Yeah, that's it. Just curious to know what you have in your library on writing. I've just finished Writing Fiction For Dummies. Not bad. Not that I know what's good on this topic yet. I'll probably reread this one once I've got a bit deeper into my current stories.
From elsethread: I enjoyed reading the following. I can't say whether they're helpful or not; I tend to absorb information and forget where I learned it. The Forest for the Trees, by Betsy Lerner Bird by Bird, by Ann Lamott The Kite and the String, by Alice Mattison The Hidden Machinery, by Margot Livesy Still Writing, by Dori Shapiro Write Away, by Elizabeth George
That I have on my bookshelf right now: Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft - Janet Burroway Plot and Structure - James Scott Bell Process, Form, and Substance: A Rhetoric for Advanced Writers - Richard M. Coe The Elements of Style - Strunk & White The Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joseph Campbell Short Fiction & Critical Contexts - Eric Henderson & Geoff Hancock The Writer's Handbook: 1996 Edition - Sylvia K. Burack On Writing - Stephen King Critical Thinking: An Introduction to the Basic Skills - William Hughes, Jonathan Lavery, & Katheryn Doran
This is what I have next to me in hard copy. Yes, I have multiple copies of some just to have volume revisions. I don't think every book is listed because I know I have more Strunk & White around here somewhere. (I have 4 or 5 copies of it.) I really need to go through them again or at least sort them better on the shelf. Sometimes I forget to scan them in. You know how it is. I have at least this amount again in ebooks. For instance, I have everything by Chuck Wendig. That's a couple dozen books, I think. A much better teacher than a writer, though he can be funny. I know he would hate me as a person, but his advice is still inspiring, so I bought his library in spite of his nastiness. And I've read a lot by Steven Pinker but I don't see him listed at all. Even though he stole George Washington's wig, he's still a cool guy. So there are lots of others, but I don't have a good list of them. I've probably read another 100 or so writing books from the library. I've bought some of them since (the good ones), so they're not necessarily exclusive to what I've listed. I asked the librarian for a list of my reading so I could figure it all out and buy the titles I've forgotten, but she said they don't keep track, which seems strange to me. I guess they worry about government spies. Strange world we live in. (I didn't type this. Export to the rescue.) "50 Literature Ideas You Really Need to Know", John Sutherland "A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue", Grose, Francis "A Dash of Style: The Art and Mastery of Punctuation", Noah Lukeman "A Dictionary of Literary Devices", Bernard Marie Dupriez "A manual for writers of term papers, theses, and dissertations", Kate L. Turabian "A Writer's Guide to Active Setting", Mary Buckham "After the End", Barry Lane "Agents, editors, and you", Michelle Howry "Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style", Virginia Tufte "Beyond the Sentence", Scott Thornbury "Beyond the Words: The Three Untapped Sources of Creative Fulfillment for Writers", Bonni Goldberg "Bride of Dark and Stormy: Yet More of the Best (?) From the Bulwer-Lytton Contest", Scott Rice "Building Great Sentences", Brooks Landon "Cause of Death", Keith D. Wilson "Classical Elements in English Words", Robert Wolverton "Clear Thinking for Composition", Ray Kytle "Crafting Dynamic Dialogue", Writer's Digest Editors "Crafting Novels & Short Stories", Writer's Digest Books (Firm) "Create, Narrate, Punctuate", Ramy Tadros "Creating Character Arcs", K. M. Weiland "Creating Character Emotions", Ann Hood "Curious Case Of The Misplaced Modifier", Bonnie Trenga "Deadly Doses", Serita Stevens, Anne Klarner "Deep Scenes", Martha Alderson, Jordan Rosenfeld "Description & Setting: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Believable World of People, Places, and Events (Write Great Fiction)", Ron Rozelle "Develop Your Writing Voice", Writer's Digest Writer's Digest Editors "Dialogue: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting Effective Dialogue (Write Great Fiction Series)", Gloria Kempton "Dictionary of English Down the Ages", Linda Flavell, Roger Flavell "Discourse Analysis", Gillian Brown, George Yule "Dynamic Characters", Nancy Kress "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", Lynne Truss "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation", Lynne Truss "Editor-Proof Your Writing", Don McNair "Elements of Fiction Writing - Beginnings, Middles & Ends", Nancy Kress "Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint", Orson Scott Card "English Grammar", Roger Berry "Ernest Hemingway on Writing", Larry W. Phillips "Errors in English