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Samantha

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Samantha is Currently Reading

Samantha is currently reading

The Knight: A Portrait of Europe's Warrior Elite

by Alan Baker (Goodreads Author)

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Jul 08, 2026 07:47PM

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Mermaids: The Myths, Legends, and Lore

by Skye Alexander (Goodreads Author)

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Feb 04, 2025 09:30PM

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90 Days to Your Novel: A Day-by-Day Plan for Outlining & Writing Your Book

by Sarah Domet (Goodreads Author)

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Samantha said: " I'm not done reading this book yet, but I have a lot of thoughts. I'm just starting the Week 4 section of the book, for reference. Also, this is very rambly and a bit more of a personal take, as I can't talk about this book without talking about my o I'm not done reading this book yet, but I have a lot of thoughts. I'm just starting the Week 4 section of the book, for reference. Also, this is very rambly and a bit more of a personal take, as I can't talk about this book without talking about my own writing process.

I've had this book on my shelf for years and, on a whim, I pulled it out and started it. For me, the 90 days does fall partway through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month in November), so I'm still unsure how much of this book I'm going to do before I pause (and if I'm going to pick it back up once I start writing my novel). Just some caveats. I've basically been treating this as prep for NaNo.

As for the book itself, the author is VERY insistent on outlining. She makes this clear from the beginning, which almost made me put the book down, but I figured I would see how things went. (Spoiler alert, I still don't have a real outline.)

Also, I'll be very honest in that I skipped a lot of assignments or only did partial assignments. This book thinks you're coming in with basically nothing, whereas I'm not. So, if an assignment seemed pointless for my project, I skipped it. There were also a couple of assignments that dealt with drawing inspiration from the real world and... yeah, I don't really do that. So, I skipped those.

I did try on some of the scene/outlining assignments, but it was just me writing down some thoughts I already had. They are a little more solidified now just from the act of writing them down, though most of them are still vague ideas, and I just found myself frustrated at trying to write a scene by scene breakdown. It doesn't work for me. You CANNOT make me an outliner. The scene breakdowns just go into so much detail that I might as well write the scene but without writing the scene I didn't know what scene would follow next.

Plus, these assignments became really repetitive for me because my scene/plot ideas didn't really change, so I was just repeating myself from previous assignments.

Rather, these outline assignments/questions would be a lot more useful for me in revision.

Basically, while this book has a lot of great advice, don't be bullied into being a type of writer that you're not. Come into it with an open mind, but don't beat yourself up if you find yourself unable to use all of the author's methods.

Just from what I've read thus far, I think it is a good resource for doing prep work on a new idea, but that's with me picking and choosing what assignments I do. I also think it's going to be a great resource to focus on those outlining assignments for when I do revision.

So, what you get out of this book will depend on what type of writer you are and how well you jell with Domet's style of writing, but you can also ignore her strictness and use the book how it suits you best.

Though, I laughed at her attempt at motivation for only having 70 days left to write your novel (except I glanced at the next assignment and the novel writing isn't starting yet). If you do NaNo every year, that's nothing. ...more "

Aug 27, 2023 09:28PM · see review

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Samantha’s Quotes

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

tags: books, children, difficult, grown-ups, write, writers, writing

16963 likes

“Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.”
― Garrison Keillor

tags: humor, religion

30311 likes

“We have to be braver than we think we can be, because God is constantly calling us to be more than we are.”
― Madeleine L'Engle

tags: bravery, courage, identity

364 likes

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
― Albert Einstein

1112 likes