This book really was a great read, and I think it will be a great help if/when I decide to jump back into writing. I’ve been on the fence this past year, not doing well with writing. Trying to outline but not having luck getting myself going. However reading this book has made me really want to try again. As I read through, each section had questions to help me flush out what I was wanting in my book, making think really beyond just the basics that I usually have as a pantser. If you’re a writer, you know that term, but it means I don’t usually outline. I just sit down with my idea and start writing. But I have noticed that I get stuck about halfway through if not sooner a lot of the time.

While reading I was filling in info from a book that I am really close to being done with, or at least I think I should be close, and so it helped me to figure out maybe what I might need to go back and re-write in order to get the whole story back on track. One thing that really helped me as I read was that the author used examples from three books to show what she was talking about. Now, while I haven’t read any of the books, one was Pride and Prejudice, which I’ve seen the movies and know the story. The other two stories were also familiar enough that I was able to see what the examples meant for each section.

All of the different questions that were spread throughout the chapters in the beginning of the book were also in the end as worksheets. Worksheets that I see myself making copies just for myself to fill out whenever I want to start writing a book. I really liked the book so much, that even though I was reading an e-galley, I decided I wanted to go ahead and purchase a physical copy of the book, again to help myself with writing and planning in the future.

The only issue I really had was that some of the beats she described in the story felt like they were dragging things out longer than I have felt necessary for that part of my story. But, seeing as how I keep getting stuck doing it the way I do it, I’m going to really sit down with all these worksheets and plan out a book or re-plan out one book that I’ve gotten quite a bit done on to help finish it. I can’t decide which I want to do. Which will be easier and not get me stumped and so frustrated I quit again. Oh, one other small issue is while all the examples were perfect, I kind of was hoping for examples of the hook at the end of Act 4 because I couldn’t quite picture what that was.

I highly recommend this for anyone who wants to write romance but either doesn’t know where to start or like me is having trouble getting all the way to the end. As someone who has been buying and reading quite a few books to try to help over the past two years, this was one of the easiest and quickest reads, along with being what seemed the easiest to put to work right away.

Review first posted on Lisa Loves Literature.