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How Not to Write a Novel
“How Not to Write a Novel” is a funny guide to writing the most unpublishable steaming pile of dreck you can imagine.
Written by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman, “How Not to Write a Novel” describes in hilarious detail all the pitfalls you can drive your book into: time-honored techniques for ensuring your characters are stereotypes spouting cliches for dialogue while wandering through generic settings in scenes that will make your reader think, “Hey, this book is just a bunch of rip-offs from [insert author's ten favorite movies here].”
Of course there is a serious aspect to this book. It shows the aspiring writer 200 of the ways his or her book can go wrong. If you find yourself giving a nervous and uncomfortable chuckle at something in this book, it’s likely because you recognize it from your own work. If that’s the case, you have editing to do.
“How Not to Write a Novel” is a delightful and informative read. I prefer to hop around in it, reading a segment here and there. It’s well suited for reading in short bursts.
Here is another graphic by Rick Sazon, based on my novel-in-progress, “Gypsies.” I envision “Gypsies” as part of a series about a group of characters who, thanks to a rare genetic condition, are forced to move constantly, unable to live in one place more than three or four years at a time.