Hello friends! Today I am going to talk about books about writing. These are the books that give advice from published authors on how to write your own books. I haven’t read a whole lot of them but there are a few that I enjoy. So I’m going to write you a list of the ones that I have read. Feel free to tell me if there are any that you know of that I have missed. Maybe I’ll go read them!
Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine
Gail Carson Levine wrote the books Ella Enchanted, Fairest and others. When I was younger I read this book and loved it! I wrote down quotes and wished that I had a copy of it when I first read it. I don’t remember a whole ton about what it said except that the character example she kept using was a blind main character. Because of this I wrote a book where my main character was blind. Ha-ha. Inspiration is everywhere.
The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes by Jack M. Bickham
I first heard about this book at a writers conference. I was in a workshop lead by author Julie Wright. She was explaining some of the most common writing mistakes she had made while writing her first draft of her first novel and held up this book explaining that it was one of the most useful books she’d ever owned. I thought it was interesting but didn’t want to put forth the effort to buy it. Later during that conference I won it in a drawing. I have since read this book roughly 10 times and After the 5th time I ran out of different colors to highlight it in. It is dogeared, post it noted and highlighted to death the poor thing. Each time I read it I find a new fiction writing mistake that I hadn’t done before that I had begun to use in a new novel. Some of my favorite chapters are:
Don’t warm up your engines, Don’t lecture your reader, Don’t let them(your characters) be windbags, and finally, don’t be afraid to say ‘said’.
I really like this book as a good example of a book that teaches you how to write.
The Elements of Writing series by Various Authors.
This isn’t one book. It’s a whole series of books written by all sorts of authors. There’s Description, Point of View, Scene and Structure, Voice, and many others. I own copies of Scene and Structure and Setting. I would like to own a couple of the others but should probably finish reading the two I own first. (teehee).
Writing blogs like this one
One of the most perfect forms of writing advice is authors or aspiring authors (like myself) giving their own advice on how to write. Some of my favorite bits of writing advice have come from writing blogs such as this one. They are some of my favorite things to read in my spare time. Its one of the reasons I decided to start writing one. I think everyone who wants to be a writer should have a writing blog or at least read one. They are a good source of inspiration and are also good for getting creative juices flowing.
That’s all I have for books that teach people how to write. I know the last one technically wasn’t a book but it is a good source of help when you need it. I would love to hear about any others that you have read! I would love to read some of them!
Next week I’m going to be writing about Reading to Write which will lead into the topic 2 weeks from now about favorite books and reasons why. I will need replies from all of you of your favorite books and reasons why. Don’t be afraid to send me a reply. I can’t write a whole lot on that blog post if I don’t get a few responses! I hope that you have a good time writing and I leave you with the writer blessing. See you next week!