Help! The Definitive Litopia Writers’ Reading List

Peyton Stafford

Event The Authors Guild is offering a training for writers looking at selling movie rights to a story

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Rachael Burnett

Sweet Cherry Publishing Looking for New Authors

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AgentPete

AgentPete

Capo Famiglia
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Full Member
May 19, 2014
London UK
Folk, I’d like to put together a definitive reading list for writers, please – with your help.

I want it to consist of books – only books – that have taught you something important about the art and craft of writing. Books that are in some sense definitive about the craft. Books you can personally recommend.

I want to put this together for the benefit of other writers, people who may be just starting out on their writing journey and have little idea of where to turn for advice – all forms of advice, from plotting and character construction through to the business end of the, er, business.

Why is this necessary? Well, I think we’d all have benefited from something like this when we first started out. Core reading material, stuff that quickly gets you up to speed.

Also, the rise – tsunami is more like – of expensive writing courses and seminars is somewhat dismaying. While you can certainly learn something from many of these offerings, (a) their significant costs and (b) drip-feeding / rationing of content are both concerning. If we’re writers, surely we believe in the power of the book – not in the power of the three-hour video seminar!(*)

Given the choice between Stephen King’s On Writing for £5.99 or some overblown seminar for twenty time the cost of King’s book… I know which I’d prefer.

So please help me put together a definitive reading list for writers – and remember, it’s your own personal views, thoughts and recommendations that I really want.


Your entries will be published in this thread, feel free to comment.

(*) I’ll be unleashing many more video seminars on a largely-unsuspecting world in the new year. Am I being a hypocrite? No. because they’re all included in your subscription here. And I enjoy doing them :)
 
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Username: Hannah F

Book Title Save the Cat Writes a Novel

Author Jessica Brody

Summary of the Book Great for understanding genre, theme, 3 act structure. Very well explained. Lots of examples of story beats from popular books. Even looks at pitches and loglines.

What You Learned From It I found the famous beat sheet really helpful in deciding when to do what in my novel. The biggest thing for me was understanding structure enough to keep those pages turning (hopefully).
 
Username: Josephine

Book Title The INFJ Writer

Author Lauren Sapala

Summary of the Book Writing (and living) advice for people whose brains don't work well with logic, plotting etc. Another perspective! (The letters refer to Myers-Briggs type personality indicators, which aren't flawless, but broadly if you tend to be led more by feelings and intuitive reasoning, this might work for you).

What You Learned From It I'd been getting super snarled up trying to follow advice that just didn't work for me in practice, even though I could see it made theoretical sense. This book gave me a bit of space to trust myself to learn my own process. I've still got a long way to go but I do a lot less bashing my head against a brick wall these days. Sharing it in case anyone else is in the same boat!
 
Vagabond Heart said:
Username: Vagabond Heart

Book Title Intuitive Editing

Author Tiffany Yates Martin

Summary of the Book Everything you could possibly need to know to get your manuscript to submission or self-publishing standards.

What You Learned From It This book is gold dust. Made me think objectively about everything I've been doing or hope to do.
Click to expand...
keep meaning to read this!
 
Username: Hannah F

Book Title Writing for Emotional Impact

Author Karl Iglesias (screenwriter)

Summary of the Book It delves into the psychology of the reader and techniques to create emotional scenes within your storytelling, including in dialogue.

What You Learned From It This author's way of teaching the craft really chimes with me. It's quite an expensive book but worth it in my opinion. For me, this book takes me into a layer above plot and structure.
 
Username: Mel L

Book Title The Memoir Project - A thoroughly non-standardized text for writing & life

Author Marion Roach-Smith

Summary of the Book Rational and literary at the same time, this slim tome is an extremely helpful exploration of how to turn life into memoir -- without boring the pants off the reader.

What You Learned From It A memoir is an illustration of a truth, a single facet of a life rather than a life story. Just because something happened doesn't make it interesting. Narrow the focus, find your voice and write in scenes until you have a vomit draft. Then the real work begins.
 
Username: Rich.

Book Title Techniques of the Selling Writer

Author Dwight V. Swain

Summary of the Book First published in 1965, Swain's book is a no-nonsense, broad-brush instruction manual for beginners that shows you how to construct a commercial story.

What You Learned From It The basic shape of commercial fiction (and how unchanging that shape has been for more than half a century). Every other writing manual I've ever read has felt like a retelling or offshoot of this book.
 
Username: JohnBertel

Book Title The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase

Author Mark Forsyth

Summary of the Book This is a book with a clear message (from the blurb): In an age unhealthily obsessed with the power of substance, this is a book that highlights the importance of style.
About thirty chapters each dedicated to a rhetorical figure. The book is a fun read and has plenty of examples from The Bible, Shakespeare and Tupac ( "Money don't make the man, but man I'm making money")
Who is it useful for? Those who think 'omit needless words' sound rather dull.

What You Learned From It To not be afraid of colourful language.
 
