This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley

This Year You Write Your Novel

By Walter Mosley

Little Brown and Company

$19.99, hard back, 111 pages, 0-316-06541-2 (2007).

 

Walter Mosley knows how to write.  He’s the author of twenty-five books of fiction and nonfiction, including the Easy Rawlins and Fearless Jones mysteries.

 

Unfortunately, Mosley is a better writer than he is a teacher.  This slim book provides lots of mundane advice:  write every day; find your narrative voice; show: don’t tell; and some basic elements of character development, plot dialogue and story. 

 

Only a few unique nuggets of wisdom remain.  Poetry is good for your writing.  Without a deep understanding of poetry and its practices, any power the writer might have is greatly diminished,” Mosley explains.  He also does it right when he states that rewriting and editing are key and that the first draft is merely the borderline between “the potential novel and the actual work of art.”

 

This isn’t the best book on writing a novel out there, but you’re sure to find some advice worth taking.

Buy it here.