I would love to be able to write a book one day, and hoped this guide would set me on track to writing something good. However, the rules and ideas were so rigid that I felt like anyone following this guide would end up with a cookie-cutter version of the same book. Perhaps my own fault for thinking a step-by-step guide might equip me with the necessary knowledge to write a new and unique book. Unfortunately this left a lot to be desired, and seemed to be centred around the YA genre of books.

Good, practical advice. I loved the cheat sheets and the encouragement to pay attention to detail.
Thank you for the opportunity.

This was a very detailed craft book for beginners and a resource for intermediate writers to remind them of how to organize their thoughts and write their book. I've never been able to master outlining, but this resource has given me some great ideas/considerations while planning the next book I will write.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Books Go Social for approving my request to read and review How to Outline Your Novel by Sussu Leclerc.

As someone who has written for many years but had not written a proper outline since high school, this book was a great place to go for easy to follow instruction. The author provided a clear breakdown of how to write an outline along with examples. As a visual learner, the examples were a tremendous help.
Having an outline, regardless of how detailed it may or may not be, is an extremely useful map to follow in the writing process.
I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking to create a plan for their writing.

I believe this is an excellent resource for the writer planning to publish YA/. It's written conversationally with lots of practical tips. It is very structured and detail oriented - particularly applicable to beginners.
3.5
I received my copy through NetGalley under no obligation.

Great for people wanting to write YA fiction, the book gives a detailed outline of the novel writing process. I particularly liked the way the author used examples to illustrate their points. Good book for beginners.

This was a bit like a recipe book for writing your YA novel. In chapter 1 we need a pinch of this, in chapter two add this, finish your preparation by chapter 6, at the midway-point you need to write this...

Yes, there was some sound advice within those pages. The notes, exercises and flowcharts where good. Yet, it all felt too rigid for me, what with all the strict rules about amount of chapters, when to present which part of the story, etc.

There are many guides to writing a novel. This author approaches the subject from the standpoint of investigating as many details as possible to avoid later developmental/heavy editing. While I'm less of a details person / planner myself, I still found myself nodding along with ideas I hadn't thought of before. If you *are* a planning type, I think you'll love this book.

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for a digital ARC for the purpose of an unbiased review!

A useful guide and brilliant for beginners to use to help plot their book. I found it good. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

This is a fantastic resource!! I recently ordered a copy for my library's writing group. If you are new to outlining this is the recipe book for you!

A really helpful guide to plotting a novel. I know that I will refer to it again and again as I am writing. Thanks to the author, Books Go Social and Netgalley for an ARC egalley.

While I am not an author, I am a reviewer and thought this would be interesting as to how authors set up their stories and characters. I found it was informational regarding those points and she gives clear examples by using a few familiar books. She also gives a list of questions at the end of each chapter to give further information. Noted it is often referenced to books written for young adults.
If someone is interested in writing I suppose this book could be added to their armory in setting up the chapters.
I received this book as a complimentary copy for an unbiased review.The opinions expressed are my own.

This was a wonderful beginner guide. Very helpful for a new author with easy to follow instructions and detailed helpful tips and information. I really enjoyed reading it. I received this book from NetGalley for an honest review.

Leclerc wrote this book to learn how to "control [her] own creativity." while much of the information found in this book can be found in others, what set Leclerc's book apart is her use of concrete examples from novels and movies to illustrate her points. this is an excellent book for beginning writers.

I found this book quite informative but it’s mainly based on a young adult type novel and would need a different approach unless that is the area you want to write in. However it is quite an interesting and helpful read to encourage you to lay out the book and how to structure chapters which is invaluable.

I was really pleased to see the amount of information within this book. It certainly tells you what to do, step by step, and when to do it. The author has also put in a LOT of work providing examples of many novels, and one day I hope to digest it all - step by step.

There were two things wrong with this book as far as I was concerned.

The first one is that it looks so ... self published. The cover looks like it was rustled up by the author and the inside doesn't seem to have had any editing done. It reads as though the author's first language wasn't English - which is great, especially when English is the only language I speak. But I do think the author should really consider paying both a jacket designer and an editor - not a proofreader, that comes later.

The second thing wrong is the actual formatting. It was inconsistent in the first place, but then the boxes and indents went all over the place. I tried to read it on both the Kindle Fire and the Kindle Paperwhite. But I'm afraid I gave up.

I won't give a poor star rating to a book I haven't read all the way through, and for that reason I won't, on this occasion, be putting my review anywhere outside of NetGalley. I'd LOVE to give the book another go once the author has polished it and paid a designer and an editor to look at it.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me see this book, the content of which really does appeal to me.

As an aspiring writer, I downloaded this book hoping it might help me to break the code of how to outline a novel.

It did not help.

This guide is a hodgepodge of Young Adult plot deconstructions, and everything is so jumbled together that it was almost impossible to make any sense of anything. The author makes contradictory suggestions on what should happen in each chapter, but the suggestions are so ambiguous that I was left more confused than ever. While the book does point out certain patterns in the YA genre, it didn't reveal anything that I didn't already know. I do think some of the writing exercises might be appropriate for a creative writing class, though.

One last suggestion: The book needs to be edited. There were numerous typos and misspellings throughout, and they were so distracting that I couldn't take anything else seriously.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC for an honest opinion.

There is, apparently, a novel inside all of us! If you are struggling to find your inner voice this might be the kick start you need.

There are twenty five chapters to take you through the process and alongside them are cheat sheets and exercises. For example the first chapter's relates to a young adult manuscript, not something I would consider writing but the questions asked can be skewed to most genres and definitely shouldn't be ignored as irrelevant. By chapter 13 it is want vs need and, gradually, as you complete this book you also formulate a comprehensive plan for a novel which you can be pretty sure will cover most eventualities.

I was able to read a copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to all budding novelists especially those needing a little nudge.

This is a VERY detailed outline for plots, and as it's based on knowledge from very good books, it's a recipe for writing a good novel. Most of the books used as examples are no favorites of mine (sci-fi and fantasy) but the system works for all kinds. If every book followed this system strictly, it would of course be boring, but with a little individuality it's a very good basis.
The book is made like a textbook, including exercises, and I'm sure it will be very helpful.

Easy to follow, and an excellent beginner guide.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review.