Username: Mel L

Book Title The Situation and the Story - The art of personal narrative

Author Vivian Gornick

Summary of the Book Every work of literature has both a situation and a story, and modern memoir is all about the self that we become through life experience. She deftly illustrates this rather lofty theory with specific examples of how personal narrative is memorably crafted by different writers.

What You Learned From It Memoir is not about you or your life. It is about finding the truth and making sense of life experience to deliver a story that will resonate with readers. A hugely helpful read for anyone planning a memoir.
 
Username: Rich.

Book Title War and Peace

Author Leo Tolstoy (translated by Anthony Briggs)

Summary of the Book Napoleon has a bad idea and the lives of three young people in St Petersburg are changed forever.

What You Learned From It What it means to be human.

I know that sounds hyperbolic, but everyone -- certainly every writer -- has a book that changed them, that pulled back the curtain to reveal life's grandeur, that showed them just what was possible with story. Well, this book did that for me, and it's my personal storytelling North Star.
 
Username: Robinne Weiss

Book Title Write the Fight Right

Author Alan Baxter

Summary of the Book Alan Baxter, a martial arts instructor and author, talks about what makes a good fight scene, and how to write rich scenes that are realistic and engaging for the reader. He discusses hand fighting in depth--techniques used, guarding and blocking, common injuries sustained in fighting, the consequences of a knockout. He explains how a smaller opponent must fight differently than a larger opponent. He discusses the sounds, smells, and yes, tastes of a fight. He discusses how the use of weapons affects the pace and outcome of a fight. Most importantly, he dives into the psychology of a fight--the effects of adrenaline, training, and experience on how people fight and how they react to a fight. All these details are explained in the context of how to convey the chaos and emotion of a fight on the page.

What You Learned From It I learned how to realistically give my characters challenging odds in fights. I also learned how to make a fight scene rich in detail without focusing on the blow-by-blow of a fight. Most importantly, I learned that the key to a fight is the emotional reactions of the characters--how the characters experience and emotionally process the fight is more important than the mechanics of the conflict itself. I also learned how to realistically address the aftermath of a fight--the broken hands, concussions, emotional turmoil--rather than have my characters bounce right back as though nothing happened.
 
Username: AnnieSummerlee

Book Title Story Genius

Author Lisa Cron

Summary of the Book It’s every novelist’s greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story has no sense of urgency, no internal logic, and so is a page one rewrite.

The prevailing wisdom in the writing community is that there are just two ways around this problem: pantsing (winging it) and plotting (focusing on the external plot). Story coach Lisa Cron has spent her career discovering why these methods don’t work and coming up with a powerful alternative, based on the science behind what our brains are wired to crave in every story we read (and it’s not what you think).

In Story Genius Cron takes you, step-by-step, through the creation of a novel from the first glimmer of an idea, to a complete multilayered blueprint—including fully realized scenes—that evolves into a first draft with the authority, richness, and command of a riveting sixth or seventh draft.

What You Learned From It It really changed the way I looked at (and write) character. It introduced me to the concept of the "misbelief" that all characters have about themselves/the world, which in turn influences all their choices and actions. It's a misbelief that they must overcome throughout the novel, and introducing this concept will ensure that character and plot are tightly knit and not two separate entities. I used this method while writing my latest novel and it made a huge difference.
 
Username: LJ Beck

Book Title Characters & Viewpoint

Author Orson Scott Card

Summary of the Book Techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. Spells out your narrative options in creating "real" fictional people. Distinguish among major characters, minor characters and walk-ons, and develop each appropriately. Choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling. Decide how deeply you should explore your characters' thoughts, emotions, and attitudes.

What You Learned From It This demystified POV for me when I first started writing prose. It also taught me how some of my all-time favorite characters were made, and why I loved them.
 
Username: LJ Beck

Book Title Truth

Author Susan Batson

Summary of the Book Public personas, needs, and tragic flaws - A step-by-step guide for creating truth in a character from an acting perspective.

What You Learned From It This one's a little off the beaten path... I was fascinated with method acting, and wanted to bring that to my writing. How to embody and write the truth of a character. This is one of the books I learned a lot from in that regard.
 
Username: LJ Beck

Book Title Wonderbook (The Illistrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction)

Author Jeff Vandermeer

Summary of the Book For genre lovers. Practical information on plotting, structure, characterization, dialogue, exposition, worldbuilding, and POV while packed with exquisite and imaginative visuals. This is a beautiful, wild, and crazy book with contributions from various well loved authors like Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, George R. R. Martin and others. Dense and rich and wonderful.

What You Learned From It It encouraged me to not just embrace my imagination, but to push it as far as it will possibly go.
 
Username: AliG

Book Title Into The Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them

Author John Yorke

Summary of the Book A structural guide to storytelling, plotting, punch, flow step by step

What You Learned From It Although such a step by step guide seems a bit proscriptive and in theory has the potential to limit the creative flow, I found that following the principles helped prevent a story from being a shapeless mass and made it take shape and form. A bit like a block of marble being turned into Michelangelo's David (although perhaps my results have been less classically terrific). Or a diving board: a structure from which to soar.
 
