Nail Your Novel Instant Fix – Book Review

Nail Your Novel Instant Fix: 100 Tips for Fascinating Characters by Roz Morris is a short book of bite-sized general writing tips for a variety of genres.

I pretty much bookmarked every page, because each one had valuable information.

Seasoned authors, if there is such a thing, might feel that the book is pretty basic or for novice writers, but for me, I think every book that handles writing help is a valuable addition.

One of the things I liked about the book was Roz's interactive, down to earth writing style. I felt like she was sitting there with me giving me bits and pieces of writing help.

"Use background detail with care. Too little and the characters float in a void. Too much, and the reader doesn't know what to look at."

Nail Your Novel Instant Fix: 100 Tips for Fascinating Characters can be used and reused as a checklist before starting a book, novella or piece or after finishing the first or second draft. It acts as a reminder to the author of what they might need to add or edit in their story.

"Characters don't have to be likeable. But they must make us curious."

Now for the above quote, I've been making up mental notes as I read books. Likeable is one thing, but in some books I've read, the main character – at least – was irritating, boring and/or annoying. With that in mind, I could not like the book. Twice I didn't finish the book, and a few other times I gave negative reviews because of that. It's an idea worth remembering but authors must take care of.

I'd love to pick up the full-length books under the Nail Your Novel titles in the future.

"Dystopias aren't about worlds. They're about characters under special pressure." – This was news for me, simply because I often focused on worlds in dystopian novels, which I don't consider reading often.

I also liked the parts on "Show Don't Tell" and "Make Your Fictional People Individuals".

"Give your antagonists good characteristics too. A fatal flow is usually a strength misused."

Overall, I'd give the brief Nail Your Novel Instant Fix: 100 Tips for Fascinating Characters five stars. It added information to me, it helped me and it's definitely a book I can recheck over and over. Definitely worth reading.

Note: I read Nail Your Novel Instant Fix: 100 Tips for Fascinating Characters, the short introductory book. There are three other books with Nail Your Novel in the title, each tackles an aspect of writing in more detail. 

I downloaded it the bite-sized version which is currently free via Amazon.