I have had writing on my mind for some time now, and decided to tackle it full time(good timing too, since I decided to tell corporate america to go ... itself). After a bunch of research, I gathered books I thought would help me in this endeavor. Among these books, I have the 5 book "Write Great Fiction" series, which include the following topics: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint Dialogue Plot & Structure Description & Setting Revision & Self-Editing What should I start with? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
Disclaimer, this is only my personal opinion! That said.... start writing not reading! Just start, and get comfortable with it. It would have been impossible for me to start with theory and then move to practice. There would have been far too much information to make sense of at once. It would have felt like building a power plant with tools of the stone age. If you have written a scene or two, or even a full chapter, you can always look at these books and compare. But not before. So... just start!
I agree with Lifeline: start writing! And once you're finished with your piece, you can pore over it and take notes from the theory books you have. Deconstruction is best when you have something to work on. Along with your piece, you can also deconstruct other writer's works. Personally, I copy by hand a chapter from a book that I just finished reading. I would make notes and comments on how a particular scene was paced, how it turned, what the motives are, what could be improved, etc. I also recommend Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird and/or Stephen King's On Writing. Both books are not detailed how-to guides, but they give a glimpse of the writer's life.