and ways to correct them", Harry Shaw "Fiction Writer's Workshop", Josip Novakovich "Fiction Writing Master Class", William Cane "Flash!", John Dufresne "Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists", James Geary "Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction", Gotham Writers' Workshop "Great Books", David Denby "Handbook of Short Story Writing", Frank A. Dickson, Sandra Smythe "Help! For Writers", Roy Peter Clark "How to Read a Book", Mortimer J. Adler, Charles Van Doren "How to Read Literature Like a Professor", Thomas C. Foster "How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method", Randy Ingermanson "How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times", Roy Peter Clark "How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction", J. N. Williamson "I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World", James Geary "I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like", Mardy Grothe "It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences", June Casagrande "Kiss My Asterisk", Jenny Baranick "Layer Your Novel: The Innovative Method for Plotting Your Scenes (The Writer's Toolbox Series)", C. S. Lakin "Less Than Words Can Say", Richard Mitchell "Lexical Semantics", D. A. Cruse "Line by Line", Claire Kehrwald Cook, Modern Language Association of America "Make a Scene", Jordan Rosenfeld "Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot", Jane Cleland "Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature", Merriam-Webster, Inc "Missing Persons", Fay Faron "More Words You Should Know", Michelle Bevilacqua "Mortal Syntax", June Casagrande "Murder One", Mauro V. Corvasce, Joseph R. Paglino "Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror", Laurie Lamson "On Becoming a Novelist", John Gardner "On Moral Fiction.", John Gardner "On Writing Fiction", David Jauss "On Writing Horror", Mort Castle, Horror Writers Association "On Writing Short Stories", Tom Bailey "On Writing Well", William Knowlton Zinsser "On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition", William Zinsser "On writing well: An informal guide to writing nonfiction", William Knowlton Zinsser "On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction", William Knowlton Zinsser "On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft", Stephen King "Outlining Your Novel", K. M. Weiland "Oxford Modern English Grammar", Bas Aarts "Page After Page", Heather Sellers "Patterns and themes", Judy R. Rogers, Glenn C. Rogers "Plot Perfect", Paula Munier "Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction", Jeff Gerke "Points of View", James Moffett, Kenneth R. McElheny "Police Procedural", Russell L. Bintliff "Reading Critically, Writing Well", Rise B. Axelrod, Charles Raymond Cooper "Revision and Self Editing for Publication", James Scott Bell "Rhetorical Devices: A Handbook and Activities for Student Writers", Brendan McGuigan "Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View", Jill Elizabeth Nelson "Ron Carlson Writes a Story", Ron Carlson "Rules for Writers", Diana Hacker "Save the Cat! Writes a Novel", Jessica Brody "Scene of the Crime: A Writer's Guide to Crime Scene Investigation (Howdunit Series)", Anne Wingate "Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition", Renni Browne, Dave King "Sentences, Paragraphs, and Beyond: With Integrated Readings", Lee Brandon, Kelly Brandon "Simon & Schuster Handbook for Writers, Seventh Edition", Lynn Quitman Troyka, Douglas Hesse "Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly Effective Prose", Constance Hale "Spellbinding Sentences: A Writer's Guide to Achieving Excellence and Captivating Readers", Barbara Baig "Stop Worrying; Start Writing", Sarah Painter "Story Fix", Larry Brooks "Story Physics", Larry Brooks "Story Structure Architect", Victoria Lynn Schmidt "Story-Flash", Alexander Astremsky "Style", Joseph M. Williams "Style", Joseph M. Williams, Gregory G. Colomb "Techniques of the Selling Writer", Dwight V. Swain "Thanks, But This Isn't for Us: A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected", Jessica Page Morrell "The 29 most common writing mistakes and how to avoid them", Judy Delton "The 90-Day Novel", Alan Watt "The Anatomy of Story", John Truby "The Art And Craft Of Storytelling", Nancy Lamb "The Art of Character: Creating Memorable Characters for Fiction, Film, and TV", David Corbett "The Art of Fiction", John Gardner "The Art of Styling Sentences", Ann Longknife, K. D. Sullivan "The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition", The University The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff "The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing", Marilyn Ross, Sue Collier "The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction", Barnaby Conrad "The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing", Writer's