AliG said:
Username: AliG

Book Title Into The Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them

Author John Yorke

Summary of the Book A structural guide to storytelling, plotting, punch, flow step by step

What You Learned From It Although such a step by step guide seems a bit proscriptive and in theory has the potential to limit the creative flow, I found that following the principles helped prevent a story from being a shapeless mass and made it take shape and form. A bit like a block of marble being turned into Michelangelo's David (although perhaps my results have been less classically terrific). Or a diving board: a structure from which to soar.
Click to expand...
Not for the beginner, I would say. Very wordy. But very good once you have a grip of the basics.
 
Username: James Charles

Book Title On Writing

Author Stephen King

Summary of the Book Leave it to the literary rock star to compose a craft book that’s as entertaining as a good novel. “This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit,” King writes. What follows is a witty, practical, and sometimes poignant guide that is refreshingly devoid of the aforementioned BS. King relates his personal story of becoming a writer, then offers a “toolkit” of clear advice about everything from dialogue and descriptive passages to revisions and the head game. And there’s more: tips for beginning writers on submitting work for publication, a mark-up of one of King’s own manuscripts, and a reading list. You might not be awake at 3 a.m. turning these pages, but we promise On Writing will open your eyes to essential tricks of the trade.

What You Learned From It Just write a story readers will read.
 
Username: RK Wallis

Book Title It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences

Author June Casagrande

Summary of the Book Gets into the line level of sentences and what order you need to put words so you can help a reader follow what you put down on paper (or computer). From phrases, clauses, subordination, long v short sentences tense, tense, prepositional phrases, danglers and much more. Perfect for reacquainting yourself with the nuts and bolts of grammar.

What You Learned From It I learnt how to consider what order words need to be in, and how writing them out of order confuses the reader. Now every sentence I construct considers the reader first.
 
Username: Dan Payne

Book Title Developing a Written Voice

Author Dona J Hickey

Summary of the Book This dense work focuses on a directed attitude towards developing Voice. From conversational to formal, snarky to respectful, it's all about word choice and the way that language will both sound and convey meaning. The same words with the same meaning can nevertheless be ordered in different ways with a difference in the way they are perceived, the it is this that comprises 'voice'. Replete with concrete examples and pertinent exercises, this book is hard to find but well worth the search.

What You Learned From It All writers have a voice, but not all work at developing it - or even possess a framework for it. This book provides a framework and it's a book I will continue working through for years to come.
 
Username: Dan Payne

Book Title The Art of Fiction

Author John Gardner

Summary of the Book This is a self-proclaimed book of basics, but Gardner is clearly elitist; this work is aimed at writers aspiring to create art. It covers plot, character, sentence structure, poetic rhythm - all the mechanics of writing fiction - but he's less interested in dictating laws of good writing. "Every true work of art," Gardner claims, "must be judged primarily by its own laws." His primary interest is about how to create a vivid dream to absorb the reader to the end of the story.

What You Learned From It This book is disorganised, but full of important lessons. There is no story until there is a plot capable of expressing it. The primary requirement of a piece of fiction is verisimilitude - that the reader can believe these events happened, or could have happened, or might happen in a slightly different world. And verisimilitude requires vivid detail. Most importantly it taught me to focus less on the technical details of correct writing and more on making the writing vivid and absorbing.
 
Username: Pamela Jo

Book Title Secrets of Story

Author Matt Bird

Summary of the Book And award winning screenwriters view of journeyman writing. How to hone in on and hone your story.

What You Learned From It Imagine your reader being on a long plane ride. Then imagine you are their seat mate. Are you the engaging stranger who entertains them with your sparkling wit and fascinating adventures? Do they want to take your name and keep in touch thereafter? Or are you the boring Uncle from Derry Girls that makes them consider opening the plane door and shoving you out?
 
Username: Trey

Book Title Hooked

Author Les Edgerton

Summary of the Book The focus is on great openings and keeping the reader hooked including advice on this from agents and acquiring editors.

What You Learned From It Lots about inciting incidents; balancing backstory in the set up; keeping readers going from one chapter to the next.
 
Username: Trey

Book Title Becoming Superman

Author J Michael Straczynski

Summary of the Book An astonishing bio of an accomplished (mainly) screenwriter.

What You Learned From It Never to feel sorry for myself. To keep doing it and never give up. To learn, learn, learn. A fantastic psychology of writing book that every writer serious about making it would benefit from imo.
 
Username: Jeanette

Book Title Write Great Beginnings

Author Sandra Gerth

Summary of the Book Defines "a beginning" and lists do's and don'ts together with pointers on how to achieve the first and avoid the second. Offers exercises based either on an ongoing manuscript or a published work.

What You Learned From It This is a comprehensive and clear overview written in simple terms. The points it makes are self-contained so you can zoom directly to whatever concern you have about the beginning of your work.
 
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Peyton Stafford

Event The Authors Guild is offering a training for writers looking at selling movie rights to a story

  • Peyton Stafford
  • Replies: 0
Rachael Burnett

Sweet Cherry Publishing Looking for New Authors

  • Rachael Burnett
  • Replies: 11
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