Writers’ & Artists’ Guide to: How to Write – The Essential Guide for Authors

So recently I have been looking into writing courses etc to try and improve my writing so that I could make my novel the best it could be. I have come to the conclusion that right now, it is not a possibility. I am however, taking my writing very seriously and I thought that if I can’t go to the classroom, the classroom shall come to me. Well not quite, its more like home study. I decided to buy some books on the subject to tied me over until I can get onto a course. I walked into Waterstones and browsed the books and this particular one jumped out at me. I am only 90 pages in but I can already feel my conscious changing. The way in which I approach my writing has already begun to change, and I can’t stress this enough, for the better.

The aim of the book is not only to improve your prose and your general plotting of the novel, but to do it in such a way that you will be in a good fighting position to lock down that elusive first book deal. It starts from the beginning, planning your novel, getting to know your characters intimately, prose style dependant on your genre and even using your other senses when writing. Not only does it cover the basics but it gives you examples to put the basics into practice. It shows you how to spot a bad sentence, how not to construct your sentences in a way that will distress and bore the reader.

Im not a book critic but I am throughly enjoying this book. So much so that I have briefly stopped writing my novel to try and apply some of the rules it speaks about. At the end of each chapter is gives a brief summary of the topics touched within it also. This is the type of book that you would refer back to, the type of book you would keep close at hand while writing anything in life.

If there ever was a book that helped you from start to finish when writing your prose, I’d be hard pushed to find one more helpful than this.

I would recommend this book to anyone that has the time to read it, after all, you never stop learning.