Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir~Hank Quense | Review

Title: Planning a Novel, Script or Memoir
Author: Hank Quense
Genre: Nonfiction Writing Guide
Length: 69 Pages
Release: May 2015
My Rating: 5/5 Stars

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. 

Review

As an aspiring author, this guide will be extremely useful. Quense outlines his own planning process, giving suggestions for programs or techniques that can be adapted to fit the needs of many writers. 

Among the topics discussed are setting, character, and story development. All of these are very important aspects for any form of story. The author has also included a sample character outline and features or emotions that he uses to give his characters life. 

A lot of the guide discusses the use Mind-Maps to store important information about the story. While this approach is not for everyone, it is easily adaptable. I personally prefer lists, but these map structures can be adapted to fit that as well. I found them very helpful. 

The author has included the text for one of his short stories in the appendix in order to more easily convey some of the points he makes about his mind mapping process. I found this extremely useful because it gives you a glimpse of the process can work with a longer project. 

Quense uses a very structured format when writing his stories, so this process will not appeal to everyone. However, it's important to explore multiple avenues when writing. It takes time to develop a system that works for you. This will definitely be a valuable resource in my own writing endeavors.

I'm sure the guide as a whole could use some more polish, but it is a valuable resource for writers. I feel that it would be most useful to those just beginning who are not sure where to start in planning. The process is straightforward and easily adaptable to different genres and styles of writing.