Digest Editors "The Craft of Revision", Donald Morison Murray "The Elements of Style", Jr. William Strunk "The Eleventh Draft", Frank Conroy "The Emotion Thesaurus", Angela Ackerman, Becca Puglisi "The Emotional Craft of Fiction", Donald Maass "The Fiction Writer's Guide to Dialogue", John Hough Jr. "The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great", Donald Maass "The First 50 Pages", Jeff Gerke "The Hero with a Thousand Faces", Joseph Campbell "The Idea", Erik Bork "The Kick-Ass Writer", Chuck Wendig "The Last Draft", Sandra Scofield "The Making of a Story", Alice LaPlante "The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms", Chris Baldick "The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing (Essential Resource Library)", Thomas S. Kane "The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory", Claire Preston "The Poetry Home Repair Manual", Ted Kooser "The practical stylist", Sheridan Warner Baker "The Practical Writer", Therese Eiben, Mary Gannon "The Rhetoric of Fiction", Wayne C. Booth "The Rhetoric of Fiction", Wayne C. Booth "The Rhetorical Device: Vol 1", Paul F. Kisak "The Rhetorical Device: " Literary Resources for The Writer Vol. 2 of 2 " (Volume 2)", Edited by Paul F. Kisak "The Secrets of Story", Matt Bird "The Successful Author Mindset", Joanna Penn "The Transitive Vampire", Karen Elizabeth Gordon "The Trivium: The Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric", Sister Miriam Joseph, Marguerite McGlinn "The Well-tempered Sentence", Karen Elizabeth Gordon "The Wordwatcher's Guide to Good Writing & Grammar", Morton S. Freeman "The Writer's Brief Handbook", Paul Eschholz,Paul W. Eschholz Alfred Rosa "The Writer's Daily Companion", Amy Peters "The Writer's Journey", Christopher Vogler "The Writing Group Book", Lisa Rosenthal "Thrill Me", Benjamin Percy "Voice", James Scott Bell "What If?", Anne Bernays "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?", Fred White "Wonderbook", Jeff VanderMeer "Word Magic", Cindy Rogers "Word Painting", Rebecca Mcclanahan "Write Away", Elizabeth George "Write Great Fiction - Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint", Nancy Kress "Write Great Fiction - Plot & Structure", James Scott Bell "Write Right!", Jan Venolia "Write Your Novel from the Middle", James Scott Bell "Writer's Brief Handbook, The (5th Edition)", Alfred Rosa, Paul Eschholz "Writers on Writing (Bread Loaf Anthology)", Robert Pack "Writing 21st Century Fiction", Donald Maass "Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within", Natalie Goldberg "Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction", Lisa Tuttle "Writing from the Senses: 59 Exercises to Ignite Creativity and Revitalize Your Writing", Laura Deutsch "Writing in General and the Short Story in Particular", L. Rust Hills "Writing Lives: Principia Biographica", Leon Edel "Writing prose", Thomas S. Kane "Writing That Works; How to Communicate Effectively In Business", Kenneth Roman, Joel Raphaelson "Writing the Modern Mystery (Genre Writing Series)", Barbara Norville "Writing the Short Story: A Hands-On Program", Jack Bickham "Writing Tools", Roy Peter Clark "Writing Voice", Writer's Digest Books Editors "Writing with a purpose", Joseph F. Trimmer, James McNab McCrimmon "Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing (2nd Edition)", John R. Trimble "Writing: Craft and Art", William L. Rivers
I have read a few E-book on writing over the years. Here is a list of a few of them. I think, in the futrue, I will stick to physical book. Plot and Structure - James Scott Bell The Elements of Style - Strunk & White On Writing - Stephen King The emotional craft of fiction - Donald Mass Story Trumps Struture - Steven James writing the break out novel - Donald Maass Story enginering - Larry Brooks Techniques of a selling writer - dwightv. Swan
Just started reading Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose. I like her informal easy style, very readable. This will be evening reading for me. I also need to select a small amount of suitable novels for close reading and analysis. I had a great A' Level literature tutor who taught in the 'close reading' style and avoided imposing popular theories on the work, so I'm sold on her approach already. Will probably also begin my recently received workbook today: Writing Essentials: Exercises to Improve Spelling, Sentence Structure, Punctuation, and Writing. I'm always wondering how best to structure my sentences, and then how to correctly punctuate them. I've found I'm getting this wrong fairly frequently, so it needs attention. Last night I ordered Crafting Dynamic Dialogue: The Complete Guide to Speaking, Conversing, Arguing, and Thinking in Fiction. Bought mainly for the thinking bit. For some reason, I don't find inserting actual thoughts into the narrative terribly easy or natural.
