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koilungfishAuthor - Sarah Harrison
ISBN - 0-74900-197-6
"I've already taken my don't-write-what-you-know hobbyhorse out for a canter, but perhaps I could do a quick lap of honour. It's very unlikely you'll be able to forge a genuine blockbuster, in the terms of this book, out of goings-on on the local PTA, the cut-throat world of guineapig-showing, or mushroom culture in East Anglia."How To Write A Blockbuster is a cheerfully chatty, extravagantly informal how-to guide for those wishing to write a mass market novel. The author, Ms Harrison, is a "blockbuster" novelist - How To Write A Blockbuster was published in 1995 and some of the terminology therein seems a bit dated - and a lively character herself, giving a strong friendly voice to what would usually be Yet Another Samey How-To Guide.
How To Write A Blockbuster doesn't contain much that is unfamiliar to the reader of the How-To book, but what it succeeds at is communication. The informal style allows the reader to absorb the information without feeling dictated to. The book is enlivened with offhand suggestions of what the reader - or rather, prospective writer - may be contemplating, for example:
There's nothing wrong with putting the reader in the picture - giving them a global view on Wall Street/the state of the war/the advertising industry/the world of plastic surgeons/fourteenth-century peasants/the court of James I/the breeding of Arab horses.Indeed, "lively" is perhaps the best word to describe How To Write A Blockbuster - the book jollies the reader along, and this is its strongest feature: How To Write A Blockbuster is a great motivator. It encourages the reader, incites them to act, advises them how to get started and generally imparts a strong sense of energy and determination. The would-be author who does not, after reading How To Write A Blockbuster, feel a renewed urge to get on with their book is probably a lost cause.
How To Write A Blockbuster also contains some sound and slightly unusual pieces of advice, such as "don't write what you know", which Ms Harrison makes a good case for. Ms Harrison also includes quite a section on what the author does after the book is published, although some of this information may be a bit out of date due to the change in marketing over the last fifteen years, and warns for pitfalls that lead to unexpected disappointment, such as what happens when the prospective author is faced with a signing session and nobody knows who they are.
As with any author writing about their pet subject, Ms Harrison does refer to her own work quite a bit, with two or three long quotes from her novels. This is entirely acceptable, although not as palettable as the examples she makes up on the fly. It must be very difficult for the How-To writer, when faced with the need for an example of something they create themselves, to resist the urge to gush forth with their own work - to self-glorify. Ms Harrison deftly avoids the problem.
How To Write A Blockbuster's other success is its longievity. Ms Harrison gave me my copy as a gift in 1996. I read it one or twice every year or so. Each time I re-read How To Write A Blockbuster more and more I come to appreciate how sound Ms Harrison's advice is. This, again, is unsurprising; Ms Harrison is a much-published writer and leader of writers' groups, so she bloody well ought to know what she's writing about.
This book is:
* - friendly
* - confidence-boosting
* - excellent advice
This book is not:
* - God's gift to punctuation problems
* - up to date
* - long
