2 out of 4 stars
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The Life and Lessons of a Young Author by Sunayna Prasad
Sunayna Prasad is a young new authoress who shares her writing experiences in this short book to help other young writers know what to expect in today's world. She explains the problems she had with her previously published books, why she struggled with them and how to avoid making the same mistakes she did.
I appreciated how short this book was. I enjoyed the points she made, I think she has some solid advice for new writers such as making the writing and the characters believable, reading books of the genre you are writing, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and listening to those who critique and edit your story. Some of it may seem like it’s obvious or sound like no-brainer tips, but it is helpful for those just beginning to write. I particularly liked her thought process that she shares in Section 5: Deny, Rethink and Accept. I thought it was creditable that she promotes this teaching to take other people ideas and corrections to make their own books better.
I did not enjoy this book because the author was, in a word, inexperienced. The title felt deceiving as it sounds professional but after reading the book, I found her writing mediocre. She is mildly naive in her writing and I personally felt like I was reading a 15-year-old’s work. It felt oriented towards that age group as well, though what she’s teaching is intended to help any new writer, no matter the age. She had very simple language and had an odd flow of writing. It was as if she recorded herself and had the recording put to words on paper. She often went into random details that didn’t really allude to the books purpose. For example, she compared writing her books to raising a child. That alone isn’t strange, but she went into the details of the proper ages for teaching the child certain things and when the child would need to go to school, and then stated that her book was not about raising children. I found it very unnecessary and this happened in the book two or three times.
The editing was, for the most part, fine in this book but there were definitely some errors: too many to be considered professional. I would really have appreciated it if the pages were numbered. She talks in her book about the importance of correcting all errors before publishing and I found that ironic for the amount of errors I found.
Overall in my personal opinion this book is average. It needs some editing. From the start I couldn’t appreciate the writing and I think I found out why when she stated in the book that she does not like reading. I am by no means an experienced writer but I have read a good deal, and I find that this book is lacking in intellect. I actually advise Parsad to read as much as is physically possible and I believe she would seriously benefit from it.
It is very short; I finished this book in an afternoon and finished the review the same night. I personally would advise any new writer to read this and to take the author’s advice but to not write like her. If you have ever published anything before, or have been writing for a long time and received constructive feedback, you do not need to read this book. I would suggest looking for a more experienced writers advice.
This book helped me to understand the struggles and sacrifices of attempting to go through a commercial publishing company. I give this book a 2 out of 4 stars for it’s efforts but would put no more because of its lack of depth and experience.
Sincerely, Shmuck_reader.
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The Life and Lessons of a Young Author
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