How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author

I will never be a Janet Evanovich and have never read her books although I am familiar with her as a great author. But I do write (only one novel and several non-fiction) but this little book is an excellent and easy read to help aspiring writers with the entire writing process. She begins characters, moves through structure and all the other points many of which I never thought of and ends with publishing and editors and agents, you name it. What I like the most is the question and answer format and how she weaves examples from her own books to make her points. Great little book for writers or anyone interested in the process.

This is a very good book to read if you are an aspiring writer or a published author. Janet has great ideas and you can learn alot from her. The negative reviewers aren't knocking her off the best-sellers list, are they? Hum, I wonder why they would rate her work so low? The advice from Ina Yalof is an added bonus as is Alex Evanovich's. Great book as usual from the desk of Janet Evanovich. I would recommend it.

I devoured this helpful book in one day. Although I've only read one novel from this author, I appreciated learning about how she comes up with remarkable ideas and memorable characters. The information she shared was simply priceless.

Barbara Joe Williams, author of First Class Love

I'd never read a Janet Evanovich novel; I read all the books on how to write that come my way. I heard this on audio. First, it's less a writing book than an excuse for Janet to read long excerpts from her novels out loud. Second, these excerpts are BAD! If these are the parts of the books she's proud of, what could be in the other parts?

There's a scene where a character shoots at a gunman in the middle of a robbery, and the gunman comes out and banters with the woman who just shot at him, without either character paying any attention to, I don't know, why they're not shooting each other. There's a scene where the two main characters are driving along the highway and a man falls off a truck and bounces off their windshield on the freeway, and they crack a joke about it and keep driving. These characters are not remotely human.

Then there's a scene that is entirely a joke about cutting a man's penis off. It's about a page long. Then we get into the ongoing hot good-boyfriend plus hot bad-boy boyfriend wish-fulfilment fantasy. If a man wrote the male equivalent of this stuff, he'd be crucified. Probably after having his penis cut off.

Oh, and the writing advice. It's generic, unhelpful, and sometimes wrong.

Evanovich's signature style shines through in this playful, humorous, and extremely useful writing guide. "How I Write" is almost as much fun to read as her Plum novels themselves!

Lots of specific examples round out Evanovich's personal advice for writing, revising, and publishing a first book. "How I Write" has plenty of relevant details without overwhelming or bogging down the reader - instead, it inspires the novice author to take the plunge into professional writing.

Question-and-answer format is fun and easy to read, and book organization is logical and linear. A table of contents provides the road map, but "How I Write" would have benefited from a detailed topic index in the back.

If you are interested in writing and publishing contemporary fiction, don't miss this quick, fun, and useful read!

I love Janet Evanovich and that was the only reason that I didn't give this review 5 stars instead of one, lol. It was well written and gave you an insight into how she thinks as a writer, a little as a person. Not the most informative though, but, that is why it says how "I" write. It's not broken down into some scientific method, but writing never really can be. You either have the ideas to write down or you got nothing. Trust me, if you get an idea even in the middle of the night or in the middle of chasing after a kid, stop and write it down. You'll probably never have it again.

I didn't expect too much from the book, after looking at some of the pages. Still, I thought I might gain something of small value. All I really gained from it was the oft-repeated advice that a writer writes, and you learn to write by writing, and if you have writer's block just sit down and do it. Well, I didn't think the book was full of "secrets" that might apply to other aspiring authors (unless you're a junk-food junkie), and it was too full of a humorous approach to everything, from writing a book to living a meaningful life. I've never read any of Ms. Evanovich's books before, but the excerpts included really seemed like lightweight comedy, good for a chuckle or two, but eminently forgettable. I'm glad she likes being a best-selling author, but if this type of material is what sells like hotcakes today, it gives me a sense of despair about popular taste.
Best, I think, to spend your money elsewhere, unless you're a rabid fan of Ms. Evanovich. I only give it two stars because of its fluffiness, and some parts made me smile, so I did give it more than one, but the scatterbrained approach to a serious subject gets old very quickly.

Best selling author breaks down the ins and outs of writing and the methods she uses to improve your own writing. The book is nicely structured in a question and answer response to the most typical questions you would love to ask an author at a book signing but didn't have the time or nerve to ask.

I was a little disappointed to discover that much of the writing guide part of the book was written by a (relatively) unknown author, Ina something or other. I really expected it to be all Janet Evanovich's work. In fact, in some parts, Ina's tips are contrary to what Janet says she does. Interesting.

If you are looking for an A-to-Z guide to writing a book, this is not it. If you're looking for some great entertaining tidbits about your favorite mystery author, coupled with a few hints on writing, then you might want to give this a try. Parts were very entertaining with the typical Evanovich humor. But I wouldn't say that my writing will improve much as a result of reading this book.

