Finish Your Book – a new guide to help you do just that
There are an awful lot of half-finished novels collecting dust in desk drawers or taking up space on hard drives.
Perhaps a lot of them are truly awful and deserve to be abandoned. They are part of a writer’s apprenticeship and help you learn how to recognise an idea strong enough to survive past Chapter Three or that a string of inventive figures of speech (bet no one has compared a first kiss to a mushroom before!) is not the same as writing a compelling story.
But.
BUT there are stalled books that deserve to be revived. And this is where Lizzie Enfield’s new guide comes in.
Since I produced a writing guide myself I’ve got picky about other guides. I don’t like the scent of condescension (which I always think of as a 1950s lady-author in a big hat…) or the books that adopt a this-is-easy comic sans tone. And I will refrain from venting about expensive mega bundles of writing prompts – which have a place as fire starters – but pretend to do the same job as exercises which have been designed to develop and demonstrate key elements of the craft of writing.
Here though, is a writing guide that I can recommend with total conviction
It is useful. Lizzie Enfield helps you get it back on track if you’ve lost the plot (so easy to do) and enables you discover the best place to start your story.
It makes you look at your manuscript with new eyes so you’re not telling a story: this happened and then this happened and then this but allows you to make the reader experience it.
It is for everyone at every stage of their writing career from beginner to published novelist. There’s no assumption that you already know the shibboleths of the creative writing world such as narrative arc or inciting incident – everything is explained, clearly and concisely. AND the author says pertinent, interesting things about the mid point of a novel that I’ve read nowhere else and which has sent me running back to the manuscript I’m working on.
I talked about tone being important earlier and Lizzie Enfield is both professional and engaging, like the best kind of mentor. She is also a best selling author and a very experienced creative writing tutor. You can find out more about her and what she’s written on the author Amazon page.
If you’re serious about writing I recommend Finish Your Book: How to complete your half-written novel. And at £4.99 for the paperback I really do believe it’s a bit of a bargain. Click HERE
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A Good Confession
"Unputdownable" Miriam Stoppard
BRIDGET WHELAN writer 