Plan Your Novel Like A Pro: And Have Fun Doing It! by Beth Barany and Ezra Barany is an informative and easy guide to help beginning writers. The book is filled with valuable information and outlines to help an aspiring writer all along the whole process.
I was surprised to read in the first chapter that the ending of a story is the most important. After reading more, I understood the theory for this concept. One of the most important tools I discovered while reading this book is that I can always go back to the essence of the book and edit any concept, character, or scene.
I enjoyed reading this guide and the time outlines for the organization of characters and plot concepts. The information is clear and concise. I found Plan Your Novel Like A Pro to be extremely helpful.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is such an awesome book to help you start planning that spark of an idea into a novel! I definitely recommend this book!

There's a lot of good information in here!

While the tone of the writing felt like it was trying to hard to emulate a verbal presentation, especially when the two authors flagged who was writing which section, I did find the book very readable and the information very useful. I really liked how there were plenty of references to external resources, whether those were other writing books or online tools available for free.

Definitely recommended for writers still looking for a balance between plotter and pantser (hi), or writers looking for a refresher or creativity boost (also hi).

This is a very practical book, super well organized and full of good tips and content to help writers plan their novels, regardless of their experience or advancement in their story. It has specific advice for different types of novels - fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary... - and the practical exercises are to the point and adaptable for any genre you want to write into. Definitely a useful book to put into the hands of every aspiring author you know.

This is a great reference for someone who has always dreamed of writing a book. It gives detailed steps and suggestions to make preparing a plot easier.

This was a good craft book on planning a novel. I'm not great with most craft books on outlining/plotting because the information is presented in a way that my brain doesn't compute as the English language. Plan Your Novel Like a Pro isn't very long. It provides step-by-step instruction and examples of how to begin with the elevator pitch ending with all scenes within the novel. I've been writing for 7 years as a pantser who really wants to be a plotter. I read craft book after craft book so I can find a way to simplify and speed up my writing to no avail, but these tips are manageable. Because of Plan Your Novel Like a Pro, I will be able to plan future books and series with their useful tips--my favorite, make a list of 20 for everything imaginable and the questions I should ask about everything that'll go in the book.

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

Thanks to Writer’s Fun Zone Publishing for the ARC!

Great book, with lots of tips for new authors. Even if you've already written a book before, you can improve your work following these recommendations. Very helpful!

This was a comprehensive guide to planning a novel, aimed primarily at a debut author.

It is written by two authors who write sci-fi, fantasy and romance novels and there are a lot of references to their published books as case studies to demonstrate their techniques.

The book is laid out as a four week plan, guiding the reader through the entire planning process from interviewing characters, listing their fears, conflicts and desires, through to plotting scenes out.

There are some sections specific to sci-fi and fantasy such as how to create a world.

The only aspect of the book that I really didn't like was constant reference to further material on a website - this is a personal niggle, as I feel if I have gone to the trouble of reading the book everything should be there, so I haven't gone to the website.

On the whole this was a good introduction to planning a novel and I have got a lot of useful information from it.

PLAN YOUR NOVEL LIKE A PRO is an essential book for those wanting to try writing their own novels. It is laid out easily and is clear and concise. It includes breaking steps into four week plans that will keep the reader motivated and moving in the right direction. The advice is practical and easy to follow and includes a lot of tip that wouldn't occur to someone just starting out on their author journey.

This book includes chapters on
- Writing Characters in Fiction
- Planning Plots for Fiction
- World building
- Character Motivation
- Story Structure
- Writing Scenes
- Story boards
- and LOTS more!

This is a truly great resource.

Plan Your Novel Like a Pro is a concise packed with helpful information. It's straight forward and has plenty of exercises to aid. It's suitable for beginners, but if one wants more in-depth, one might look a bit further.

This book was a great short and concise read explaining ways to explore getting to know your characters and how to build their world around them to get them to the stage to be ready to write or flesh out your novel by using the two author's handy tips.



From two experienced writers and author's this is a book anyone should read and pick apart their favourite books, it proves their ways work and helped me to figure out my story too.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

I can only give a limited review since the copy I got went blank near page 30. The start seems to be a good start for writers.

I think this would be a great book for people just beginning their writing career. It has some great information and is easy to follow.

I'm sorry to say that I did not love this book. It was fine. It was not particularly inspiring. Perhaps it was constantly being interrupted with links to go to their website and sign up for their courses.
We have a helpful workbook for this. Go sign up for our course.
We have additional advice here. Go sign up for our course.
Or maybe it was because this book was brought to you by the phrases, "Take it away, Ezra" and "Thanks, Beth".
Or the very heavy use of their own books for every example.
I just felt like this book spent more time advertising their website, and their courses, and their books than it did providing a road map for other authors.
To be fair, they did list extensive questions you should ask your characters to determine what they want and what you should do to them. They provided an overview of the types of things you need to have in a book like conflict.
I would not say this book was a waste of time but it was not what I was hoping it would be.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley.

The authors appear knowledgeable about the steps and methods needed to write a book and are able to communicate them in a straightforward way. The biggest benefit of this book is that for each exercise described there are several examples from good books of how it should be done. The layout was easy to follow and the tips provided seem genuinely useful. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to write a novel.

This book was fine.
If you have read other books about the craft of writing, you will not really find anything new here. For a person who has not read other similar books, there may be some useful tips.
Written in an easy to digest style, this may be helpful for some.

Concise and short, it suits my goldfish memory brain and short attention span. Although there is nothing new inside than what I already know, it still fits for new writers.

Have been planning yo write a novel for ages this book that is full of advice and guidance to actually getting it done may be the real first step in the correct direction for me.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the arc.

A very friendly book with many strategies and examples of planning your novel. The voice of the two authors was clear and personal. I found myself taking lots of notes. Well worth the read!

An informative, enlightening and, above all, encouraging guide for novel planning. The authors' advice and analysis regarding key components in planning is practical and motivating, and the combination of both of their individual tips and experiences brought a lot to the book.