The Beginner's Guide to Writing a Novel: How to Prepare Your First Book for Publication

by Marina Oliver

'Everyone has a book in them' is a phrase we have all heard. It may be true, but it's the getting it out that matters. This book is designed to help you put your novel on the page in the way that will give you the best chance of selling it to a publisher. It's not easy. It can be hard work and often disappointing, and luck plays a critical part, but it is possible. With persistence, knowledge of the world of publishing and belief in yourself, you can succeed. The rewards - seeing your book on public display or in the hands of a reader - and the delight in achievement, make all the effort worthwhile. This book will show you the practical steps to be taken in order to reap those rewards. It deals specifically with: getting started; finding the right story; setting the scene; creating the right characters; working with other writers; submitting work; and getting to grips with the publishing process.

Genres: Writing

191 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Marina Oliver was born in 1934. She graduated from Keele University in Politics and Economics.

Marina started published historical romances, in 1974, at Robert Hale, and since 1977 also under the pseudonym of Sally James. In 1981, she published a novel as Donna Hunt at Minstrel Books. Since 1983, she uses de penname Bridget Thorn. In 1992, she also published a novel as Vesta Hathaway and in 2000 as Laura Hart. She has published more than fifty novels under her name and her pseudonyms, plus half a dozen non-fiction books. Her novels are historical romances as well as twentieth-century sagas, contemporary romances and crime. She has edited her own quarterly magazine, and also many books and newsletters, mainly for educational organisations.

Marina was elected the sixteenth Chairman (1992-1993) of the Romantic Novelists' Association, edited its Newsletter for 3 years, and now has been elected a Vice-President and runs the R.N.A. New Writer's Scheme. She reads for and judges short story competitions, reviews historical novels, and has done appraisals for (among others) a prestigious Regional Arts board.

Married with Chris, they had four children, Jackie, Debbie, Cindy and Simon, and several grandchildren, Marina now splits her time between rural Shropshire and Madeira.

Reviews

[Andrew]

This is a very basic but also in several ways a bad book. Oliver, a former editor, actually writes badly on several counts: she is not good at presentation/layout (no emphasis of key conclusions in her headings and checklists), with poor application of common standards (article quotes); and she writes colloquially ('It's') without clear conclusions. For instance, what is the key discipline of writing? Instead of giving 3 different examples she gives 10, instead of highlighting the one which should be a good average target, she tells you that you can write a 100,000 word novel in three months. I would expect here: 'in order to write a 100,000 word novel (a reasonable average novel length), aim for 2,000 words a day 5 days a week, which is 50 days' writing, taking 3 months, with weekends off. This is a reasonable target that can be translated into real time: 2000 words probably takes 3 hours'. And so on. Now we know what this requires in real time as work.

A basic coverage more of a discursive and encouraging nature than a book which will teach you how to write a novel, what the key skills and disciplines are, and, most essentially, what the tasks involved are and mean in real-work terms.

I would recommend the following instead - and why:

Watts, Nigel, Teach Yourself Writing A Novel (1996; Oxford: Teach Yourself, 2003) - good overall coverage, clear, instructive.
Strachan, Linda, Writing For Children (London: A & C Black, 2008) - exercises for different skills/aspects, like plot, character.
Frensham, Ray, Teach Yourself Screenwriting (1996; Oxford: Teach Yourself, 2003) - clear, with good section on revisions/editing.

[Ella]

I borrowed this from the library on a sunny day and took it to the park to read - I didn't read it the whole way through, just skimmed it. I thought it was very poor. The concept was interesting, but for every topic, several authors, as well as readers and bookstore assistants, were asked to list their preferences and the lists just ended up containing everything and the opposite of everything.

For example, when asked what their writing routine was, some authors said "every day at the same time", others "once or twice a week but for the whole day", and these preferences ended up contradicting each other so instead of being a list of "dos and don'ts" it was pretty much claiming that "everything goes", which I believe is the opposite of what this guide was trying to do.

The same goes for the debate of concise narrative vs. long, detailed descriptions, or what makes an interesting character or narrator. It was so contradictory it gave me a few chuckles, which I don't think is a good sign.

If someone was reading this looking for actual tips on how to write, I think they'd just end up being more confused than when they began.

[Robert Day]

An excellent little book that covers everything you need to know to get yourself writing, right through to getting published.

The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because it was kind of out of date wrt internet resources. For example Wikipedia doesn't even get a mention; imagine!

Aside from that, every page has gem after gem of wisdom from someone who gives the impression of having spent a lifetime in the writing business.

If you have to pick one book to read to start you on the writing trail, you couldn't go far wrong here.

Plus - this book inspired me to start the actual writing of my first novel, after weeks of procrastination disguised as planning.

[Deborah MB]

"The Beginner's Guide to Writing a Novel", by Marina Oliver, is exactly what it claims to be: a How To book on how to get a novel to a publisher’s, and hopefully make it past the first editorial glance. It could work for people who have only recently started dreaming of becoming novelists, but not for a serious beginning writer.

This is a basic book, both in content and structure. It addresses main peeves among publishers and editors although it does not really delve deeply into them. Oliver tries to beef it up with random quotes, which are not really necessary, as though the amount of people interviewed were necessary to make the content reliable

It also offers an introduction to traditional publishing which is, I think, most valuable for aspiring novelists. It is a gentle reminder that authors are, even once contracted, freelancers who must ensure great part of their own success, promotions, etcetera. Interestingly, it also has a different structure from the rest of the book, making it more comfortable to read.

For a more complete response, please visit www.thereadingreview.com

[Iami Menotu]

Nice, practical book for would be writers.

[Gareth Otton]

This is a very concise book on how to write. It never goes into too much detail on any one area of writing, editing or publishing a novel but gives you a good overview on on where to get started. It is perfect for either a beginning novelist or, for someone like me who has been playing with writing for years and is looking to become more serious about it but has trouble to know where to begin.

The problem when learning any new skill is that there is usually so much information available that it is hard to know where to begin. This book gives you those starting points nicely and better yet gives you plenty of resources to continue from what you have learned in this book.

The book lost a star however for the incredibly unhelpful quotes from seemingly random people that were littered throughout the book. I understand that the author had done her research but a summation of the information rather than lists of quotes would have been far easier to digest as a reader simply searching for information and a list of guiding rules.

Still this is a good book to have and refer to and what I hope to be a nice stepping stone into the world of professional creative writing.

[Stewart]

Bought and read in past 6 months

[Dave Riley]

First couple of chapters are useful...