Successful Novel Plotting

Successful Novel Plotting by Jean Saunders

The last of the books acquired at the Dunford Novelists' Conference! I won this one - third prize in the 60-word competition with this piece of rubbish on the theme of Revenge:

‘Keep the dinner warm for us,’ Jack had said. ‘I want to impress the boss.’ I bet you do, thought Lydia. He’d always cared more about his job than her. Well, she would be treated as a slave no longer. Her suitcase packed and a casserole prepared, she popped it into the freezer. Best served cold, as the saying goes.

Ahem. Anyway, as I've recently begun writing another novel this couldn't have come at a better time. Jean Saunders published hundreds of books under various names during her long career, so who better to teach the art of novel plotting? This is a very readable little book, in which Jean takes you through how to create memorable characters, how to plan chapter by chapter, and the importance of ensuring that your novel is a chain reaction - each event leads logically from what has come before. Near the end, she analyses one of her own novels, and you see just how much plot she puts into her stories! Definitely an inspiring read.