A Novel in a Year: From First Page to Last in 52 Weeks – An Accessible Guide for Aspiring Writers to Develop Confidence, Technique, and Style

by Louise Doughty

An essential guide for every aspiring novelist! The thought of writing a full-length novel can be daunting. But in A Novel in a Year , Louise Doughty makes a seemingly vast and unconquerable task manageable by walking aspiring authors through the different aspects of writing technique in eminently accessible bite-size chunks. Here are fifty-two chapters offering useful advice on all the facets of writing and exercises designed to help writers of all levels develop confidence and style. Read a chapter a week, and by year's end, you will have accomplished your goal and made it to "the End."

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Reference

265 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Louise Doughty is a novelist, playwright and critic. She is the author of five novels; CRAZY PAVING, DANCE WITH ME, HONEY-DEW, FIRES IN THE DARK and STONE CRADLE, and one work of non-fiction A NOVEL IN A YEAR. She has also written five plays for radio. She has worked widely as a critic and broadcaster in the UK, where she lives, and was a judge for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for fiction.

Reviews

[Robert Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a very, very useful book - follow the exercises and you will make huge progress on your novel.

Aside from the exercises, here's a brief summary of the advice in each chapter:

week 1: Complete this sentence: The day after my eight birthday my father told me.. So I did. Didn't take me a week. Hmm; perhaps I should try the next chapter now.
week 2: read contemporary fiction omnivorously and critically so that you can learn what is good and what is not good.
week 3: Resist the temptation to be funny or clever in the first line. The very best opening lines draw us in because they are like doorways to a whole new universe.
week 4: a novel can encapsulate all other sorts of writing; as beautiful as a poem, as full of emotional truths as a memoir and with all the drama of a gripping play so write anything and everything you feel to and build up a body of loose material that you can gather up later and sculpt into something beautiful.
week 5: an abiding fascination for people is over-archingly important for writers. be with people, watch people, even talk to them.
week 6: write down the quirky, individual or strange events from your own life, then draw a veil over them to make them into stories for your characters to come alive through.
week 7: it is the lasting consequences that make incidents, accidents and events such rich material in fiction. bare bones can be fleshed out.
week 8: make time and a place to write regularly. mark out this territory; surround it with barbed wire and erect gun towers if necessary.
week 9: stories aren't always to be taken, or written at face value. often the situation (such as being lost) is a metaphor for a deeper condition of the soul. write about that.
week 10: find ways of departing from your own experience and stretching your imagination as far as it can go. an idea is not a novel; that's only the start. you have to have a plot; a whole mess of ideas conflicting with each other. in a novel, things happen.
week 11: stretch your imagination; pick the best and most interesting from your life, set yourself to one side and then take a massive leap into the unknown.
week 12: writing with (foreign) voices from another country can breathe new life into a story or send it off in a fresh and unexpected direction. all this takes is a bit of research and a lot of attention to detail if you're to make the reader believe.
week 13: foreign peoples have foreign sounding voices and this can be a good way for the reader to be able to differentiate between characters - but you gotta do it proper.
week 14: it is proposed that there are stages to writing a novel and that the first of these is the ideas stage. the exercises so far have been idea generating, but sooner or later comes the stage of turning these into a novel.
week 15: characters inhabit a time and a place. 16th century characters are researched and the findings inform the writing. in the same way, contemporary characters should impact and be impacted by their environment and time. this makes a story more interesting to a reader.
week 16: maximise your allies (things that help you to write) and neutralise the effect of your enemies (things that impede your writing). Be honest with this.
week 17: Be secure in the fact that you can write from the point of view of absolutely anything and anyone, and allow this to open your imagination.
week 18: the answer to 'what is your novel about' is just a seed. It's the effects of the seed: how the characters change and develop, that makes the plot of the novel.
week 19: developing an idea into a plot involves creating drama. The easiest way to do this is through character development. Ask yourself about your characters - their origins and their motivations."
week 20: cancel everything cancellable for the next 10 weeks, set yourself a daily/weekly target and just write any part of your novel, anything, any fragment in any order or any form.
week 21: there's no right or wrong way to write about a character's background (apart from not writing at all) and not all of what you record needs to be included in your novel, but it all helps you to get to know your character.
week 22: JUST KEEP WRITING. Read this chapter after taking a 2 day break from writing - can this woman read my mind?!!"
week 23: rather than describe your character's characteristics, write about what he does and let those concrete, physical actions reveal the character.
week 24: the first half of writing a book is about generating enough ideas about what to write about so that you can write and learn enough about your characters to be able to build up a sufficient body of work that you can later give (a novel shaped) shape to.
