We know that many writers will have other worthy contenders on their lists. These are ours, in reverse order, and even though a few of the authors are indeed irritating, they're still worthwhile.
10) Stein on Writing by Sol Stein
The value of this work is debatable. Sol rather drips with narcissism, but if you can sidestep the puddles he forms in your neocortex, you'll get a few gems from this. Buy it for plot points, then leap the mire of his ego as every other sentence seems to focus on something brilliant Sol Stein has published or written himself, or what an f'n genius his students believed him to be. Can you imagine the grade you'd get if you weren't kissing his butt? But again, this is a worthwhile read, easy to understand and utilize. Just say to yourself, I will not be nauseated by Stein's massive, unbearable ego, I will persevere, and I will grow as a writer!
9) Plot Perfect by Paula Munier
One of the best books on structuring plot, regardless of genre. Packed with examples, checklists, and exercises, this book explains in plain English how to outline your novel to ensure your plot zings, you've built in layers of subplot, and your theme is expertly woven. Plot Perfect covers all aspects of writing fiction, albeit at a high level. It contains the building blocks necessary to create a plot that works with developed characters that reflect your story's theme.
8) Scene and Structure by Jack M. Bickham
Love this book! Jack is practical and effective. For example, he describes a classic structure of "scenes" with external action, followed by a "sequel" composed of character interior monologue (e.g., conflicting thought, emotional reactions and decisions) that leads to more external action in turn. How the writer manages the order affects the pace. A series of action scenes wherein your character responds to new complications quickens pace, while back-to-back internalizations slow it down. While some of his story tactics can be overused, they don't hurt serious literary work. If there's a theme that transcends mere entertainment, why not get utilize intensity and dramatic action to push the reader there?
7) The Writing Life by Ann Dillard
If you're a genre writer, you could be offended by what you perceive to be Ann's snobbery. And quite frankly, you would be right. Ann talks about the value of the reader realizing the labor an author must endure. She questions the relevance of that knowledge and prefers a place without distraction. Well, what of it? A room without a view is preferable. She does not have basic heat or cooling requirements. She will endure (as long as no one mentions the author of a famous commercial bestseller in her presence). Ann finds a room over someone's garage or a wooden shed without windows just perfect. No distractions. And perhaps there is too much of this? Too much rambling from shed to shed, too much distracting prose that makes the book stumble now and then like an old academic coot spitting on successful commercial writers. Still, for literary writers, it is a worthwhile read.
6) How to Write Best Selling Fiction by Dean Koontz
Koontz takes a practical, detailed approach to the art, craft, and business of novel writing. You'll learn how to structure a story for greatest reader appeal, how to provide depth of characterization without slowing the pace, and how to recognize and use the sort of theme that is timely and appealing. Plus you'll receive thorough instruction on other writing techniques as they apply to today's novel, including background, viewpoint, scene setting, transitions, and dialogue. On the business side, Koontz gives an insider's view of how to deal profitably with editors and agents, advice on contracts, and tips on paperback and book club sales, foreign rights, and film rights. Critics note, however, that "pretty much all of his actual advice here has been said better and more entertainingly by others in the years since this book came out."
5) Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Browne and King
Renni Browne and Dave King are two of the country's best-known independent editors. In their years as president and senior editor of The Editorial Department, they have edited the work of many writers - including bestselling authors - before the manuscripts went out to agents or publishers. Over half the manuscripts worked on to completion eventually got published, and over half that number were first novels. In this book Browne and King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own manuscript, in order to bring your manuscript to its fullest potential.
4) Story by Robert Mckee
When you read McKee's in-depth analysis of story structure, you feel as though every other fiction writing author has cribbed from it. Most of his ideas are applicable to novels, not just screenplays. It will help you craft a much better novel if you pay attention, as well as write a compelling character-driven story. The book will often surprise you with clarity and insight. The importance of the inciting incident, for example, the early point in the story where the protagonist is first steered towards the second act of the film. Read it all. Read it twice. And though McKee is an ego, you won't drown in a puddle of bubbling hot narcissism like you will with Sol Stein.
3) Art of Fiction Writing by John Gardner
John Gardner was perhaps as well known (if not more so) for his instruction on writing as for his own fictional works, and his Art of Fiction: Notes on the Craft for Young Writers compiles the fullness of his teachings on what makes a great writer great. There is, on the whole, a lot to take away from Gardner’s book, but there’s also a lot to work through. The attitude of Gardner’s narrative often tends toward the stereotypical elitism of the highly-educated “serious writer” (to use his term, at other times referred to as a “true writer”), and as a result readers might be at risk of missing some of Gardner’s most crucial lessons under the weight of all his posturing. Nevertheless, it is vital!
2) Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
This one made the list because its short and simple chapters, aimed mostly at beginning writers, speak truth. From "Beginner’s Mind" to "Rereading and Rewriting," each pithy and instructive section reminds us what we already know. We read Natalie Goldberg and, no matter where we are on our respective writing journeys, we learn.
And, drum roll please…..
1) From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler
In Mr. Butler's own words: "In the nearly two decades I’ve been teaching this subject, I have read many thousands of manuscripts from aspiring writers, and virtually all of them—virtually all of them—fail to show an intuitive command of the essentials of the process of fictional art. Because of the creative writing pedagogy in this country, and because of the nature of this art form, and because of the medium you work with, and because of the rigors of artistic vision, and because of youth, and because no one has ever told you these things clearly, the great likelihood is that all of the fiction you’ve written is mortally flawed in terms of the essentials of process."