Almost all. Some of those are very new and are still in the to-read stack. I'm trying not to check Amazon for new titles.
Not a whole lot, I'm afraid, and I should really revisit some of them. Or read some new ones. The Elements of Style - Strunk and White My Grammar and I... Or Should That Be Me? - Caroline Taggart and J. A. Wines Story Engineering - Larry Brooks Self-Editing for Fiction Writers - Renni Browne and Dave King On Writing - Stephen King Creating Characters: How to Build Story People - Dwight V. Swain Techniques of the Selling Writer - Dwight V. Swain
wow - thats a heap of knowledge there. Would you be able to tell me what one of these, providing you can remember, would help a fellow out in the short story department? maybe something to do with character development or creating tension in a short amount of time. - thanks
I have a lot of favorites and would list a ton. There are probably 50 I would strongly recommend. These are some of my top ones that nobody ever talks about. Writing 21st Century Fiction, Maass Kind of a general plotting/writing book. It applies to novels and short stories. It doesn't dig too deep, but it says some interesting things about characters and micro-tension, the levels of story, inward and outward journeys. Good stuff. Description & Setting, Rozelle I had to change my mind on some fundamental literary definitions because of this book. It's basic again, not too technical, but Rozelle is about as legit as you get when it comes to a writer. He speaks a lot of truth. His advice should be taken VERY seriously. The Rhetoric of Fiction, Booth A bunch of essays on writing. There's nothing here really about mechanics and such. It's abstract concerns on the craft. It's somewhat of an advanced book, more of a college text. Highest possible recommendation. Some of it's online: https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Rhetoric_of_Fiction.html?id=VfUgMbRYSW4C&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false Style, Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, Williams This one is about non-fiction writing, but like Strunk & White, it's applicable to fiction as long as you keep the loopholes in mind. I find it much better than S&W. If you're writing college essays, you should memorize it. It's not very long. Points of View, Moffett & McElheny Just a fat little anthology. Each story set shows a unique point of view. They're great examples for how you can approach particular POVs. Spoiler: Table of Contents Preface INTERIOR MONOLOGUE A Telephone Call Dorothy Parker I Stand Here Ironing Tillie Olsen DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE Straight Pool John OHara The Lady’s Maid Katherine Mansfield …& Answers Joyce Carol Oates LETTER NARRATION Inter-Office Rosellen Brown A Bundle of Letters Henry James A Wilderness Station Alice Munro Jupiter Doke, Brigadier General Ambrose Bierce DIARY NARRATION The Yellow Wallpaper Charlotte Perkins Gilman The Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book V. S. Naipaul Amahl and the Night Visitors Lorrie Moore SUBJECTIVE NARRATION The Somebody Danny Santiago My Side of the Matter Truman Capote My Sister’s Marriage Cynthia Marshall Rich Why, You Reckon? Langston Hughes A & P John Updike Distance Grace Paley DETACHED AUTOBIOGRAPHY Christmas Eve at Johnson’s Drugs N Goods Toni Cade Bambara The Circuit Francisco Jimenez First Confession Frank O’Connor A Coupla Scalped Indians Ralph Ellison Birthday David Wong Louie The Passing Durango Mendoza MEMOIR, OR OBSERVER NARRATION The Voice from the Wall Amy Tan Country Jayne Anne Phillips Scales Louise Erdrich The Bridle Raymond Carver The Eggs of the World Toshio Mori ANONYMOUS NARRATION: SINGLE CHARACTER POINT OF VIEW The Five-Forty-Eight John Cheever The Stone Boy Gina Berriault Doby’s Gone Ann Petry Act of Faith Irwin Shaw Come Out the Wilderness James Baldwin ANONYMOUS NARRATION: DUAL CHARACTER POINT OF VIEW Sinking House T. Coraghessan Boyle The Only Rose Sarah Orne Jewett Strong Horse Tea Alice Walker Uglypuss Margaret Atwood ANONYMOUS NARRATION: MULTIPLE CHARACTER POINT OF VIEW Fever Flower Shirley Ann Grau The Suicides of Private Greaves James Moffett Inez Merle Hodge ANONYMOUS NARRATION: NO CHARACTER POINT OF VIEW A New Window Display Nicholosa Mohr The Lottery Shirley Jackson Powerhouse Eudora Welty Afterword Ron Carlson Writes a Story, Ron