week 25: think about what (or who) your character wants and who (or what) is stopping your character from getting this.
week 26: notice things around you: things people say and do, unusual things, the things that shine bright in your mind: pain, anger, ecstasy; and file these away for later use, either in a notebook or in your mind. These can all be valuable building blocks for your characters and their exploits.
week 27: if you're ever stuck for a plot development or a way forward, then think about where the conflict lies in your story. What obstacles are there and how can they be overcome?
week 28: if you're stuck on plot or character development, get out and research. visit the settings, take photographs, speak to experts, feel the cloth, sit on the tree stump - then write about what you discover.
week 29: describe your character - not like you're creating a photo-fit, but by using the kind of detail that brings a character alive for the reader.
week 30: now that you have your material finished (oh yeah! not quite - only 10,500 words so far) lay it all out on a tabletop and put it in order of events in the book. If there are gaps in the storyline then write the outline of what is missing on a sheet of paper and put it in the relevant place.
week 31: have a body of material finished before you bother about a detailed plot. Discover what happens next by starting to write and seeing what comes. Blend description with your advancing storyline so that everything you write has a dual purpose (rather than being pointless descriptive padding).
week 32: Take a break if it becomes psychologically necessary. Paint the bathroom, read books, go hiking - but set yourself a date to resume, then do so.
week 33: when editing your work, one of the tasks is to prune. take out repeated words that mean the same thing (arid / dry / eradicated). 1st draft - 10% = 2nd draft.
week 34: editing - take out superfluous adverbs (too many make for melodrama, not emphasis; metaphors (authors do not get paid by the metaphor); and clichés (write what you really see, not what you think you ought to see).
week 35: when editing - level of ruthlessness depends on location in book - the start should be tightly edited because that is where you need to dig the hook in tight, but the middle, less so, because by then you should have them well and truly hooked (no readers were harmed in the casting of this fishy metaphor).
week 36: don't write about sex, swearing, violence or anything else that everyday life is full of, unless it's really really integral to the plot; and if you do - use this sparingly. A little is a lot and a lot will get you branded as a pervert or someone with turrets (is that how you spell it?) or a something something something...
week 37: simile uses 'like' or 'as': as beautiful as a rose (comparison); metaphor is applying a name or descriptive term to an object to which it is not literally applicable: 'Nick was quicksilver. He had the speed and temperament. He was a dangerous friend.
week 38: if you are 50 pages into a book and are wondering when the story is going to start the may be due to clumsy exposition. background information and explanation should be used sparingly at the start of a book; the plot must be interesting enough to stand by itself.
week 39: dialogue can reveal a lot about a character without it having to be explained. you can surmise much from language, syntax, vocabulary, pauses, subjects, volume, speed etc.
week 40: a plot is about things happening: change, drama, conflict; lots of these things. give your character a half brick and a reason to use it!
week 41: plot development doesn't have to involve physical action - it can be revelation via dialogue. dialogue should move plot forward. try inserting a contradiction between the words a character uses and their actions. the tension does not have to arise from an unexpected event, but from how the character deals with it.
week 42: there is nothing more frustrating than spending 80% of a book waiting for the story to start, only to feel that when it finally does, it's all over. structure comes from plot points (e.g. quarter half three-quarters through). but the dramatic events introduced shouldn't be random, they must change and develop the main character and lead to the next development.
week 43: book takes a wobble and starts to talk about an exercise that was never set (writing a synopsis). perspective: 'as Sara lifted her washing from the tub, the water in it started to slop wildly from side to side. take care about your narrative viewpoint. getting headache now so going to stop for a while.
week 44: there are 3 (main) types of narrative viewpoint: 1st person (I this and I that - the new writer's favourite), third person omniscient (the God voice - outdated and arch) and third person subjective (like 1st person but using he/she and with multiple viewpoints available)
week 45: ..and the narrative voice has a tense; mostly past, sometimes present and very rarely future.
week 46: be careful not to overwrite - go easy on the adjectives, adverbs and overextended metaphors. If you lose your way join a creative writing group and get feedback.
week 47: listen to all criticism and don't defend; everyone knows something you don't.
week 48: deciding on an ending and writing it can teach you a lot about your book. if your characters don't feel real to you, revisit their roots - do some research.
week 49: what happens at the end should be a fitting conclusion rather than a tidy resolution; it should be a natural consequence of what came before. it's good if the reader realises what's going on at the same time as the main character.
week 50: the more you write and rewrite, the more you progress as a writer.
week 51: give yourself permission to do something that has nothing to do with paying bills or paying attention to loved ones. but still try to strike a balance.
week 52: may good luck combined with your hard work see you attain your status of World Famous Author, and if it doesn't, just enjoy writing because you love writing; anything else is extra.

