The Author's Checklist by Elizabeth K. Kracht REVIEW

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Started: 15/03/20

Finished: 30/03/20

It wasn't really what I thought it would be. I was expecting editing advise from an industry professional but really it was just a glossary of writing terminology. This would be great for newbies who have never written (and likely never even read a book, considering this book tries to explain what a synopsis is), but for someone already in the editing process, this is pretty obsolete.

The examples of particular writing principles are all of obscure books. It would have made more sense to use examples from mega popular books, that even if you haven't read it, you've heard of it. That way the examples would have been more relevant and relatable.

Though there is a lot of helpful information in here, I do feel there is some potentially harmful advice for newbie writers who won't know any better. Like 'try to only use five adverbs per manuscript'. What does that even mean? Does this apply to manuscripts of 50k words or 100k words? What about dialogue? Real people don't speak in prose, real people use adverbs. Seriously, we do. So does that mean we must sacrifice organic dialogue for the sake of claiming some pretentious goal of having no adverbs at all?

I agree with her that an over use of adverbs is a sign of weak prose, but to use only five adverbs per manuscript is near impossible. I wonder if she's ever written a full length manuscript between 80k -100k (the recommended length for a debut), and if so, I'd love to see her do it without adverbs.

I did a kindle search for words ending in 'ly'. Theres 506. That's not including common adverbs.

Yes, I know it's a non-fiction advice book and the author isn't trying to write perfect prose, and I appreciate that.

But fiction or nonfiction, practice what you preach.

If you've ever used software like Hemingway Editor, then you know exactly how many adverbs you can get away with using, and where to cut them.

The thing is, this book is supposed to be for writers in the editing phase, but it isn't applicable to its intended audience. If you've written a whole book and don't know what world-building is, or pacing, or even character development, then you might want to take another look at your manuscript, and maybe read this book for an explanation.

My point is, most writers already know all this stuff. This is the very basic principles of writing craft. Writers should know all of this before they start writing, and certainly before they start querying.

There's really nothing here that can't be found in a quick (and free) Google search.

This books might be invaluable to someone who's never written before and who's done no previous research, and I hope those people can find value within this book. But for me, unfortunately, I found little.

Thank you Netgalley for an e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.