By Jonathan R.
This short writing craft book [This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley] contains many tips and ideas from published author Walter Mosley. It expresses the importance of workshopping, the strengths and weaknesses of different POV's and much more. All that from a published author in less than 25,000 words!
For the most part I found the novel to be quite enlightening, and it made me understand in greater detail things I didn't know and some I already knew. I feel like I understand the use of dialogue better, it's not just for conversation, but also to convey information in a different way than just stating it through the narrator. The author also goes into great detail about the importance of writing every day, or at least making some form of an attempt at working on your novel once/ a day. I'd have to say one of the most informative sections of the novel however would have to be the section about the different styles of planning a novel, or any type of writing for that matter.
Despite all of this however, there were some things that I felt were wrong, or at the very least exaggerated. One exaggeration I felt the author pointed out would be when he says that you need to spend at least an hour and a half each day sitting there thinking/writing when writing a novel. Although it is true that you should make an attempt constantly and consistently, I do not think it needs to be that extreme. I also didn't agree with the author when he said that after about four drafts of your novel, you should be able to correct every single word.
All things considered, I think that Walter was right on target with his writing craft, but I would personally take some of what he says with a grain of salt.
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