art, but also as a trade. I couldn't put the book down because every page gave wonderful advice on how to improve your writing and make it more marketable. Lots of books will tell you the how's and what's of good writing, but this book really takes the time to explain the why's. And best of all it is inspirational and fun to read.

I highly recommend this book, and I've bought copies as gifts for my writer friends.