Writing books - Writers Forum

jlcjrbal · 12-23-2006, 11:15 PM

Are there any books about the craft of writing that you have read that gave you the direction you were looking for... J

mammamaia · 12-24-2006, 12:16 PM

absolutely not!... i learned to write by constant reading of the writings of the best writers since time began, from my earliest childhood on... imo, if you have an innate talent for using words, you don't need any how-tos...

Fantasy of You · 12-24-2006, 01:09 PM

As heroic as m sounds, try Steven King's 'On Writing'. As he'll tell you, bad writers will always be bad writers, but okay writer's can be made good. It won't make you great, but it'll help you improve, which is what you want to do.

Rob · 12-24-2006, 01:54 PM

The ones that I've found most useful have been:

Sol Stein's Solutions for Writers
James N Frey's How to Write Damn Good Fiction
and Jeremy Hawthorn's Studying the Novel

Cheers,
Omni

Cynic · 12-24-2006, 03:27 PM

I'll second the nomination of King's On Writing. I also found Lawrence Block's From Plot to Print useful. The Stephen King book can be kind of a bummer because if you're having any self doubts, he'll kindly hand you your aspirations and push you out the window. He's not unfair or even wrong, necessarily, though I think his personal notion of "if you aren't doing it all the time you shouldn't be doing it at all" is a little more skewed than he thinks it is.

Raging_Hopeful · 12-24-2006, 03:43 PM

*laughs* That was a great explanation of Stephen's book Cynic.

jlcjrbal · 12-26-2006, 04:58 AM

Great... Thanks for all the great reply's . I have actually been reading S. Kings book here and there ( It's the book I grab when my kids and I go to the book shop, I have been reading it while they are playing in the kids section). It is pretty funny and a great read.. J

torn · 12-26-2006, 11:55 AM

i have a book called the 38 most common fiction writing mistakes by jack m. bickham, it is short but gets points across that you would normally not notice. I have not read stephen king's on writing yet but i always look to the dark tower series to remember what he did to keep certain things exciting, how characters ave developed etc. Noy copying but being inspired by his technicalities.

dwellerofthedeep · 12-26-2006, 01:00 PM

Elements of Writing is a series by some of the best. I've only read the book on characters by Orson Scott Card but I loved it in a sort of "great textbook" way, very useful.

Mike C · 12-27-2006, 06:27 AM

The best message of any 'how-to' is King's - If you're not a good writer right now, you never, ever will be. With the right training you might advance from abysmal to poor, but bad will never become good and good will never be great.

As Maia says, if you have a talent for words, you don't need the books.

torn · 12-27-2006, 07:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike C

The best message of any 'how-to' is King's - If you're not a good writer right now, you never, ever will be. With the right training you might advance from abysmal to poor, but bad will never become good and good will never be great.

As Maia says, if you have a talent for words, you don't need the books.

I dont agree with this at all.Writing is an art and as with all arts they are all also crafts, and crafts can be taught and learnt. Of course you can be the best technical writers in the world puttings lots of excitement and emotion into your writing but if you have no imagination, which is something you cant learn the you wont go anywhere far (unless you write articles about fly fishing).

None of us were born with the ability to write at all, we had to learn it. Anyone who thiks they can be good at something without practice is just fooling themselves.

The man who doesnt work on his talents loses them, and those who dont listen to good advice (which is what these books are, just advice) uually end up failing.

mammamaia · 12-27-2006, 11:58 AM

Quote:

If you're not a good writer right now, you never, ever will be.

i definitely can't agree with that part of what mike had to say... one can have the innate talent for being able to use words effectively, but until one sits down and tries it and then practices till 'perfect' is made, the potential is still there, even if not yet realized...

and, as i don't consider king a good writer [other than re 'the stand' which i can't believe he wrote], i wouldn't recommend following his advice on writing...

M. L. Doyle · 12-27-2006, 05:18 PM

Story telling is a craft. Figuring out the right places to draw the story out, learning what things will make people gasp, feeling what makes a character right are all things that, over time, you learn.

We all did it, right? We told stories at the dinner table. We told stories in the locker room. What was believable, what would keep your audience listening, what was the best way to structure it so everyone would stay focused...we learned how to do those things and some people were just better at it then others.

Writing it all down is a craft as well but actually DOING it is a discipline!

I don’t agree with King that you have to work it like a track star…daily workouts, constant pounding at the keyboards…

But a novel ain’t gonna get written unless someone writes it and not everyone has the stamina to do that.

jlcjrbal · 12-27-2006, 11:38 PM

My biggest issue was not being prepared when an idea came to light, I asked strangers for something to write on. I think it is important to keep yourself disciplined and focused on your projects. I have been going pretty good with an idea but it seems to be jumping around instead of going in the order it should be doing. I have been using Word and it seems that I am writing more on the background of characters just to make sure I always feel that they belong to the story instead of the story controlling them ( if that makes since) SO this is where I think it is good to get some technical ideas on the way different authors keep it together. Joseph

Mike C · 12-28-2006, 04:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by torn

Of course you can be the best technical writers in the world puttings lots of excitement and emotion into your writing but if you have no imagination, which is something you cant learn the you wont go anywhere far

So effectively you're agreeing with me. Of course the CRAFT can be taught. People can be taught grammar like monkeys can be taught to use a hammer, but that doesn't guarantee the person will ever write with wit or imagination any more than it guarantees that a monkey can be a carpenter.

Do you seriously think that what Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Voltaire at al had can be taught?

Look at it another way - if an artist shows you how to hold a brush, could you paint like Da Vinci?

Writers don't write well because they were taught that way. They write well because their brains are wired differently, just like any other artist.