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

  • Peyton Stafford
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Rachael Burnett

Sweet Cherry Publishing Looking for New Authors

  • Rachael Burnett
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Username: MattScho

Book Title The Things They Carried

Author Tim O'Brien

Summary of the Book a series of essays and short stories on the nature of story

What You Learned From It It does a great job of explaining the nature of truth in story. there's a great section which notes that the factually correct war story is not the really true one,
 
Username: Josephine

Book Title Bird by Bird

Author Anne Lamott

Summary of the Book Down to earth advice, not so much about the craft per se as the practice (and pitfalls) of "being a writer".

What You Learned From It I'm actually still reading it, but so far I've got lots of encouragement from it. Her style is super informal and she has a wonderful dry wit, it's like a brilliant chat in the pub with someone who really knows their shit and you go away thinking, "yeah, I really can do this..."
 
Username: tmartini

Book Title What's Eating Gilbert Grape

Author Peter Hedges

Summary of the Book This is a coming-of-age fiction book about a 24-year-old boy who feels stuck in his small town taking care of his overweight mother and special needs brother, while it feels like his other siblings and friends have moved on outside.

What You Learned From It I really learned alot about voice and character from reading this book. Gilbert Grape is an incredibly flawed character and can be pretty cruel at times, but I loved him. He emotes in ways that feel unconventional to a reader/are far from cliche. Rather than crying when he's sad, he takes it out through acting out at work or little internal jabs at other people. His relationship with his mother and siblings is fascinating to read, because he never says exactly how he feels about them, but his attitude changes throughout the book. Its just a really subtle way to draw a reader in and attach them to a character, even if he can be a jerk.
 
Username: Pamela Jo

Book Title If You Want to Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit

Author Brenda Ueland

Summary of the Book This is more about inspiration than practical advice. Chicken Soup for the writer's soul.
"In her ninety-three remarkable years, Brenda Ueland published six million words. She said she had two rules she followed absolutely: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. Carl Sandburg called this book "the best book ever written about how to write." Yet Ueland reminds us that "whenever I say ‘writing' in this book, I also mean anything that you love and want to do or make."

What You Learned From It I learned: that writer's souls need feeding; that Polonius was right; that you never know when your "uncommercial" story might actually speak to readers.
 
Username: CarolMS

Book Title Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore

Author Elizabeth Lyon

Summary of the Book Presents in a highly readable, organized way all of the elements of a novel, from the significance of genre and common to lesser-known structures to all the aspects of a writers' craft. Briefly and with amazing clarity, describes potential problems which might arise from each, then follows with suggestions for how to "fix" them. Chapters are organized around particular craft elements and issues, so readers can choose which parts of the book to focus on relative to their personal writing needs. Review checklists of problems and their solutions are included at the end of each chapter.

What You Learned From It I have now read easily a dozen books on how to write a novel, plus several on revision, and while I've taken away something of value from each, not one of them has given me the breadth of awareness and practical understanding of craft elements, from A to Z and beyond, that this jam-packed, wisely conceived and clearly presented book has given me. It's not prescriptive, nor does it follow the latest trends in fiction writing. Ms Lyons doesn't think she has 'the' answer or make suggestions that make a writer feel like a square peg being forced into a round hole, but rather shows writers how to consider each issue in light of their own writing style, voice and vision for their novel. Check out the Amazon reviews; I'm not the only one who loves this book. It's a keeper! And one to be used over and over.
 
Someone else suggested The Writer's Journey and I think it's a shame it wasn't included in the finale list.

The Hero's Journey has gotten an undeserved reputation through YouTube and elsewhere to be a paint-by-number template and I think some would find it helpful to actually read Vogler. He repeatedly says how you should use the principles 'according to the story's need' and not shape your story to make it fit the "monomyth."
 
JohnBertel said:
Someone else suggested The Writer's Journey and I think it's a shame it wasn't included in the finale list.

The Hero's Journey has gotten an undeserved reputation through YouTube and elsewhere to be a paint-by-number template and I think some would find it helpful to actually read Vogler. He repeatedly says how you should use the principles 'according to the story's need' and not shape your story to make it fit the "monomyth."
Click to expand...
Add it, John, pls.
 
JohnBertel said:
Someone else suggested The Writer's Journey and I think it's a shame it wasn't included in the finale list.

The Hero's Journey has gotten an undeserved reputation through YouTube and elsewhere to be a paint-by-number template and I think some would find it helpful to actually read Vogler. He repeatedly says how you should use the principles 'according to the story's need' and not shape your story to make it fit the "monomyth."
Click to expand...

AgentPete said:
Add it, John, pls.
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It's here, Pete, listed right after The Hero With A Thousand Faces. The idea being that the two books function as a pair – Vogler is based on, and compliments, Campbell.
 
Rich. said:
It's here, Pete, listed right after The Hero With A Thousand Faces. The idea being that the two books function as a pair – Vogler is based on, and compliments, Campbell.
Click to expand...
Of course it, is, thx Rich.