[Alan Coady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely practical guide to the elements of the craft. As the project was no longer live when I read it, I crashed through it in a couple of weeks and feel like I learned a great deal. I also formed a high opinion of Louise Doughty as a person. She came across as very robust, likeable and honest.

[Mario the lone bookwolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instructions focused on the use of creativity and own impressions for the systematic generation of ideas

Please note that I put the original German text at the end of this review. Just if you might be interested.

This work, which is primarily focused on the practice and the creative process of creation, sets itself apart pleasantly from a work of literature that is more concerned with the theoretical superstructure. It is about the practical implementation of own experiences, memories, and emotions to make them useful for the creative work.
You should, according to Doughty, apart from initial planning, never focus too much on the theoretical superstructure before you start to write. However, without fear of later creative clearcutting to the fine adjustment just begin writing free and unbiased. The point is to bring material that needs to be improved, which is one of the unfortunately often delayed hesitations.
Creativity paired with impulsive, spontaneous writing is what seduces the reader. A vital element of this is the tapping of the reservoir of own experience. This, in contrast to persons and places of action which have to be invented, requires no additional stress than remembering and written adherence. Thus, the initial double burden of realistic narration and simultaneous world building including the creation of protagonists falls away.
An essential factor of success is the mediated realization of how much more detailed, credible and realistic an autobiographical experience can be described concerning a purely conceived situation. It is this intensity of real lived moments of life that the author uses step by step in the utilization of her chapters adapted from a newspaper column. Because the goal is to learn the competence to be able to empathize with one's characters to preventively circumvent clichés and two-dimensionality long before.
For this purpose, tasks that are of increasing complexity as the reading signs of progress are asked to discuss given or even personal life events as detailed as possible, under a particular framework, or because of the further, formative consequences. By demonstrating how many details have survived in memory from defining moments of one's own life, the importance of intensive engagement with the protagonists is illustrated.
Just as one can relive and describe everyday and boring anecdotes even less intensely, emotionally unattractive and superficial sketching of fictional characters is equally dull and lifeless. It also illustrates who writes in the end. The characters and not the author himself. If he is not able or willing to immerse himself in the Dramatis personae and to create believable speech patterns, behaviors and traits based on a coherent biography, even the most sophisticated plot inevitably collapses.
The concept of transferring impressions and experiences to the protagonists, who in the best case come to life in their heads and develop their momentum, has rarely been drawn in such a comprehensible and realistic way. Moreover, is there a better idea than to experience the following after years of research, conception, a creation of the scene and dialogue improvement?
How personally self-absorbed homunculi and environments open up a dynamic, self-sustaining world, whose fine-tuning is only occasionally interspersed with the gray eminence of the author in the background. What could be more exalted and rewarding than watching the manifestations of one's creativity and persistent diligence in becoming independent? An eye pleases their progressive development after all the awkward and setback times of start-up. The other is getting suspiciously wet of glorified nostalgia. Then the children, created out of pure intellectual power, finally learned to walk.

