Hey, guys! I am going to attempt to act professional because I must send this link to K.M. Weiland. But because everyone knows I’m only professional at blogging because I make money on my doll-collecting blog, I am going to fail. ?
If you don’t know who K.M. Weiland (Katie) is, she’s an incredible Christian author who mentors writers at Helping Writers Become Authors. She’s an epic example of using what God’s gifted her with and of glorifying God through your gifts and talents.
See, God’s no dummy. He knows which of His children bring honor and glory to Him, and that’s why He epically promotes them. God promises in 1 Samuel 2:30, “I will honor those who honor Me.”
Helping Writers Become Authors is an incredible and successful site, and Katie’s advice helps so many writers and authors around the world. Her author site is K.M. Weiland.
Her posts have rocked my world in realizing that my novels need to be taken to the next level. Upon discovering Helping Writers Become Authors, I was all story structure what? Pinch points huh? Inciting event who?
And now I realize my novels are in desperate need of these things… as well as literally everything else.
My epic goal this month? Read and review these three of her writing books in an attempt to educate myself on structure, plot, and outlining so I can do it all in September-October in order to rewrite my first historical epic, Loyalty Book I: To the Death, in November. I’ve edited that 123k hunk of junk three times now, enlisted you poor beta readers twice, and it’s still absolutely terrible.
Worst yet, now the second book is written with a floppy plot structure. I spent 30+ hours during April Camp NaNo brainstorming scenes that didn’t domino, a plot that wasn’t structured at all, and in July wrote a novel that ended up half the length I wanted it to be. I’ve got to replot and revise that one, too.
So. I’ve got some serious work to do.
As part of Katie’s exclusive club Wordplayers, she lets you request one of her phenomenal writing books to read for free, review it, and then you can do it again.
That’s how I’m going to save my novels, folks.
So far, I’ve read her fantastic Outlining Your Novel, and here’s my review of it!
K.M. Weiland’s Outlining Your Novel has been the most helpful writing book I’ve ever read on outlining. Katie clearly busts the myth that outlining zaps your creativity, explains the importance of outlining and the freedom it brings, and even presents methods of brainstorming. At the end of each chapter she interviews a different author about their outlining process, which was extremely helpful and interesting for me to see the different ways authors outline as well as their views on pantsing.
Outlining Your Novel covers many incredible subjects such as identifying your story’s central idea, distilling the book’s focus and audience, general sketches, scene summaries, how to write backstory, setting, and so much more. It really opened my mind to all these different and important elements of outlining and brainstorming that I had never even heard of before.
I love how Katie includes snippets and examples of her outlining from her different novels and points out plot elements in other books and films. It is very helpful to see what she is teaching in the book with actual examples of hers and other pieces. I took entire pages of the book as notes — the parts about backstory and making sure every scene is pertinent to the plot totally rocked my world.
★★★★★
For what Outlining Your Novel is meant for, I give it five stars. I actually started reading the book with a misconceived idea of what it was going to teach me and felt dissatisfied throughout the book to the end, but I really just should have read Structuring Your Novel first.
I recommend Outlining Your Novel to anyone. It was such a wise investment of my time (despite the fact I really needed to read Structuring Your Novel beforehand). You won’t regret it! Thank you, K.M. Weiland, for such an incredible book.
Have you heard of K.M. Weiland and her epic website? If not, are you going to become a part of Wordplayers (it’s free), check out Helping Writers Become Authors (it rocked my world), and read her incredible books (that also rock my world)? If not, what are you even doing?
Bear with me and the two more reviews to come this month! ? Much love and am praying for you! ♥
Awesome! I got the same book for my first review and am excited for it! K.M. Weiland is awesome. 🙂
Oooh, you’re going to love it! It’s amazing. Isn’t she? Thanks for commenting! 😀
AKLSLFJFS THIS LOOKS SO COOL. Great post, Madi!
OH MY GOSH I KNOW RIGHT. Thanks so much!
huh. might be helpful, but what I need are ideas. I have a beginning and an end, but no middle. XD
literally! i may have told you this before, but I started writing the beginning, got stuck, a little bored, and now I’ve written the end, except for the last chapter, which I might actually make an epiloge instead…. and just a page of blank inbetween the two. XD
Most crazily, ~Olive
That’s where plot structure comes in. I recommend checking out helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com ! 😀
Oh dear. XDD Don’t worry — you’ve got this. XD
I love ‘Helping Writers Become Authors’! I’ve considered joining Wordplayers but IDK because there for a while ‘writing help’ books just stressed me out, XD XD
You seemed very profesh, btw. 🙂
Same! And haha I always despised writing craft books bc I thought my way of doing things was the best and nobody else should give me advice.
… I was wrong. XD
Awww, thank you. ?
OOOH YAY I CANNOT WAIT TO FINISH THIS.
I shall read it on my kindle whilst eating cinnamon strudel coffeecake. *nods solemly*
IT’S SO AMAZING.
*nods* Wait, cake? I want cake… ?
This is SO cool! She’s So cool! Wow Great post Madi!
Isn’t she awesome? Thank you so much, Sara!
She is AWESOME! You make me so happy all the time madi!?
Awwww! You’re so sweet!! <3 ?
You are too! 🙂
Wow! Sounds like you’ve been super busy! That book sounded great! I’m in the process of writing my novel so this sounded very interesting! 😀
Hahaha, yes! It was an amazing read! Ooh, that’s so awesome! I definitely recommend any of her writing books — they’re epic! 😀
These look like really cool books!
They really are! 😀
These sounds so helpful! I’m trying to take my Nano project this year to the next level.
They totally are! They’re amazing. And same! Best of luck with it! What’s it about?
Yep, I need this! Every time a try and write a book, my storyline goes to mush. Thank you so much for the recommendation!
Oh my gosh, I know, right? These books are super awesome for helping with that. You’re so welcome! Thank you so much for commenting! 😀