I've set the books to display in random order each time the page is accessed (try refreshing) which means the two you entered don’t hang together, Will link one to the other.
 
Rich. said:
Username: Rich.

Book Title The Hero With A Thousand Faces

Author Joseph Campbell

Summary of the Book First published in 1949, this dense, sometimes impenetrable, and somewhat controversial book on comparative mythology takes a tour through world folklore to tease out common themes and archetypes.

What You Learned From It What George Lucas was thinking when he wrote Star Wars. If you want to understand Hollywood's obsession with this mode of storytelling, you should read this book. If you've heard other writers talk/evangelize/fret about the "Hero's Journey" and you're not exactly sure what they're talking about, you should read this book. If you have even the most passing interest in commercial Western storytelling, you should read this book.
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Just to add, if you have an interest in how myth affects our story telling. Or maybe you just want to watch Netflix.
 
Peyton Stafford said:
Just to add, if you have an interest in how myth affects our story telling.
Click to expand...
But that's precisely the controversial bit, isn't it? Many historians and folklorists have accused Campbell of being a pseudo academic, of cherry picking to support an a priori thesis.

Campbell's work has certainly informed a particular mode of Western storytelling, but whether or not he should be taken seriously as a scholar of world myth is debatable.
 
I actually used to get submissions from folk, when Vogler was at his peak, that would painstakingly break down their synopsis for me, section by section, to show how it conformed, e.g. “in this part, the protagonist manifests the Refusal of the Call…”

It was quaint.
 
Username: Bloo✒️

Book Title Kindred

Author Octavia Butler

Summary of the Book "Kindred" was first published in 1979. It is a work of fiction written in close first person PoV. Many readers classify the novel as “Science Fiction” or “Speculative Sci-Fi”. However, the author herself called it “a kind of grim fantasy.”

The story begins in 1976. Dana is a 26-year-old black woman who lives with her husband in Los Angeles. They are both writers. One day, Dana gets dizzy and vanishes from their apartment right in front of her husband.

She immediately reappears on a plantation in early 19th-century Maryland. Dana saves a boy named Rufus from drowning. Despite her heroism, she is not safe in this time or place. She vanishes and reappears in the apartment back in 1976.

Dana had been in the past about five minutes. Yet from her husband’s perspective, she was gone only a few seconds.

Dana will be pulled into the life of Rufus again and again. Each visit is longer and than the last - and more dangerous. She can’t control the time travel, but there appears to be a reason behind it. Her life may depend on finding out what that is.

What You Learned From It Pithy writing has power. Take a look at the first paragraph…

“I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.”

We don’t know why Dana lost her left arm - or where she was when it happened. However, most of us would keep on reading to find out.

The minimalist approach doesn’t end with the hook. Throughout the novel, the writing is direct and matter-of-fact. There’s no purple prose to distract the reader.

Butler's worldbuilding is likewise utilitarian. She sets the stage with everything we need to know, and little else. If something more is needed to move a scene forward, she’ll drop it in later so readers aren't overwhelmed.

There is brutality in this world, and “Kindred” doesn’t shy away from it. Slavery in the US was a cruel business. Still, she conveys the humiliation and suffering of human bondage with an economy of words. There’s no need for intricate detail.

There’s also no need to explain why slavery is wrong. Butler trusts her readers enough not to lecture them.

The author falls into a common conceit of the era - chapter titles. However, she doesn’t abuse that conceit. Each title is short and to the point with neither wit nor irony. There are no spoilers, either. The meanings are clear upon finishing a respective chapter.

"Kindred" has both a prologue and an epilogue. Few books need one, and even fewer need both. However, this story demands both. There is nothing extraneous about their inclusion here. Unlike many novels, neither feels bolted on to the main narrative. The prologue hooks the reader while the epilogue provides the necessary denouement.

Not everyone agrees Kindred is Science Fiction. If it’s not, there's a lot here for a lot of Sci-Fi readers (including myself) to like. If it is Science Fiction, the characters and dialogue are much more realistic than most contemporary works.

Everything a writer needs to know about sparse and impactful prose can be found in "Kindred". Despite being written 45 years ago, it feels like a modern work. It’s at once Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Speculative, and even Literary.

Most importantly - this book remains relevant to readers and authors alike.
 
Username: LA Thomas

Book Title Show don’t tell

Author Sandra Gerth

Summary of the Book How to write vivid descriptions, handle backstory, and describe your characters’ emotions

What You Learned From It The basics of show don’t tell. An essential lesson when I first started writing my debut.
 
Username: LA Thomas

Book Title The Emotion Thesaurus

Author Becca Puglisi and Angela Ackerman

Summary of the Book A writers guide to characters emotions, including internal and external feelings and physical responses, including long term responses and when they’re being repressed.

What You Learned From It I’m terrible with emotions, because I have a cold, cold heart. This is so useful to me. It helps me show rather than tell when writing emotions, by providing a whole list of body language with every emotion, but also helps me feet inside a characters head a bit more. There is a whole series of these, but I haven’t read others yet.
 
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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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