Auf die Nutzung der Kreativität und eigener Impressionen fokussierte Anleitung zur systematischen Ideenfindung

Dieses primär auf die Praxis und den kreativen Schaffungsprozess konzentrierte Werk hebt sich von, eher auf den theoretischen Überbau Bedacht nehmende Literatur, angenehm ab. Es geht um die vernünftige Implementierung eigener Erfahrungen, Erinnerungen und Emotionen, um sie für die kreative Arbeit nutzbar zu machen.
Grundsätzlich sollte man laut Doughty, von einer rudimentären Planung abgesehen, sich nie zu sehr auf den theoretischen Überbau fokussieren bevor man zu schreiben beginnt. Sondern ohne Angst vor späterem kreativem Kahlschlag bis zur Feinjustierung frei und unvoreingenommen einfach drauf los schreiben. Es geht darum, überhaupt zu verbesserndes Material zustande zu bringen, was eine der leider oft hinaus gezögerten Initialzündungen darstellt.
Kreativität mit impulsiven, spontanen Schreiben gepaart ist es, zu der der Leser verleitet wird. Ein Kernelement davon ist die Anzapfung des Reservoirs eigener Erfahrungen. Das bedarf, im Gegensatz zu zu erfindenden Personen und Handlungsorten, keiner zusätzlichen Beanspruchung als des Erinnerns und schriftlichen Festhaltens. Somit fällt die anfängliche Doppelbelastung des realistischen Erzählens und gleichzeitigen Weltenbaus inklusive der Erschaffung von Protagonisten weg.
Ein wesentlicher Faktor des Erfolges ist die vermittelte Erkenntnis, wie viel detaillierter, glaubwürdiger und realistischer sich ein autobiografisches Erlebnis im Verhältnis zu einer rein erdachten Situation schildern lässt. Diese Intensität real erlebter Lebensmomente ist es, auf deren Nutzbarmachung die Autorin in ihren, aus einer Zeitungskolumne adaptierten, Kapiteln Schritt für Schritt hin arbeitet. Denn das Ziel ist das Erlernen der Kompetenz, sich in eigene Charaktere hineinversetzen zu können, um Klischees und Zweidimensionalität schon lange vorher präventiv zu umgehen.
Dafür werden, von der Komplexität her mit Voranschreiten der Lektüre ansteigende, Aufgaben gestellt, vorgegebene oder selbst zu wählende persönliche Lebensereignisse möglichst detailliert, unter einem bestimmten Rahmen oder in Hinblick auf die weiteren, prägenden Folgen zu erörtern.
Anhand des Veranschaulichung dessen, wie viele Details aus prägenden Momenten des eigenen Lebens im Gedächtnis überdauert haben, wird die Wichtigkeit intensiver Auseinandersetzung mit den Protagonisten veranschaulicht. So wie man alltägliche und langweilige Anekdoten selbst weniger intensiv nacherleben und beschreiben kann, so ist eine emotional wenig ansprechende und oberflächliche Skizzierung von Romanfiguren ebenso öd und leblos.
Es veranschaulicht auch, wer letzten Endes wirklich schreibt. Die Figuren und nicht der Autor selbst. Ist dieser nicht fähig oder willens, sich intensiv in die Dramatis personae hineinzuversetzen und anhand einer in sich schlüssigen Biografie glaubwürdige Sprechmuster, Verhaltensweisen und Charakterzüge zu erstellen, bricht selbst der ausgefeilteste Plot unweigerlich in sich zusammen.
Das Konzept der Übertragung von Eindrücken und Erfahrungen auf die, im besten Fall im eigenen Kopf lebendig werdenden und eine Eigendynamik entwickelnden, Protagonisten wurde selten so nachvollziehbar und realitätsnah gezeichnet.
Und gibt es eine schönere Vorstellung, als nach Jahren der Recherche, Konzipierung, Szenenerstellung und Dialogvervollkommnung folgendes zu erleben. Wie sich aus persönlich liebgewonnenen Homunculi und Umgebungen eine dynamische, von selbst Fahrt aufnehmende Welt auftut, zu deren Feinabstimmung nur mehr die graue Eminenz in Form des Autors im Hintergrund gelegentlich eingreifen muss.
Was könnte erhabener und lohnender sein, als die Manifestationen der eigenen Kreativität und beharrlichen Fleißes bei der Verselbstständigung zu beobachten. Ein Auge nach all den tollpatschigen und von Rückschlägen geprägten Anfangszeiten erfreut über deren fortschreitende Entwicklung. Das andere von Nostalgie verklärt verdächtig feucht werdend. Dann haben die Kinder, geschaffen aus reiner Geisteskraft, endlich gehen gelernt.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title is misleading. At the end of this book, don't expect to have a novel. However, if you know how much work writing really is, you'll realize that reading any book won't make your novel write itself!

