I decided that in addition to my Goodreads and Amazon reviews, I’d be putting my review of books online here. It’s just another avenue to share and help other authors with exposure. I won’t have a rating here (you can find those elsewhere). Besides, I don’t have anything clever like 4 pancakes out of 5.
Here’s the latest:
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Review of: Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K.M. Weiland:
After reading K.M. Weiland’s exceptional book “Structuring Your Novel”, my next stop was to pick up this gem to add to my growing list of novel writing resources. As an admitted “pantser”, I’m excited to put the tool of outlining to use in my next work.
Before reading this book I had always thought of outlining as a stuffy, rigid exercise that would lead a writer to little more than getting from point A to point B. Weiland completly blows the misconception of outlining out of the water right from the get-go. I now see it as a time-saving engine of creativity designed to focus the story and characters.
Far from the Roman Numeral outlines that fill most people’s minds the second they hear the term, Weiland takes you through different types of outlining before moving onto the rest of the book. From developing key factors to character sketches, there are all types of tidbits outside of “traditional” outlining that really churned my own creative thinking.
The number one mistake of those who outline that was identified through multiple guest author interviews was being to rigid in adherence to the outline. It’s a guide but shouldn’t trap you if a brilliant scene idea comes in. It’s much easier to rework the outline then go back and rework an entire manuscript. Can’t wait to see what happens when I put outlining to work.
Find Outlining Your Novel at Amazon.com.