Carlson (surprise!) This one's fascinating. An author develops a short story and shows you the process from idea to completion. It applies directly to short stories, but would work for novels too. "The most important thing an author can do after writing a sentence is stay in the room." From Where You Dream, Butler This one's just about coming up with stories. Some people don't like it, but some people shun queso too. (The world is a dangerous place.) Butler won the Pulitzer Prize for short stories, so there must have been a rare planetary alignment that year. Even if you don't agree with what he says (it clashes with your personality/approach, whatever), his approach absolutely works for him. I find it fascinating. Lots of talk about harnessing the hynpagognic dreamstate. For some reason that makes me thing of Neil Gaiman. Not sure why.
I have, and have read, many of the books on @Seven Crowns's list. Many are trash to me; some are treasures. The best, in my opinion, are The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner. They're really inspiring to me. They are also NOT just lists of do's and don'ts. They're keys to what Gardner calls "mastery." I'm going to get all iconoclastic and stuff here, and will certainly do some ire-arousing. I believe that among the trash are the following way-overrated books: The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. Somebody who was actually born after WWII should really give this a thorough revision. Techniques of the Selling Writer, by Dwight Swain. I'm afraid this is a boring load of fish-wrapping. I'd give it more credence if Swain wasn't such a hack (among his own works of fiction were such classics as "Bring Back My Brain!" and "Stay Out of Space!") and if he didn't cite other hacks nobody has ever heard of as his examples of great writing.
I agree. Strunk & White doesn't deserve to be so well known. It's okay, but there are so much better. Chicken is 100% right. (And yeah, not all my books are winners. But I save them anyway.)
The Emotional Craft of Fiction, Donald Maass The Fire in Fiction (my favorite), Donald Maass Word Painting: The Fine Art of Writing Descriptively, Rebecca McClanahan Emotional Beats: How to convert your writing into palpable feelings, Nicholas Rossis I also have a number of specialized books on language, particular dealing with Regency Era speak and sayings, mannerisms, idioms, etc. And, The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues, by George Choundas is one gem of a reference book I couldn't do without! I'll also add, I used AutoCrit for nearly a year. You find out pretty quick how you stack up against well known fiction writers. Their rather intense editing software will have you shaking some bad habits and focusing on the individual elements of writing that you need to work on.
If you're writing anything even remotely formal, The Elements of Style is invaluable. Less applicable to general fiction, but still has a lot of information packed very concisely.
I have a few e-books of Donald Maass (also favorite) but I think I will order the physical copies soon... E-book's are just not the same. it's harder to extract all the valuable gems.
That's been my practice. I'm old school, I dog-ear pages and use a highlighter pen on the passages that I need to revisit from time to time. Maass is relentless in his approach to teaching the basics of good fiction writing. And that he's got a good sense of humor doesn't hurt either.
Word. Yeah, he's playing for both teams now. (giggity.) I miss the hat. The level of sophistication in dog world dropped 23% without it. At least one of us is still using a typewriter. That's pretty hip. ETA: I would agree that it needs an update though, The Elements of style, I mean, not Dap's Avatar. I doubt it's the newest, but my 2000 reprint of the 1970 edition uses Oxford commas and other outmodes. No one's taught Oxford commas since at least the 1980's.
So many things going on in that article. An English teacher would have ruled the other way. "Packing for shipment" and "distribution of" were already separate under the many decades old standard; they very pointedly didn't use an Oxford comma in their first sentence and the new version changed to semicolons, which are only to be used in lists that include commas within list items. Now it's incorrect in any Era. Wow. That was bonkers.