Book Review: Fiction Writing As Your Second Career

Fiction Writing As Your Second Career. Lisa M. Lilly, Spiny Woman Press, 23 November 2022, Paperback, Hardback, eBook, 130 pages.

Reviewed by Andrew Reynolds.

First off, I'll let you in on a secret: I actively avoid reading books that deal with writing.

Before you make the charge, no, I don't think myself as a fountain of knowledge when it comes to writing. Far from it. Unfortunately, most of the books about writing that I have tried to read are written by authors who seem convinced they are fountains of knowledge when it comes to writing. Many of them spend their entire book expounding the virtues of their writing method. Frankly, after a few pages of having someone treat their particular style of writing as "The Truth, The Light, and The Way," I get more than a little bored.

That's precisely why I found Lisa M. Lilly's Fiction Writing As Your Second Career to be so enjoyable. She's an accomplished writer with two successful book series under her belt (The Awakening, a supernatural thriller series, and her ongoing Q. C. Davis mystery series), so she knows more than a bit about writing fiction. She has also penned several books about the writing craft, including The One-Year Novelist: A Week-By-Week Guide To Writing Your Novel In One Year, Super Simple Story Structure: A Quick Guide To Plotting & Writing Your Novel, and Creating Compelling Characters From The Inside Out.

She's also an experienced businessperson, having run her own law firm before starting a small press and a consulting firm aimed at helping authors. So when she talks about the ins and outs of whether you should consider making writing a second career, she's clearly got the background to offer an authoritative opinion on the subject.

Yet for all of her experience, she doesn't spend her book telling the reader "Thou Shalt Do Things This Way!" Rather, she lays out the different paths a writer can take, fairly weighing the pluses and minuses of each. She discusses the pitfalls of different publishing options and explains some of the goals a writer might have if they decide to go into the craft full-time. Then, she treats her readers like adults and lets them decide what choices to make.

It's quite a refreshing and enjoyable change from the usual writing book. Does she ever try to "put her thumb on the scale" to steer her readers towards one line of thinking? Yes, but only slightly, and only when she offers her views on how to write. Even then, it's not something "handed down from on high," but simply some observations on things that have worked for her.

So, is Fiction Writing As Your Second Career a work you should read? I would say yes. In this book, Ms. Lilly has written a work that should be a cornerstone reference piece for anyone considering doing more than dabbling in writing. Yet, for all the material it considers, it is a readable and enjoyable book. In short, a very useful book to have at your disposal.