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A review by rwalker101
Refuse to Be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts by Matt Bell
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
5.0
This review was originally posted on authorrhwalker.com:
This is, in some ways, the best book I’ve read for this series so far.
The layout is simple but horrendously effective. It is clearly divided in to the three “drafts” Bell references in the byline, and each piece of advice is given so succinctly that it makes a perfect reference book. It is chock full of exercises and references to help the stuck author break out of the funk. (It went so far as to break me out of my long winter’s nap and get me writing after my January/February funk).
The big thing that splitting into these “drafts” does is help educate the writer on what or what not to focus on at any particular stage. I myself have been guilty of focusing too much on prose before I even have a basic idea of what the story is about, for example. By giving such a clear delineation of what edits come when, Bell creates an excellent timeline, and again offers numerous exercises to help you break out of any rut instead of falling to those old bad habits.
Another aspect I particularly like in this book is his few pages in the Third Draft section focused on prose– gone are the days of struggling to explain what “passive” verbs are to my writing group, for Bell has succinctly described and prescribed solutions for not just passive prose, but stale descriptions, clunky dialogue tags, and unvarying sentence and paragraph lengths. Take it from somebody who spent far too long focused on prose and not enough on structure: his advice is sound.
I have discovered that I like books on writing that recommend other books on writing to me– something Bell does with vigor here. Many were already on my reading list for this project, but many were not, and I am always excited to add something new. More than that, though, when a writer of one of these books offers a recommendation for another book, it shows that they themselves have done this work. They’ve taken advice and internalized it and made it their own, and now they want to share it with you. Like Bell says himself: he clearly loves the work of writing, and that shines through in his advice.
So yeah, I like this one a lot, and will likely be keeping it close at hand. I am optimistic that it will become a great resource as I continue writing.
This is, in some ways, the best book I’ve read for this series so far.
The layout is simple but horrendously effective. It is clearly divided in to the three “drafts” Bell references in the byline, and each piece of advice is given so succinctly that it makes a perfect reference book. It is chock full of exercises and references to help the stuck author break out of the funk. (It went so far as to break me out of my long winter’s nap and get me writing after my January/February funk).
The big thing that splitting into these “drafts” does is help educate the writer on what or what not to focus on at any particular stage. I myself have been guilty of focusing too much on prose before I even have a basic idea of what the story is about, for example. By giving such a clear delineation of what edits come when, Bell creates an excellent timeline, and again offers numerous exercises to help you break out of any rut instead of falling to those old bad habits.
Another aspect I particularly like in this book is his few pages in the Third Draft section focused on prose– gone are the days of struggling to explain what “passive” verbs are to my writing group, for Bell has succinctly described and prescribed solutions for not just passive prose, but stale descriptions, clunky dialogue tags, and unvarying sentence and paragraph lengths. Take it from somebody who spent far too long focused on prose and not enough on structure: his advice is sound.
I have discovered that I like books on writing that recommend other books on writing to me– something Bell does with vigor here. Many were already on my reading list for this project, but many were not, and I am always excited to add something new. More than that, though, when a writer of one of these books offers a recommendation for another book, it shows that they themselves have done this work. They’ve taken advice and internalized it and made it their own, and now they want to share it with you. Like Bell says himself: he clearly loves the work of writing, and that shines through in his advice.
So yeah, I like this one a lot, and will likely be keeping it close at hand. I am optimistic that it will become a great resource as I continue writing.