Novelist

We’ve all thought it. Whether it was after groaning your way through a god-awful, $1.99 Kindle bundle or stifling explosive sighs from whatever you grabbed off the “Hottest New Read”-shelf in the airport, we’ve all thought it: “I could write better than this.” It’s a thought we’ve all had before eking out a pathetic 8,000 words during the following NanoWriMo.

There is no definitive how-to book for novel writing. How Not to Write a Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes and How to Avoid Them—A Misstep-by-Misstep Guide, however, is exactly as advertised. It outlines all the mistakes that make you look like a total rube.

Example
By introducing a previously unmentioned element to resolve a situation, it is as if the author has said, “Oh, I just realized my plot doesn’t work, so I’m going to add something from outside of my plot, okay?” Okay, well that particular blunder is known as the deux ex machina, which is French for, “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Each mistake listed is preceded by an example piece of writing that exemplifies the cringe-worthy aspect of that literary pitfall. Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman have seemingly accomplished a Sisyphean task of reading every crappy novel and making a hilarious educational guide from it.

For readers who are looking for authors who are masters at creating engaging work, then novelist Adriana Trigiani is a must-have for their bookshelf. Trigiani grew up in a small-town in southwest Virginia surrounded by her loving Italian-American family.  After graduating from college, she moved to the Big Apple to become a playwright. In New York, she founded the all-female comedy troupe “The Outcasts” and worked at The Cosby Show, A Different World, and City Kids. While Trigiani was developing a screenplay called Big Stone Gap, it wound up morphing into a novel that was based in part on her Virginia hometown.

Other works include The Supreme Macaroni Company, which follows a heartbreaking story that begins on the eve of a wedding night set in New York City and then takes readers on a breathtaking journey from New Orleans to Tuscany, Italy. It’s an unforgettable read about twists of fate, family, and one’s work that readers won’t be able to put down!

Continue Reading →