Review: Mastering the Process From Idea to Novel

Synopsis:

As the author of twenty-four novels, Elizabeth George is one of the most successful–and prolific–novelists today. In Mastering the Process, George offers readers a master class in the art and science of crafting a novel.

For many writers, the biggest challenge is figuring out how to take that earliest glimmer of inspiration and shape it into a full-length novel. How do you even begin to transform a single idea to a complete book?

In these pages, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George takes us behind the scenes and into each step of her writing process, revealing exactly what it takes to craft a novel.

Drawing from her personal photos, early notes, character analyses, and rough drafts, George shows us every step of how she wrote her novel Careless in Red, from researching location to imagining plot to creating characters to the actual writing and revision process itself. George offers us an intimate look at the process she follows, while also providing invaluable advice for writers about what’s worked for her–and what hasn’t. Mastering the Process offers writers practical, prescriptive, and achievable tools to creating a novel, to editing a novel, and to problem solve when in the midst of a novel, from a master storyteller writing at the top of her game. 

Rating: 4-stars

Review:

Mastering the Process: From Idea to Novel by Elizabeth George is a great tool for beginning writers like myself. This book starts off with plunging the writer into researching and brainstorming first. That means, researching where your story takes place if it’s a real place and etc. Then brainstorming, such as creating character lists was next. I found these things to be very useful. But it still felt like the writer only barely touched the surface in demonstrating the creative writing process for writers. Creative writing is a subject that involves a lot and this book managed to cover all the topics lightly. I was hoping for a more in-depth approach. Especially, from a seasoned mystery writer such as this author. Overall, it’s still a worthy read and a necessary tool for writers everywhere.