I love this book. It was so much easier to read than others I have purchased in the same genre. I like the way questions are answered with humor. I like the way the instructions are set apart in gray background boxes. I especially like the examples that come from Janet Evanovich's books. Why? Because I know they work. How do I know? I've read all the books and recognize the excerpts.
I already understood that Janet Evanovich is amazingly prolific. After reading this book, I have some insight into the amount of time, effort and dicipline it takes to be so productive.

HOW I WRITE is fun to read but it doesnt reveal anything that isnt in every other how-to-write book. Evanovich gives you the basic stuff without disclosing anything that makes her writing special. I didnt expect she would.

Most how-to-write books dont really explain how to write beyond the general prescription, which is lacking in good details.

I'm a longshot wannabe writer like so many others. Love the Stephanie Plum novels for their humor and good nature. This book was helpful, reinforcing some things I've learned in creative writing workshops (plot line, heart line, discipline, editing) and filling in the blanks on other things I've wondered about (agent v editor v publisher). Thanks much.

Like her novels Evonovich makes this "how to" book fun to read. She gives examples from her Plum series to illustrate the points she makes.
Not only is there advice for the technical aspects of writing, but she has points that are not found in a "text book" style format. Rather than having to force myself to read for improvement, I read this book because it was still helpful, but also entertaining. Evonovich loaded this book with tips that are useful, advice that makes sense, and examples that illulminate.After I finished reading I felt more confident to write a book than I had in the past, and inspired to do so.

Janet Evanovich writes this book in collaboration with her daughter and mother. The book provides many excellent tips in writing for publication and she uses examples from her own work to illustrate her points. The style is "lite" but informative and fun to read, even just to find out how Janet gets her ideas for the Plum series. If you are interested in writing mysteries etc, "Secrets" may give you a jump-start.

The book is designed for someone who has never written anything. If you've even read one issue of Writer's Digest you will have everything shared in this book. If you really want to write mysteries Hallie Ephron's book "Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel" is much better. If you are a novice writer completely ignore the formatting information Evanovitch gives in the back of the book. 14 pt Genva with 1.5" margins is NOT the industry standard. 12 pt Courier or Times New Roman with 1" to 1.2" margins is. If you're a bestseller you could turn in a manuscript in crayon and they would still publish your book, but unknowns don't have that luxury. If you just want to read it for fun, it's an easy read, but if you want real information look somewhere else.

This book was recommended to me by my local bookstore, and it's probably one of the best books on writing I ever came across. It's an easy read with practical writing tips. Always entertaining, I never found myself getting bored and dozing off, like with so many other books on writing. I like the question and answer aspect of it. A lot of those questions I have wondered myself. I never heard of her until I read this book, now I have just bought my first Stephanie Plum novel, "One for the Money," to keep me busy on a long flight I will be on.

I enjoy Evanovich's writing, and I'm a fledgling writer, so I thought this would be inspiring. In between excerpts of her books are tips that would only be helpful if you know absolutely nothing about writing. The contrast between Evanovich's wacky style and her professor co-author is not only disturbing, but they contradict each other. Writers have different approaches to the craft and I nearly turned this audiobook off when Evanovich had the nerve to say that characters cannot tell you where the story should go, as many published authors describe happening. Perhaps having featured the same characters in 24 books or so hers are just too worn out to be helpful... Hearing her brag about how many people visit her website each day, how everyone in her family is employed in her book generating machine, and that she sticks Hollywood flash in the plot so she can get a movie deal made it clear WHY she writes. And it made me want to read someone else. If you want inspiration to write anything other than serial romance you are better off with Bird by Bird (Anne LaMott) or On Writing (Steven King)

How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author is a clear and concise book filled with information about how Janet writes. She uses examples from her books to explain. It was entertaining and informative to read.

I read this book over the weekend while trying to get motivated to write my own novel. It is in Q&A style and very easy to read. I liked the format and that she was positive and energetic. I had never read any of her books before. Not much technical or specific writing advice but I highly recommend it to get you or someone you know who's interested in writing kick-started. The gist of it was: just sit down and write, even if it's crappy.

This book was a easy read and have good tip on how to get started writing. This boook should be in everyone personal library to come back and read over. How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author

Terrific easy to read peek inside this bestselling author's world. The book doesn't go into oceans of detail about something that I've always been curious about: Specifically how she wrote before she developed her current style, and what influenced her back then. Collaboration by friend and daughter are helpful in rounding it out. Great read overall!

This book is the epitome of irony.

It is akin to Kevin Costner writing a book on how to act.

What I wouldn't give to read a book by a writer that speaks to things that matter, with raw honesty and real people living their own lives, instead of today's cartoon cut-outs that speak sitcom-ese or the equally idiotic pseudo-mafioso clowns trying to be the next Godfather. Where, where, where are the great writers of today?