Jumpstarting Your Inner Novelist


Non-Fiction - Writing/Publishing
50 Pages
Reviewed on 09/11/2015
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Roy T. James for Readers' Favorite

Jumpstarting Your Inner Novelist by JE Thompson is a practical guide for writers about creating successful novels. The author discusses how to choose POV, the setting of the novel, and the stream of consciousness, the ‘thing’ that gives style. Choosing the protagonist, the antagonist, and other minor characters are discussed next, along with a suggestion to make a resume for each character as it enables the novelist to control the placing of characters. Deciding on the mode of narration, when to ‘tell’ an event and when to ‘show’ it, and how to form and use subplots come next. The importance of good grammar, as well as the composition of scenes is also discussed by the author. A set of resources to help writers and references to literary agents are given.

I found Jumpstarting Your Inner Novelist by JE Thompson a useful book. Though it didn’t make me a novelist, I now know what questions to ask one. Citing examples of successful novelists, this book reduces the intimidating task of creating a novel into a couple of manageable activities. Plenty of examples are shown, mostly from well known literary works, to illustrate the principles and techniques. A broad outline of a plot is all that is necessary then to begin creating a novel. This book helps in completing all the remaining activities by suggesting a rather disciplined or formal approach. This is a well written book; and I feel confident to try authoring a novel the moment I am able to think of a reasonably complex plot!

Dennis @ Moneysaver Editi

Thank you Roy. You have written a very good comprehensive review of Jumpstarting Your Inner Novelist. Did you know that I co-authored Jumpstarting with Julius? If you see this Deb, I send my well-wishes to you, Steve and everyone at RF....Dennis @ Moneysaver Editing