______________
The value of this work is debatable. Sol rather drips with narcissism, but if you can sidestep the puddles he forms in your neocortex, you'll get a few gems from this. Buy it for plot points, then leap the mire of his ego as every other sentence seems to focus on something brilliant Sol Stein has published or written himself, or what an f'n genius his students believed him to be. Can you imagine the grade you'd get if you weren't kissing his butt? But again, this is a worthwhile read, easy to understand and utilize. Just say to yourself, I will not be nauseated by Stein's massive, unbearable ego, I will persevere, and I will grow as a writer!
9) Plot Perfect by Paula Munier
One of the best books on structuring plot, regardless of genre. Packed with examples, checklists, and exercises, this book explains in plain English how to outline your novel to ensure your plot zings, you've built in layers of subplot, and your theme is expertly woven. Plot Perfect covers all aspects of writing fiction, albeit at a high level. It contains the building blocks necessary to create a plot that works with developed characters that reflect your story's theme.
8) Scene and Structure by Jack M. Bickham
Love this book! Jack is practical and effective. For example, he describes a classic structure of "scenes" with external action, followed by a "sequel" composed of character interior monologue (e.g., conflicting thought, emotional reactions and decisions) that leads to more external action in turn. How the writer manages the order affects the pace. A series of action scenes wherein your character responds to new complications quickens pace, while back-to-back internalizations slow it down. While some of his story tactics can be overused, they don't hurt serious literary work. If there's a theme that transcends mere entertainment, why not get utilize intensity and dramatic action to push the reader there?
7) The Writing Life by Ann Dillard
If you're a genre writer, you could be offended by what you perceive to be Ann's snobbery. And quite frankly, you would be right. Ann talks about the value of the reader realizing the labor an author must endure. She questions the relevance of that knowledge and prefers a place without distraction. Well, what of it? A room without a view is preferable. She does not have basic heat or cooling requirements. She will endure (as long as no one mentions the author of a famous commercial bestseller in her presence). Ann finds a room over someone's garage or a wooden shed without windows just perfect. No distractions. And perhaps there is too much of this? Too much rambling from shed to shed, too much distracting prose that makes the book stumble now and then like an old academic coot spitting on successful commercial writers. Still, for literary writers, it is a worthwhile read.
Koontz takes a practical, detailed approach to the art, craft, and business of novel writing. You'll learn how to structure a story for greatest reader appeal, how to provide depth of characterization without slowing the pace, and how to recognize and use the sort of theme that is timely and appealing. Plus you'll receive thorough instruction on other writing techniques as they apply to today's novel, including background, viewpoint, scene setting, transitions, and dialogue. On the business side, Koontz gives an insider's view of how to deal profitably with editors and agents, advice on contracts, and tips on paperback and book club sales, foreign rights, and film rights. Critics note, however, that "pretty much all of his actual advice here has been said better and more entertainingly by others in the years since this book came out."
5) Self-Editing For Fiction Writers by Browne and King
Renni Browne and Dave King are two of the country's best-known independent editors. In their years as president and senior editor of The Editorial Department, they have edited the work of many writers - including bestselling authors - before the manuscripts went out to agents or publishers. Over half the manuscripts worked on to completion eventually got published, and over half that number were first novels. In this book Browne and King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own manuscript, in order to bring your manuscript to its fullest potential.
4) Story by Robert Mckee
When you read McKee's in-depth analysis of story structure, you feel as though every other fiction writing author has cribbed from it. Most of his ideas are applicable to novels, not just screenplays. It will help you craft a much better novel if you pay attention, as well as write a compelling character-driven story. The book will often surprise you with clarity and insight. The importance of the inciting incident, for example, the early point in the story where the protagonist is first steered towards the second act of the film. Read it all. Read it twice. And though McKee is an ego, you won't drown in a puddle of bubbling hot narcissism like you will with Sol Stein.
3) Art of Fiction Writing by John Gardner
John Gardner was perhaps as well known (if not more so) for his instruction on writing as for his own fictional works, and his Art of Fiction: Notes on the Craft for Young Writers compiles the fullness of his teachings on what makes a great writer great. There is, on the whole, a lot to take away from Gardner’s book, but there’s also a lot to work through. The attitude of Gardner’s narrative often tends toward the stereotypical elitism of the highly-educated “serious writer” (to use his term, at other times referred to as a “true writer”), and as a result readers might be at risk of missing some of Gardner’s most crucial lessons under the weight of all his posturing. Nevertheless, it is vital!
2) Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
This one made the list because its short and simple chapters, aimed mostly at beginning writers, speak truth. From "Beginner’s Mind" to "Rereading and Rewriting," each pithy and instructive section reminds us what we already know. We read Natalie Goldberg and, no matter where we are on our respective writing journeys, we learn.
And, drum roll please…..
1) From Where You Dream by Robert Olen Butler
In Mr. Butler's own words: "In the nearly two decades I’ve been teaching this subject, I have read many thousands of manuscripts from aspiring writers, and virtually all of them—virtually all of them—fail to show an intuitive command of the essentials of the process of fictional art. Because of the creative writing pedagogy in this country, and because of the nature of this art form, and because of the medium you work with, and because of the rigors of artistic vision, and because of youth, and because no one has ever told you these things clearly, the great likelihood is that all of the fiction you’ve written is mortally flawed in terms of the essentials of process."
______________
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