Practical, helpful, and well organized. I listened to the audiobook through Hoopla / my library, and immediately added it to my bookstore cart so I can pick up a physical copy next time I buy books. It’s a book I want to revisit. ( )

The world is full of books on how to write a great novel and a wise novelist will ignore it all and just write. But this one is worth the time for two reasons: it's short and it deals less with how to write a good story than how to step through the process of getting a story on paper, (draft one), then turning it into a great story (draft two); then honing it to as close to perfection as one is able (draft three).

Part one takes over half the book and is full of ideas and exercises for a novelist who runs out of ideas, or runs out of ideas, or otherwise gets stuck. It also presents several techniques for "figuring out where the story is going" as the writer unfolds characters, situations and plots.

Part two explains how to take the mess of ideas and material created in draft one and working it into an excellent story. Unfortunately for me (since this is where I am on my current work), his technique is to rewrite the story--not revise it; a daunting task. But he makes a compelling case for using his method.

The final section covers draft three and several ideas for refining the detail of the book sentence-by-sentence and word-by-word. Here's where a wise reader will use caution. The author encourages us to "refuse to be done" and his argument makes sense in his context. But one huge threat to any writer is just this: a refusal ever to be done to revise and revise and revise without ever taking the risky step of actually being done.

Interesting take. My favorite part of the book? His insistence that every character have a job. Jane Austen would have had a much better story had she followed this advice for Pride and Prejudice. ( )

Full of solid, concise advice that I haven't seen everywhere else. ( )

I ended up reading Refuse to be Done in one sitting, and found it wonderfully inspiring. As someone who's completed writing quite a few novels, I still found Bell's discussions to be interesting and worthwhile, and I can see this being a fantastic read for experienced and beginning writers alike. I'll certainly adopt some of the techniques he suggests in my own drafting process, and I've written down a number of the books he referenced to look up when I get a chance. I'd absolutely recommend this work to any writer who's either thinking about or already in the process of writing novels. ( )

A great resource that I'll be using to teach revision in my memoir writing class.

From the first draft through developmental edits to the final line edits, this book breaks down the mystery of revising into manageable steps with examples and references. ( )