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

~ Todd A. Stone (Author)
Key Phrases: put your book, forget about reality, alpha male character, Find Your Character, Give Your Protagonist, Action Pass (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

It’s time to plan and execute a writing strategy that’s in sync with your ultimate mission objective: getting published.

In Novelist’s Boot Camp, author Todd A. Stone, a former assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, draws on his experience as novelist, writing instructor, and military officer to help get you and your writing into tip-top shape.

This boot-camp-in-a-book includes 101 carefully crafted drills designed to show you how to:

• Identify and develop story ideas with laser-like perception
• Create realistic "alpha" characters who can take charge of any scene
• Know what motivates your protagonist’s enemy so that you can amp up the conflict
• Outline your story to avoid sneak attacks from flawed plot twists
• Dodge the land mines of bad writing like Deadly Modifier Buildup (DMBU)
• Triage your scenes to ensure a thorough and precise revision process

Plus, there’s a twelve-week boot camp battle plan that you can use to stay the course and finish your novel.

Novelist’s Boot Camp provides you with all the ammunition you need to approach your work with dedication, confidence, and skill. Now, report for duty and start writing that bestseller!

About the Author

The author of acclaimed military technothriller, Kriegspeil, Todd A. Stone has more than 30 years experience teaching creative writing at institutions, including West Point. He is also a member of the Author's Guild and Mystery Writers of America. Todd lives in Naperville, Illinois.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books (March 11, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582973601
• ISBN-13: 978-1582973609
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #127,065 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Love the content, not so much the format, April 1, 2006

By	TheCafeWriter (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars INTERESTING AND FUNNY, October 28, 2006

By	Mike Klaassen "Author" (Wichita, KS USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Do you write commercial fiction? You might need this book!, October 11, 2006

By	H. Grove "owling6683" (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"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.