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Inside The Cover
Book Reviews
As
a writer, you may have seen or heard of the Marshall Plan Workbook. Well,
this book is the book that accompanies the workbook.
I'm not sure which book was written first, but I do know that now I will
buy the accompanying workbook. One
of the tough things (for me, anyway) about being a writer is organization, and
if that is a problem for you, I highly recommend this book. Evan Marshall, the
author, takes you through step by step how to write a novel. He sees writing as
a linear process, and using that process, he created a method that is 16 steps
“from idea to completed manuscript.” My
opinion about the use of the book for myself is that there are parts of it that
I would use depending on what book I’m working on, or if I am having
difficulty with certain aspects of the writing. However, for a complete novice,
it might not be a bad idea to actually start at the beginning and work through
it as it is laid out. The reason I don’t believe I would need to use all of it
every time I write a novel is that, for instance, I probably have an idea of
what the book I want to write is going to be about. But Marshall starts the book
out with how to decide what to write about, and does a great job of going
through the process of decision-making including the plot, characters and theme. This
is the kind of book I know I will mark up and use it over and over. Let me give
a quick overview of what the chapters cover. The first part of the five part
book covers developing the story idea and characters in detail. This section is
laying the groundwork for the novel. Here the author plans the story, starting
with determining the exact length of the novel. Marshall’s rather unique use
of “sections” is explained. Sections are “units of action and reaction
that constitute your story.” Sections are laid out on sheets, which will later
be used by the writer in a very organized manner. The
third part discusses how to write the story, including viewpoint, writing the
action and reaction sections, and connecting the sections. Marshall refers in
this chapter to the “five fiction modes: action, summary, dialogue,
thoughts/feelings and background.” In this section he also covers the details
of how to set up the writing area and setting goals (and rewards) for the
writing itself. In the fourth part, revising and editing the completed
manuscript is covered. Using a several-page editing questionnaire, the author
revises and edits. The book is divided up into chapters here, and a title is
decided upon. The
fifth part is about marketing the novel, and the proposal is described, with a
very thorough illustration of how to write a synopsis. Of course, from there
it’s on to agents and editors, and how to get their attention. The appendix
consists of a sample synopsis that successfully sold a novel. Before reading this book, I assumed that the process of writing a book would be much less structured. This book is not a fill-in-the-blanks template, but it is a very logical approach to the novel writing process. Marshall is an agent, editor and novelist, and he even conducts workshops based on this book. I hope one day I will be able to attend a workshop by him, but in the meantime, this book has me excited and ready to write! Dr. Patricia Ferguson is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of California, a freelance writer and editor, and an artist. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from San Diego State University and received her doctorate from Nova Southeastern University. Her published works include a chapter in "Girl Wars: Twelve Tried and True Strategies for Overcoming Female
Bullying"(Fireside, 2003), research on rape in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, several articles on nuclear medicine for nuclear medicine
techologists, and an article on group therapy in The Reader's Guide to Social Sciences. She is a book reviewer and is an Editor-in-Chief for Apollo's Lyre, an online magazine for writers. She is also working on a book of memoirs. |
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The
Marshall Plan for Novel Writing 
