Wednesday 18 September 2013

Write a Western in 30 Days

By Nik Morton
Compass books, June 2013

Something a little different to the books I usually comment on but one I thought would be of interest to some of you who read Western Fiction Review as I know many writers, both beginners and old-hands, view this blog regularly.

Even though I don’t have any ambitions to write a western, or any other book for that matter, I still thought I’d find this an interesting read and this proved to be true.

Nik Morton, who writes westerns under the pseudonym of Ross Morton and is the editor in chief for Solstice Publishing, includes examples to back up the many points he makes on such topics as preparation, point of view, plot-plans, dialogue, self-editing, formatting the manuscript, and marketing, to name but a few.

Nik Morton’s writing is straight-forward and doesn’t come over as too technical, making me believe I would be confident in writing a western by following his plan if I so desired.

Even if you are already an author with ideas of your own on how to write westerns, I still think you’d find plenty of tips within this book. The reference sections, that list books, websites, agents, and western publishers, should be worth the price of this book alone.

Available as both a paperback and ebook.

And finally a little note of thanks to Nik for mentioning Western Fiction Review three times within his book.

4 comments:

Nik Morton said...

Many thanks for that endorsement, Steve.

Jo Walpole said...

It's a good resource and Nik has been very generous with his research references. I would have cherished this when I was starting out. For now, I'm glad to have it on my bookshelf in the reference section. :)

Unknown said...

Nik is a great veteran western writer, and he has some great advice in this book! It is worth the read!

Gary Dobbs/Jack Martin said...

I've only just ordered this..meant to do it thirty days ago but Nick's a top bloke and this book is no doubt top knotch too. Thanks for the review.