BAM: Book a Month by Cyn Mobley

I ran across BAM about a month ago in the Writers Weekly newsletter. As a past NaNoWriMo participant, I immediately thought of how useful this book might be for other NaNo-ers.

Before I say too much, I want to make it clear that I did receive a complimentary review copy of BAM so that I could review it on my blog. However, I also want to point out that very few (if any) of my posts are harsh or critical, so I am not in any way going out of character by raving about BAM. I loved this book, and it has nothing to do with the free copy — in fact, I told Cyn Mobley that I would be buying her next writing book, First Pages, which is due out next week.

But now, down to the review.

BAM is based on the premise that in order to be able to write quickly, you first have to have a thorough outline to follow. Some writer — I don't remember who now — once said that writer's block, in her opinion, was the result of not having thought the story through well enough before beginning to write. That's basically what BAM is circumventing.

I always thought I outlined well enough, but after reading BAM I know I was wrong. My outlines were not nearly detailed enough. Nor did they address the critical elements every good story must have. Instead, I was pretty much winging it.

BAM basically walks you through a formula for creating an outline for your book. It's not just a skeleton outline, though, like the ones I used to work off of — you plan the book out, act by act and chapter by chapter. BAM also makes sure you work certain important elements, such as conflict, into your outline, thereby making sure it all gets into the right place in the novel.

That alone is probably not all that unique. Plenty of writing books tell you how to outline (although I honestly haven't come across any that are as no-nonsense or effective as BAM). What is unique is that BAM shows you how to do all this — outline and write your novel — in one month.

I'm not going to give up Ms. Mobley's secrets — you'll have to pay the $12 for those — but as someone who has written a novel in a month, I can tell you that it would have been much easier had I done it the BAM way.

The Milk Memos by Cate Colburn-Smith and Andrea Serrette

I read this book about a month ago, actually, and blogged about it on Livre du Jour. Although the book is primarily for mothers who work out of the home, it does have a small section on working from home while you are breastfeeding.

I have noticed that many of the members of the online freelancing community are mothers. Many of them say that they have to juggle their writing duties with their responsibilities as a stay-at-home mom; some even chose to freelance because it would allow them to be at home for their children, too. In light of this, I thought some of my fellow writers might be interested in this book.

Like I said, this book is written primarily for mothers who work away from home. However, there are a few tips for juggling motherhood and working at home. There are also some amusing stories that many of my fellow freelancers will relate to, including stories of babies crying during conference calls, and even a story of nursing during a conference call!