Full Title: Ready, Set, Novel! Plan and Plot Your Upcoming Masterpiece
Author: Chris Baty, Lindsey Grant, and Tavia Stewart-Streit from National Novel Writing Month
Published: October 2011 by Chronicle Books
Genres: Nonfiction, Books & Writing, Writing Fiction, Authorship, Writing Skills
Edition Details: 160 pages, trade paperback
Source: {Purchased – New}
Rating: {4/5 stars}
First Glance
Woohoo! It’s a NaNoWriMo workbook! I love workbooks!
In all seriousness, this was the last NaNoWriMo-specific book on my list. I mostly bought it to complete the NaNoWriMo mini collection.
Positive Bits
The NaNoWriMo team really did create a workbook for writers that fits the formatting of the event itself. These are the hands-on activities I said were missing in the previous books; in fact, I’m surprised they didn’t make a combination set somewhere along the way.
I love the playful attitude of this workbook. There’s a page that’s literally a high five, and you’re supposed to celebrate your successes by slapping the hand on the page. There’s also a boot for your “kick in the pants” as needed. Silly, but cute!
For a newbie writer with little or no experience with creating characters from scratch, I think the activities focused on that process are particularly helpful. When I was younger, I basically kidnapped the personality of people close to me (while changing their names). The workbook gives you more thorough activities for character building.
Less Enjoyable Bits
I’m not sure this book is useful if you’ve written multiple stories in the past. Many of the activities are super simplified processes that you internalize as you grow, and that makes this workbook feel less helpful than I’d hoped it to be.
Workbooks, by their very nature, have little actual writing in them. There’s tons of blank space for the person actually doing the work. That said, I sprinted through this book and found myself disappointed at how short it was outside of the times you were supposed to pause your reading and do an exercise.
It’s a silly complaint, but I prefer workbooks that are bound in a way that allows easier use. The spine on this book (while new) is very stiff, so actually writing in the workbook itself would be irritating until you broke it in. There’s not much to do about that, though, unless the publisher wanted to use the thinner paper and binding of a traditional school workbook instead of trade paperback binding methods.
Tidbits Worth Repeating*
*Note: I didn’t have a lot of quote to share, because this workbook is mostly a collection of exercises that don’t lend themselves to epic quotability.
The hardest part is behind you. Your story is here. Your characters are waiting. It’s time for the next phase of this bookish adventure to begin. You ready? You’re set. Let’s novel. {page 117}
Is it worth the coin?
Yes – particularly for new writers. If you benefit from surfing Tumblr or Pinterest for character creation tips and the like, then this book has a decent collection of worksheets to help you out. This workbook would also be a great help with pre-planning your novel, doing the outlining and world building required to get started.
Larissa Lee 