Review: No Plot? No Problem! by Chris Baty.

Grade: 4.75 out of 5

At midnight tonight the train departs. Fifty thousand words. Thirty days. An unforgettable ride.

You’ve always wanted to write, but….just haven’t gotten around to it. No Plot? No Problem! is the kick in the pants you’ve been waiting for.

Let Chris Baty, founder of the rockin’ literary marathon National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo), guide you through four exciting weeks of hard-core noveling. Baty’s pep talks and essential survival strategies cover the initial momentum and energy of week One, the critical “plot flashes” of Week Two, the “Can I quit now?” impulses of Week Three ,and the champagne and roar of the crowd during Week Four. Wether you’re a first-time novelist who just can’t seem to get pen to paper or a results-oriented writer seeking a creative on-ramp into the world of publishing, this is the adventure for you.

So what are you waiting for? The No Plot? approach worked for the thousands of people who’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo, and it can work for you! Let No Plot? No Problem! help you get fired up and on the right track.

As you can probably tell by now, the only books that I’m reading right now are the reference books on how to become a great, fantabulous writer, I’ve also been reading some romance books so I’ll get to those reviews in a little bit, I promise.

I’ve never been much of a reference book reader. I usually just google shit up and learn about them on the internet but as I got ready to buckle down to start some major writing for NaNoWriMo, I started getting books from my friends at work on writing. I got The Everything Guide to Writing a Romance Novel, On Writing Romance, See Jane Write, Will Write For Shoes and then I walked into the bookstore one night and walked out with this book, No Plot? No Problem!

I signed up for NaNoWriMo in October and really got into things on the NaNoWriMo website, I signed up for the Los Angeles Region, I made some really awesome friends and writing buddies and then because I saw messages being passed on our region forum that there were going to be people writing at my local Borders, I decided to show up and check things out.

I didn’t bring my laptop with me because I couldn’t stay very long but I wanted to see how these little write in’s were and I wanted to see if anybody actually showed up to it and even though I walked around and didn’t see any hot dang body writing away on their laptops, I did come across this little bad boy of a book here. I opened it up and began reading and about 3 chapters in, I decided to purchase it.

This book was a great one. It had me laughing and nodding right along with it throughout the entire book. Everything that goes through your mind when you’re trucking along with NaNoWriMo is all in this book. Everything you need to know to keep you on track is in this book. It was funny, it was insightful and I just really enjoyed all of it. Chris Baty has a way with words that keeps you turning the pages and it took me no time at all to finish this and it’s funny because as probably any NaNoWriMoer would say, it was like this book was written just for me. That’s how I felt about it anyway, I started this book and thought, oh wow, I know exactly how that feels and it was just great to read this book while I was writing because it had a lot of great advice on how to keep on keepin’ on and it was just a great motivator for me.

I recommend this book to any of those writers out there participating in NaNoWriMo and need a swift kick in the ass to meet your word goals for the week, day, whatever. This book speaks to all writers out there on how to get your novel written and it makes you laugh while you learn what you need to, to get that book written.

If you haven’t participated in NaNoWriMo but you enjoy writing, I strongly urge you guys participate next year, I had a blast and can’t wait!

This book is available from Chronicle Books. You can buy it here.

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