In any case, I really recommend this book, to serious and non-serious writers both, to published and unpublished authors. The writing exercises were inspiring and challenging and, above all, fun. The book left me feeling renewed and optimistic.

Louise Doughty's writing is clever, entertaining, helpfully practical and insightful.

[Michael Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

TODO: I really liked this course on creative (novel) writing. A week-by-week project, a bit of thematic explanation and rather simple exercises. Ran as a newspaper community in 2006; this is an analysis and summary. I would have liked an overview from the start and more numbers (opinions from others). Could have used some appendices on selected text from the texts submitted by the newspaper audience (small excerpts are already in). Inspiring!

[Rue Baldry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very readable, practical and inspiring advice about writing. It has realistic, real-world advice and acknowledges straight off that all you can hope for in one year is a first draft. Doughty is very good at spotting the BS people tell themselves, but she's also good at stopping would-be writers from feeling guilty about the time we don't spend writing. It's short and quick to read in one go, or you could read a chapter a week as the readers of the original newspaper column did. There isn't really anything here that I haven't heard before, but the reiteration is helpful and her attitude is friendly and relaxed.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful (and reassuring) while not being dictatorial about process. Doughty has a more organic approach to finding out what your story's arc and themes are than some of the charts and worksheets and outline points writing tomes out there: you'll get there by doing more writing (not necessarily writing that will be in the novel) than by making lists or filling in structure charts.

[Sofia Isabella Elisabeth Ingrid Backryd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a perfect book for those who want to follow it as a guide on how to write a book. Sadly for me, I have already been writing my book for quite awhile and therefor this book did not meet my needs. But this book gave me some really good tips and tricks and I can recommend it to anyone who is thinking about writing a novel.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing expert Louise Doughty starts her writers off on their quest to write a novel in a year by suggesting a provocative prompt for each of the first few weeks. Then she asks the writers to clear their calendars and write as near to round-the-clock as possible for the next ten weeks. You can write about anything, even things that are only loosely or potentially connected to the story. Then she arrives at what she calls her favorite bit of the whole process: Put everything out on a big flat surface and gaze at it and put everything roughly in order. Gaps, she says, should soon be obvious, and this is where you should then focus.

And that is, distilled to its bones, the rough process.

[Olivia Giles · Rating 2 out of 5]

at least it wasn't written by a man like every other writing book i read in february

[Tammi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this and found it to easy to read, and I stayed engaged, reading it in about a week (outside of my day job). I like the useful approaches and picked up on some things I could apply with the novel I'm almost finished with a ghost writer. I'm visual, so quite like the strategy of laying everything out to piece it together for your plot development. I might borrow this one again from the library!

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparently I started reading this book about four years ago. I finally finished it today, having re-started it a month ago. The difference is that I ignored the layout and intended time-frame.

