How to Plot Your Novel

by Jean Saunders

In this authoritative guide, Jean Saunders shows how to turn a one-page synopsis into a page-turning novel. She explains how to use pace, suspense, twists, turns and cliffhangers to captivate the reader. Sharing the secrets of her success, she demonstrates the plotting tricks that will hook a publisher and leave readers begging for more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing

144 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

Jean Innes was born on 8 February 1932 in London, England, but she have lived in the West Country almost all her life. She married with Geoff Saunders, her childhood sweetheart, and they have three grown up children. She lived in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset, where she wrote full time. She passed away on 3 August 2011, after contracting an illness, after being rushed to Weston General Hospital.

Jean began her career as a magazine writer and had published around 600 short stories. She start to published gothic romance novels under her married name Jean Saunders and her maiden name Jean Innes in the 1970s. In 1980s, she created, to wrote historical romances, two pseudonyms, her most popular, Rowena Summers and Sally Blake. In 1991 her novel, "The Bannister Girls," was shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of Year award. In 2004, she began to used the penname Rachel Moore.

She was an active member and enthusiast of Swanwick, the Writers' Summer School, which takes place in Derbyshire, England, every August, she was a committee member several times, and also Vice-Chairman. She was elected the seventeenth Chairman (1993-1995) of the Romantic Novelists' Association. As a member of the Romance Writers of America she had given talks at conferences in various venues of the USA. She was a member of the Crime Writers' Association. She also was a member and past committee member of the West Country Writers' Association.

Reviews

[Bruce Beckham · Rating 2 out of 5]

I believe the author was a talented and successful writer of romance novels. I can only conclude that these are not the qualifications for writing a ‘how-to’ guide.

‘How to Plot Your Novel’ tries to tell you everything there is to know about writing except what it says in its title. It lacks a coherent thesis and a clear plan through which to deliver it.

Useful tips are few and far between, and swamped by a frivolous and repetitive narrative that overflows with platitudes such as, “a successful story needs a beginning, a middle and an end.”

This one is all sagging middle. The end.

[Pamela Trawick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for writers.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging conversational style and logical structure (hence the 3 stars) but unless this is the first exposure you've ever had to the concept of writing a novel it will be too basic for you.

[Errol Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

The initial chapters were good but it became repetitive often providing the same information from a slightly different perspective. I will not be reading her book on research for writing.

[Izzy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A must avoid for writers!

Although this was geared towards "beginners", it contained very little content. With only a 110 pages, I would say that only 10-20 of those pages were actually "useful". This book included the bare minimum, focusing on the basics of the basics.

To me, Jean Saunders comes across as a boastful, know-it-all who looks down on others. Like most author's of these 'How to' books, they don't simply mention their work but they drown you in it. I really do hate that.
Saunders constantly included examples and explanation about her characters, settings and the plot from her books.
OK, I get it. She's had 80 novels published. And I'm happy for her, I really am. Honestly, that's an amazing achievement. But considering that this is the first time I've ever heard of her, why is she constantly ramming her work down my throat? Why not mention a more varied list of texts that readers are more likely to know?


Quote:
"There was a brief fashion for writing novels without any chapter division, or by making them so short that they were no more than one page long in some instances.
Both of these methods are gimmicky.
...Alternatively, the habitual one-page chapter book...can only result in bitty, characterless writing. This is my opinion, and there are doubtless people who will disagree with me. So, if this is the way you want to write your book, the best of luck with it."

If that's her opinion, why is she belittling the method and telling people what to do? Also, maybe it's just me but the last line doesn't sound very sincere.

I'm sorry but I absolutely hated this book. Jean Saunders doesn't connect with the reader at all well and for some reason, reading this book has made me feel bad about myself.