How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs if You Ever Want to Get Published
Published Jan 2010
If you want to write, you need this book.
There are many ways prospective authors routinely sabotage their own work. But why leave it to guesswork? Missetep by misstep, How Not to Write a Novel shows how you can ensure that your manuscript never rises above the level of unpublishable drivel; that your characters are unpleasant, dimensionless versions of yourself; that your plot is digressive, tedious and unconvincing; and that your style is reliant on mangled clichés and sesquipedalian malapropisms. Alternatively, you can use it to identify the most common mistakes, avoid them and actually write a book that works.
Guardian Award shortlisted novelist Sandra Newman and veteran editor Howard Mittelmark have distilled thirty years of teaching, editing, writing and reviewing fiction into a hilarious and liberating guide that is the perfect read for anyone who’s ever laughed at a badly written piece of prose, and for anyone who’s ever penned one – and doesn’t want to do it again.