What this book consists of is 52 short chapters, which were originally published as weekly newspaper columns. Every other week there was a short exercise (so, 26 in all) which encouraged reader participation either by letter or on a dedicated website forum. Apparently there was widespread enthusiasm and involvement, and a great deal of discussion. Essentially a huge online writing support group was formed for this period.

But it doesn't work like that in book form, so I decided to read the book in a month, doing six exercises per week. Taken as having a newspaper column style of writing, it's very well done - light-hearted, with plenty of personal anecdotes, and some gems of good advice thrown in. It's not a guide to writing a novel - the title is perhaps misleading - but has ideas to kick-start creativity and to get a stagnant novel going again. So we write biographies of our characters, think about incidents from the point of view of someone in another country, invent a chapter when someone breaks a thumb, re-write paragraphs without adjectives... and a whole lot more. I didn't think the exercises were necessarily relevant, but pretty much any writing exercise can lead to something more constructive, which is what I found.

I don't know that I learned anything new about the novel-writing process, but I found the book inspiring nonetheless. I found the last few exercises a bit disappointing - looking back, looking forward, noting what I had learned, etc, and didn't do those ones. But the bulk of the book was very readable and helpful, and I would recommend it to anyone who has read umpteen guides to writing, and perhaps started several novels that have not gone anywhere. This is a different kind of approach, and I found it refreshing.

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this book is very misleading. It's not about a novel having been written in a year. It's not even about how to write a novel in a year. There is virtually no helpful advice on writing novels here, only bland and weak exercises some of which working off the assumption you already have some sort of novel brewing.

Doughty was often smug about her own skill, and downright rude towards other writers, particularly several famous ones. Her slander of these other writers left a very sour taste in my mouth, and I found afterward i couldn't bring myself to respect her, even as an apparently popular author. Added to that the several spelling and grammatical errors I picked up during reading, I was very unimpressed by the close of the book.

I don't think it's reasonable for Doughty to actually expect many people to read this over the course of an entire year, and if I had have done so, I would have found many of the chapters very weak on their own. A lot of her ideas and 'tips' ran over several chapters, and I'd find it difficult to follow this book week by week.

Over-all, some of the exercises may be useful to some people, and for this I've given her 2 stars. For her own writing, style, tips and layout, I'd give her no more than one. Disappointing. Don't expect to get anything out of it.

[J Wrin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took my time over this book, sipping at it in small portions. I will admit, I didn't attempt the exercises but I was OK with that because I don't need prodding to get writing. This book really is best suited for beginners, people with a notion that they would like to write a novel but have never gotten down to trying. Having said that, I am not such a snob as to say I didn't get valuable advice and tips from this book, because I most certainly did. Louise has a wonderful approachable style and should help starting writers to realise much of what they are feeling about their new avocation is pretty much what all writers feel. She supplies the reader with the tools they will need if they want to write and, more importantly, finish their novel and I know w that she has helped many people do just that. Nice one.

[Chris Harvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found the book a little middle class, it seemed for those people who wanted to write a book for years but never found the time. It was into very realistic writing, not fantasy which I do. As a writer, albet a bad one, I found the first half of the book a little boring. I started the exercises but quickly realised they were not what wanted so stopped. I left the book about half way through then picked it up sometime later to simple finish it. The second half, when writing a novel, was a lot more useful as it gave good advice and made you think about your work. Again I did not do the exercises and I did not follow the strickly weekly read, in fact I read the second half of the book in a week. If you have never written before great but if you have I would not really recommend it. I would have given the first half of the book 2 stars and the second 4 thus 3 overall.

[Katarina Persson · Rating 1 out of 5]

I found this book quite boring and not very helpful or inspiring. And I don't agree with the idea the author wants to get across that NO writers think of the plot or know what the story is going to be about before they start, or know what is going to happen in it before they've written it. It's so obviously wrong because there are just as many writers that do that, as the ones that don't and it makes me wonder exactly how many writers this author has really met... I just disagree with the entire philosophy that you should write a bunch of scenes not knowing how, if or where they fit into your story. That is the danger about writing a how-to like this, taking ones own philosophy and claim it to be the truth and the only real way to do something.

