I am always looking for nonfiction books to add to the classroom, and this one is great for the one thing students tend to struggle the most with: Revision. This part of the writing process is overwhelming for anyone, but for students, it can feel like an impossible task altogether. Teaching students to use resources while writing is vital! Sharing sections of this book and modeling my own writing and revision gets great conversations about craft going. Knowing students know books like this are out there, and teaching them how to use them, is responsible teaching. Kudos to Scofield for composing such a concise, yet insightful resource for all writers.

Oh my goodness, is this a necessary book. I adored Sandra Scofield's The Scene Book and couldn't get my hands on a copy of this fast enough. So many books help you start your own novel, but there are almost no books out there to help you finish it. Sandra's advice is practical, reassuring, and exactly what an author in the thick of writing a book needs. It is a must-have for any writer's shelf and would be the perfect gift for the writer in your life.

A book for any writer, at any stage in the process of a novel. Though it's billed as a book about revision, this book holds tips and ideas for any writer of fiction.

Some great advice, but highly repetitive, and the structure and fairly aimless organizing principles made it confusing to follow and difficult to use as a reference resource for writers.

This is the kind of book you don't just read from beginning to end. Last Draft is a personalized novel-revising workshop - you are meant to do exercises as you go through the book. The book gives you exercises to help you develop your skills by deconstructing and learning from successful novels. It also helps you create a structure and a plan to revise your own novel, by first diagnosing its major issues and then making it stronger in stages.
 
At first I was confused by the structure of the book, but it made sense in the end. I did find that some of the detailed revising advice at the end was slightly confusing, but that might be because I wasn't working through the book with a specific novel draft in hand. One of the most important things I learned from the book was a specific language of revision, a way to characterize the different aspects of the book. I would definitely recommend this book for anyone revising a novel, especially their first one.

Fantastic advice on novel revision from an established novelist and writing group leader. I appreciate that it doesn't advise people to follow stock formulas, but instead gives examples of paths, forms, and revision styles that could work for the reader.