As some may know I am working on a fantasy novel and during this process I am also working on becoming an overall better writer. Therefore I constantly on the look out for resources which can make me a better writer. One such resource came on to my radar via the Writing Community over on twitter (The hash tag is #WritingCommunity, I don’t believe there been created a community yet), this was the book How to Write Everything by Mr. David Quantick.

I have the book both as an Ebook (I did read it) and on Amazon Audible, where the latter is narrated by Mr. Qyantick. The book is described as the ultimate handbook for every aspect of writing, both in reviews I have read and by people on twitter. Here I will give my review of the book, it will not be in the same style as the Nocturnal Blood review, but I still wanted to give it a go.

The review

Mr. Quantick is a well versed writer who have written basically any style, plays, for television, movies, books, and so on. He presents an impressive CV through out the book that makes you feel like it words coming straight from the horses mouth. The content of the book is present as a correlation of interviews of other writers, personal anecdotes and experiences, and advice for the reader.
This also means that the picture paint in the book is not unicorns and rainbows, writing is clearly not presented as straight road without bumps, twist, and turns. By utilising this approach Mr. Quantick presents the reader with what feels like a more realistic perspective (compared to other writers advise resources I have read or watch before). Which is good as it makes you take the advice more serious and I can already tell you that I am using some of these on a daily basis. Thus, the book basically already have qualified itself as pretty good.

However, it does not stop there. Mr. Quantick takes us on a journey through multiple disciplines of writing as already state. Where for each he compare it to other at least one other discipline and explains how it differs and what people you interact with. For instance both for plays and movie scripts he explains the potential head butting with directors and actors. Yet he also explain how input from none writers should be taken seriously and also your ideas will probably change. This is an important notion that I feel a lot of new writers (and probably also more experienced once) are not ready for and can have a hard time coping with.

Another thing that I find important is how he explains the process of submitting a manuscript (novel, news article, etc.). How it can be rejected, accept, and (potentially) stolen and there is present an abstract description of how to act in each scenario. Furthermore, Mr. Quantick also emphasis how we as writers are not unique when it comes to ideas in particular a focus on inspiration and how two or more people can have the same idea or get inspiration in a similar way resulting in a very similar piece of work.

I do not feel like I can fully justify the amazing advice, warnings, and realisations which Mr. Quantick presents in this book without it just sounding like one long praise fest. Literally the only critique I have with the book is that the interviews presented in the book can be confusing in the audio book version, but that is not the case in the printed version. All in all I feel like all aspiring writers should read this book to be douched in a healthy spray of realism and advice.

Finally, I would like to dive deeper into the two advice I follow daily at the moment. Write every day and Always have something to write on and with. I have found that when I take breaks from writing, even if it is just jutting down notes about my stories I kind of slack off and procrastinate, essentially not training my writing. Which I have found that like other things, it needs practice and in my experience even more than other areas I work in. Therefore, I have started to write everyday, it may not be on my main work in progress, it may just be ideas, but I get something done. As for always having something to write on I have started to always have my phone one me with the note app on the first spring board and I try to carry a pen and paper when I go for walks. This lets me quickly jot down ideas I get on the run and it makes me practices writing every day.

Although, I have not covered the content of the book in depth here, I hope you understand why I fully recommend this book.

./Lars