[Donna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read about twenty how-to-write-a-novel books, and take my word for it, this is up there as one of the best! I felt totally renewed after finishing this book, and I have finally allocated a weekly slot in my diary totally dedicated to my writing (something other books have advised me to do but they never quite had the same impact on me). Louise combines creative exercises with practical thought, in the most genius way. Highly recommended if you are, like me, starting out with a novel and don't know where to begin. Thanks Louise, for this wonderful and inspirational book!

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a helpful guide to publishing your own novel. What I especially liked was that each chapter of ideas was followed by a practical exercise related to your work or work in progress. Useful. Helped me to identify the weaknesses and strengths of my writing and hope to make some changes to improve it. Also found the author, Louise Doughty (also been to a workshop of hers) very honest about her own fears and failures. I would recommend it to any aspiring writer.

[Shel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book!
Having decided to write my own novel this year, I bought this book to spur me on, keep me on track and give me a sense of direction. So far so good!
Author, Louise Doughty, is a journalist and author. She created this book as a result of a newspaper column.
The book includes a chapter for each week and an exercise to complete every second week. The exercises are not difficult - all you need is a little bit of time.

[Louise Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been stuck on the draft of a novel for some months. It took this book, read in one sitting, to get me motivated again. Thank you, Louise Doughty, for turning your newspaper column of 2006 into a very readable and very insightful exposition of the organic process of writing a novel. You make everything seem possible for someone prepared to confront the reality of the thinking and hard work required to create a work of fiction.

[Alyce Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came up with some great writing exercises, which were extremely inspiring. Definitely makes you consider the entire process of writing a novel, and what a massive task it is to undertake. I might have felt more of an effect if I'd actually read it over the course of a year, so I'd recommend reading this over a period of time. The multiple use of 'chose' as choose was rather irritating, but I could get past it.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I imagine this would have been more useful to me about five years ago; nevertheless it was an interesting, sometimes amusing read and did help me think about my current writing project(s) more critically. There were a few aspects of Doughty's humor that didn't sit well with me, and as a text it's rather out of date now, but still worth a read for anyone who wants to give their creativity a kick in the pants.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for these "what I learnt in a year" books (refer "My Year Without Shopping" and "So Many Books, So Little Time") so I couldn't go past this. I have no intention of writing a novel but was fun to eyeball Doughty's practical tips on the process. Her honesty, wit and encouragement make it a good read, although probably really only if you want to write that novel...

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most writing books fall into one of two categories: inspirational ("you can do it!") or mechanical ("here's how to do it"). This one tries to do a bit of both and is unsuccessful on each front. There are a few useful exercises and a few good suggestions, but it felt a little lighter than the top writing books do. Worthwhile if only because it's a very quick read.

[T.A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting book with some very useful exercises, especially during the first half of the book. I found the exercises in the second half less useful but this was mainly because I read this book over approximately two weeks and so I hadn't been able to do a lot of what she asked for.

That said the ideas and thoughts in the book were very good and I will be using some of them going forward.

[Declan Reynolds · Rating 4 out of 5]

For anyone who enjoyed Marian Keyes' four weeks on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/marian_keyes/ talking about writing your own Novel, this would be a useful companion to keep you company and give you some unblocking exercises through the long arduous weeks filling in your blank pages / screen.

[Alexandra Needham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Prescriptivist and dismissive. There are some gems of ideas in here, but they're smothered in baby-step instructions that are probably patronising and boring for anyone who's done any writing in school, let alone most people who would be interested in picking up a book on writing novels.

[virginia weir · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five star winner from Doughty

In barely one hundred pages, author Louise Doughty takes the reader through the why's and wherefores of writing kingdom fiction. Clear and easy to understand, it is my default writing guide.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good stuff in here, but would be especially useful for writers just starting out and needing a framework and lots of positive reinforcement.

[Carrie Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book got me thinking about possibilities, and it also made me realize that mistakes and false starts are all part of the process, so not to give up. (Though the title is misleading, I agree.)