Writing Fiction for Dummies by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy

Format: Book

My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

My review

Writing Fiction for Dummies is an excellent resource for new writers. It covers all the basics from starting out to looking for a publisher, which would provide a solid foundation to get started with for any serious writer.

As I'm not a newbie, I didn't get as much from the book as a new writer would, but I knew that when I purchased the book. I bought it for ~~two reasons~~, no make that three reasons:

  • One of the co-authors is Randy Ingermanson (the snowflake guy). As I use the Snowflake method all the time and I subscribe to his newsletter, I was sure the book would be useful in helping me improve my method…I was right!
  • I needed an inspiration boost and felt I’d get it from this book. This is related to the first point in a way; knowing the content would be heavily Snowflake influenced convinced me that I’d be inspired to get stuck into my own planning…and I was right again!! (I love being right.)
  • I was interested to read the section of writing proposals. This is something I’ve been researching for a few weeks now, but I haven’t been able to find anything useful. When I realised there was a section on proposal writing in the book, I was pleased. I didn’t know what to expect, but I learned more than I imagined and now have a “Proposal Template” saved in my writing file. I’m sure I’ll be returning to that section of the book often when I need help filling in the different sections of the proposal.

While new writers need to find a method that works for them, a more advanced writer needs to bring things back into prospective at times and I think that's what I got from the book most of all – a reminder that determination and persistence is the only way to move forward.

Thanks to this book, I'm enthusiastic about my next project.