Write This Book: A Do-It-Yourself Mystery
The Secret series, Book 6
Pseudonymous Bosch
Little, Brown Books
Fiction, MG Mystery/Writing
****+ (Good/Great)
DESCRIPTION: Writing books is hard work, even when a talking rabbit does your typing. After five volumes of his popular Secret series, author Pseudonymous Bosch is tapped out. So he's going to let you, the reader, take the reins on this one. He'll give you a basic setup and some pointers, plus a few genre options, but this book's going to be all yours.
Are you ready?
No?
Too bad - the story's already started...
REVIEW: When I downloaded this book on Overdrive, I was unaware that it was technically the last book on Bosch's humorous middle-grade Secret series, which I've seen at the library but haven't yet read; a few elements here constitute spoilers. However, it works fairly well as a standalone title.
Write This Book is a nice twist on writing books, somewhere between an ongoing exercise, a commentary on the process, and a story in its own right, all infused with a strong sense of humor. For the most part, the balance works; he starts by giving the reader/writer a few characters and a mystery (with notes on how to start a story), then guides the reader through the process of crafting the plot and finishing, emphasizing that things can (and will) be refined in future rewrites and the important thing is to keep writing. For genres, he offers a choice between noir mystery, fantasy, and gothic horror, a unique demonstration on how genre may color the story, but it generally does not dictate it: the same basic idea can work in many settings and genres. Bosch's style lies somewhere between improvisation ("pantsing," or writing by the seat of one's pants) and organization (outlining), leaning towards the former; he likens it to cooking, where one gathers one's ingredients (ideas and inspirations and references) before one starts but isn't strictly bound by a recipe. It's a nice method, loose enough to make readers feel excited about exploring a story, and not like they're trudging through yet another graded assignment - plus it shows that, despite what English teachers like to say, there are many published authors who aren't strict outliners or bound by other "rules" (three-act structure, snowflake method, etc.)
Bosch and his typist bunny, Quiche, frequently appear in the pages via doodles and cartoons, an ongoing rivalry with an unexpected climax. He offers many procrastination break ideas that will probably amuse experienced writers at least as much as, if not more than, newcomers. (One of these advises one to reread one's manuscript, decide it's crud and rip it up, then realize it's not so bad and painstakingly tape it back together, then make sure nobody knows how crazy you are.) The clever voice walks a fine line between amusing and annoying, mostly staying on the former side.
All in all, despite being unfamiliar with the Secret series, I found this an entertaining read, especially for writers. It earned an extra half-mark for evoking a few laugh-out-loud moments.
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How This Book Was Made (Mac Barnett) - My Review
Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly (Gail Carson Levine) - My Review
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