Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and how you can Draft, Fix and Finish with Confidence

Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and how you can Draft, Fix and Finish with Confidence

by Roz Morris
Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and how you can Draft, Fix and Finish with Confidence

Nail Your Novel: Why Writers Abandon Books and how you can Draft, Fix and Finish with Confidence

by Roz Morris

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Overview

By bestselling ghostwriter and book doctor with a top London literary consultancy

This book is used by award-winning authors and university creative writing departments.

'A how-to-write book that actually DOES tell you how'

'There are shedloads of books on how to write novels, and a lot of them are longer and considerably less useful'

'I wish I'd had this book a long time ago'

'The author has a proven track record as a writer of fiction, as opposed to writers of "how to write" books'


Are you writing a novel? Do you want to make sure you finish? Will you get lost and fizzle out? Will you spend more time reading about how to write than actually getting the words down?

Most manuals on novel-writing will make you read hundreds of pages about character arcs, inciting incidents, heroes' journeys. It's great to know that - but while you're reading about it you're not writing your book.

And what these books don't tell you is how to use this learning and get the job done.

Nail Your Novel is a writing buddy - and mentor - in a book.

In 10 easy steps it will tell you:
*how to shape your big idea and make a novel out of it
*how to do your research and how to use it
*how to organise your time
*how to plot and build characters
*when you're going to hit problems and what to do about them
*how to write on the days you don't feel inspired
*how to reread what you've written and polish it.

Along the way, Thumbnail Notes give tutorials about storytelling and storycraft - strictly when you need them. The author has written nearly a dozen novels that have made it into print - and this is how she did it.

You don't even need to read the whole book before you get started. You read a section, then do as it says. And, once you're finally satisfied, Nail Your Novel will tell you how to sell it to publishers and agents.

A FULL index means you can find what you want, when you want it.

You've dreamed of writing a novel. Don't procrastinate with another theory book. Don't launch in, get stuck and throw your hard work in a drawer. Nail your novel.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781909905955
Publisher: Spark Furnace Books
Publication date: 01/25/2016
Series: Nail Your Novel , #1
Pages: 184
Sales rank: 332,943
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

Roz Morris published nearly a dozen novels and achieved sales of more than 4 million copies - and nobody saw her name because she was a ghostwriter. She is now proudly publishing as herself and her work draws comparisons with Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury, Penelope Fitzgerald and Doris Lessing. Her novel Lifeform Three was longlisted for the World Fantasy Award. Her memoir Not Quite Lost was featured on 6 local BBC radio stations. She has also been a writing coach, editor and mentor for more than 20 years with award-winning authors among her clients. She has a book series for writers, Nail Your Novel (and a blog nailyournovel.com), and teaches creative writing masterclasses at venues throughout Europe and for The Guardian newspaper in London.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Why a planned novel is more likely to succeed. What this book is and how to use it. Start now.

Index to resources - Complete index to the Thumbnail notes, creative games and Block busters. Tricks to make you do the work properly. Rescue remedies for your sprawling draft.

1 Why people start novels and don't finish
My abandoned book - a cautionary tale. Why I developed a plan. Why novels get abandoned.
The method in more depth. FAQs - Why a system can help you be more creative, not less
Your personality type and how it affects the way you write. Secrets to help you take control of your inner critic. Tailor the system to your needs. To resurrect your abandoned manuscript.
Importance of taking a break to get critical distance.

2 Before you start the manuscript - Aims at this stage. What you're ignoring.
Task 1 Shaping your inspiration. Nurturing your ideas
Task 2 Starting this specific novel. Putting flesh on the initial idea. Character. Genre. Filling in the blanks. Plot thickeners. The wish-not list. Make a working library
Task 3 Focused research. How to research. The hat game
Task 4 A structural survey for your novel. The cards game. Fill in the blanks. Writing a novel based on your own experiences. Sub-plots. Keeping your plot focused. Got enough plot? Assessing an existing draft or partial draft. Know your ending
Task 5 Detailed synopsis. Making major and drastic changes.
Aims recap. Ready to start the actual text

3 The first draft - Aims at this stage. What you're ignoring.
Task 6 How to free your muse and turn off your inner critic. Danger time for writer's block. Cognitive behaviour techniques to beat negative thinking. Rules for this stage. Show not tell.
How to deviate without losing your way. Block busters, including creative games for when you don't know what to do. How to keep yourself at the desk when you're not in the mood. Targets and other writing incentives. Emergency rescue library. A soundtrack for your novel. Prepare for tomorrow. Make a personal details file. Ignore the timeline. The Outtakes file. Aims recap.
Task 7 Before you look at your manuscript again.

4 Before you rewrite - How rough your manuscript will look and why that's good. Your novel is now a new creature. Characters take over.
Task 8 The beat sheet game. How to take control of pace, tone, story mechanics, arcs, beginning, middle, end, tensions, sub-plots, purpose of each scene, timeline, themes, characters.
Making changes. Mission statement for rewriting. If you need to fundamentally re-plan. Assessing an abandoned manuscript. How the beat sheet helps you write a much better novel. Aims recap. Ready to rewrite.

5 The rewrites. Aims at this stage
Task 9 Revising your manuscript. Viewpoint, format and voice. How to use the beat sheet. If you get stuck. The Outtakes file. Targets. The beginning. Dialogue. Smart revision alerts - facts, consistency, timeline, show not tell, relics of your previous draft. Kill your darlings. Spelling etc. Chapter beginnings and endings. How to deviate from your beat sheet.
Are you sure you've finished?

6 Sending your novel to seek its fortune.
The publishing business. Give your novel the best chance you can. Getting feedback. Friends or professional critics? How to use criticism. Sending it out. Agent or publisher?
Task 10 Your submission package. Make a 100,000-word novel into a 1,000-word synopsis. Extreme summary - the 50-word pitch. Dos and don'ts of the cover letter.

Full index
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