WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading asks you to answer the following three (3) questions…

What are you currently reading?

I know I’m posting this on Thursday, but I didn’t want to skip my reading entry for the majority of the week.

I still find this book very prescriptive and dull. There’s no real inspiration behind the ideas we’re given for the writing process and now that I’m 105 or so pages in and still needing to get the 198 to finish it, I may very well just quit.

The ideas are fine and it is interesting to see how people can think of novels but using charts to divide up how many pages you give each character isn’t interesting in the slightest. Again, as I say, most writers are not going to turn off once you show them numbers and charts and percentages – at least I do.

What did you recently finish reading?

Nothing recently.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I think I’m going to just finish this one up next. I had to return Along for the Ride to the library.

WWW Wednesdays is hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading asks you to answer the following three (3) questions…

What are you currently reading?

I got this book for the Nook at the library. It’s really prescriptive, which isn’t my thing or a lot of other writer’s way of setting up a novel, but it’s interesting. Well, it was during Part 1 where it talked about how to set up (stereotypical) characters, who should be the lead, the anti-hero, the confidant, etc. Then in Part 2, things got really confusing. Writers are word people and trying to explain how to mathematically break up a plot and judge how many pages a book in your target genre should be was kind of ridiculous. (I mean, if you read books in your target genre, won’t you already know a rough number of pages that each include?)

Marshall started discussing formulas and came up with,

Book lines on a full 9 = number of words

On a full 9 what? Full 9 pages? Why would I have to do this? There are plenty of web sites out there that tell you how many words books in your genre should roughly be. Page number is going to be different depending on formatting. I think it’s a bit overboard to go into detail about how you can find this out. Marshall even included a full page chart on how to decide how many sections you need per you word count and how many goals you should have for each section.

Again, the tips are way too clinical and most writers know how plot works (There was actually a little box diagram to show that plot was a 1/4 beginning, 2/4 middle, and 1/4 end, instead of the typical triangle diagram with intro, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.) If this has to be explained, I’m guess this book is targeted for new writers and those who are writing mystery/crime thrillers.

There’s nothing wrong with that at all and it’s fine to see how other people think about creating their plot. I just sort of zoned out during this second part because it’s not about art but about formulas. Of course we all need some kind of organization so, again, if this is helpful to writers, that’s fine.

What did you recently finish reading?

I haven’t read anything in its entirety for a while except for my Life in the UK test booklet.

What do you think you’ll read next?

I already have two Sara Dessen books checked out so I’ll get through those next.