The Novel Writer's Toolkit: A Guide to Writing Novels and Getting Published (Hardcover)

by Bob Mayer (Author) "This book will take you step-by-step on the entire journey from your idea, through writing your novel, to selling it, to the published book in..." (more)
Key Phrases: story grid, expository information, dialogue tags, New York, Stephen King, Special Forces (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Here's the book writers have been waiting for! Covering every aspect of the creative journey, Living the Writing Life shows readers how to:

*Develop salable ideas
*Turn ideas into stories
*Set a writing schedule and stick to it
*Conduct accurate research
*Dissect best-sellers in order to discover what makes them work
*Develop compelling characters and plot
*Write dialogue that sounds real and engaging
*Find an agent or an editor who will help publish your work
*Put their ideas into story form
*Understand the submission and publishing process
*Promote their work
*Stay alive and inspired through it all

Advice is given in a straightforward and usable manner, laying out and examining all of the tools available to writers, from imagination to technology.

About the Author
Bob Mayer spent 20 years on active and reserve duty in the infantry and Green Berets. He later went on to become a writer and instructor at the JFK Special Warfare Center & School at Fort Bragg. He's published 23 books under his own name and several pen names. His Area 51 series, written as Robert Doherty, are consistent USA Today best sellers. Mayer is also an instructor for the Writer's Digest School.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Writers Digest Books; 1 edition (August 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582972613
• ISBN-13: 978-1582972619
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #646,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best, January 16, 2004

By	S. T. Pratt (Guilderland, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Bob Mayer's "The Novel Writer's Toolkit" is probably one of the best novel writing books I've read. Other books I've read have tried to focus too heavily on the technical aspects of writing and not so much on the steps and concepts. What makes this book so easy to read is that everything is broken down into individual "tools" that, when read in order, will walk you through the entire novel writing process from beginning to end.

This book also fufills an excellent role as a reference guide. Since everything is broken down into "tool" sections, it's easy to flip through the book to find what you want to know. Multiple appendices in the rear section of the book will help you outline your story, break down chapters, and assist you in writing cover letters. The index is also fairly useful and extensive.

I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn the process behind writing a novel or wanting to improve their current skills. Mr. Mayer does a superb job.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very helpful book for beginners, but too basic at times, March 28, 2005

By	AcornMan (Manhattan, KS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Novel Writer’s Toolkit (Paperback)

As I was reaching about the halfway point in this book I began looking ahead to the review I would write for it and at that time was contemplating just three stars. The reason was that the information up to that point was often so elementary that it was almost not worth reading, i.e. advice about getting a word processor (duh) and some of the tips about writing basics. However, things really picked up from there and I found the second half of the book, which dealt with the subject of getting a book published, to be very helpful and enlightening, if rather discouraging. But as a previous commenter noted, the author doesn't hold any punches and makes no attempt to sugar coat the harsh world of publishing. Personally I'm thankful for his candid observations even if they do paint a bleak picture. If the entire book were as enlightening as the second half I would easily give it five stars, but because of the shortcomings of the first half I'm only willing to give it four. It's definitely worth your time to read this book though, so don't let this criticism deter you from taking a look for yourself.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat Disappointing...., October 16, 2006

By	Kevin Hunter "beach brat" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Novel Writer’s Toolkit (Paperback)

I don't want this to be misconstrued as a knock on the author, because I think he's a great author and a great writer. I'm simply critiquing this particular book on what it's done for me...and that's not very much. This book works if you've never written anything in your life and know absolutely nothing about writing, otherwise it's a bit of a waste of time. It didn't offer me anything that I could learn from that I couldn't get from something else. If I have to read another book that goes on and on about how the first thing about writing is you have to write, you have to write a lot and you also have to read a lot. Forgive me, but I think most educated or even semi-intelligent people know that whatever your passion is, whatever you want to do in life, you have to do it. Most don't need to be told. You're already doing it because you love it, hence why you want to do it forever. We don't need to be talked down to like an idiot and that's the problem with some of these thespian overly educated writers, is that their snobs and they write in a way that is condescending. They are basically saying it's this way or forget it your wasting your time. They didn't invent writing. Writing has been around for centuries. This book strongly emphasizes how important it is to outline and that you'll be doing it for the rest of your life, but it doesn't give you clear and excellent examples of something so critical. Instead it gives you sample charts of time travel from his science fiction books. If I had to hear one more comparison about what this author did with his science fiction books I was going to throw the book out the window. I was really hoping for more actual writing tips on grammar and sentence structure, but no such luck. I do have a couple fantastic writing books that I loved and I found to be absolutely beneficial and they are.... "Bird by Bird" by Annie Lamott and "On Writing" by Stephen King. Both of those books were funny and witty, entertaining and packed with very informative and helpful tips for the writer in you. They are much more evolved writing books to check out and help you get better at doing what you love most.