I read a few books this summer on the craft of novel writing. I guess I was anticipating my mini writing retreat in Palm Springs and wanted to be prepared to make some headway.
Here are the books and a short summary of each. If you're a writer or aspiring writer, you might find some of these very useful.
At the top of my list is The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, a veteran literary agent, creative writing instructor, conference speaker, etc. You name it and he’s done it. This is an excellent book if you really want to get the attention of an agent or editor. In short, it provides amazing insight as to why a book works or doesn’t work. He pulls key paragraphs out of several books and explains why the writing is memorable. He also wrote The Breakout Novel and the Breakout Novel Workbook. I have both, but The Fire in Fiction gets to the heart and soul of great writing. All aspiring novelists should get this book because it will definitely help elevate their writing to the next level. (I almost destroyed his book in reading it—it was that good!)
Break Into Fiction by Mary Buckham and Dianna Love (both are award-winning novelists) is another must-have book. Follow this method and you can’t lose! Instead of books, however, they use popular movies as examples like The Bourne Identity, Pretty Woman, and Finding Nemo. There are others, but these stand out in my mind. This book has templates for each main element in fiction writing. Just answer the questions in the templates, learn from the examples, and voilà, you have the beginnings of a novel!
The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, screenwriter extraordinaire and a story consultant for the film industry, is another one. This one really helped me work through my plot points and character motivations for The Last Conquistador, my novel in progress. I have to confess, however, that I only got to page 107 (it’s 420 pages total). The first few chapters were so powerful, I could only digest a few pages at a time. It really poked, prodded, and made me think—really think--about my story. I would alternately read, then write, then read some more. This was the only book I took with me to Palm Springs. My suggestion: If you are having trouble with your story, read this book. But be forewarned, it is not an easy read. It covers a lot of ground and must be digested before moving from one chapter to the next.
One of these days I will write a mystery. It seems that my good friend and fellow writer, Patricia Canterbury, has a lot of fun with these. (She’s published a lot of children’s books but recently published Every Thursday, one of her Nancy Noire mysteries). In writing my current novel, I needed a resource book that could help me with ONE scene (I know, I know… I could have gone to the library, but it may come in handy later!) It’s called Police Procedure and Investigation by Lee Lofland, a former police detective with over 20 years of service. It discusses just about everything: Police academy, arrest, warrants, homicide (and a bunch of other crimes), crime scene investigation, evidence, DNA, the court system, jails and prisons, and even the codes police officers use when speaking to each other. This is just one in a series of resource books for writers. I have one other, Book of Poisons, by Stevens and Bannon. I read that one just for curiosity.
Yesterday I bought another book that looks very promising. I was a little low on cash at the time, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t find it again. Novel Shortcuts, by Laura Whitcomb, another award-winning novelist, is well organized, easy to read, and discusses a number of things: Scene construction, dialog, emotion, plot and plot webs, and so on. I’ll weigh in on it after I finish reading it.
At the top of my list is The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass, a veteran literary agent, creative writing instructor, conference speaker, etc. You name it and he’s done it. This is an excellent book if you really want to get the attention of an agent or editor. In short, it provides amazing insight as to why a book works or doesn’t work. He pulls key paragraphs out of several books and explains why the writing is memorable. He also wrote The Breakout Novel and the Breakout Novel Workbook. I have both, but The Fire in Fiction gets to the heart and soul of great writing. All aspiring novelists should get this book because it will definitely help elevate their writing to the next level. (I almost destroyed his book in reading it—it was that good!)
Break Into Fiction by Mary Buckham and Dianna Love (both are award-winning novelists) is another must-have book. Follow this method and you can’t lose! Instead of books, however, they use popular movies as examples like The Bourne Identity, Pretty Woman, and Finding Nemo. There are others, but these stand out in my mind. This book has templates for each main element in fiction writing. Just answer the questions in the templates, learn from the examples, and voilà, you have the beginnings of a novel!
The Anatomy of Story by John Truby, screenwriter extraordinaire and a story consultant for the film industry, is another one. This one really helped me work through my plot points and character motivations for The Last Conquistador, my novel in progress. I have to confess, however, that I only got to page 107 (it’s 420 pages total). The first few chapters were so powerful, I could only digest a few pages at a time. It really poked, prodded, and made me think—really think--about my story. I would alternately read, then write, then read some more. This was the only book I took with me to Palm Springs. My suggestion: If you are having trouble with your story, read this book. But be forewarned, it is not an easy read. It covers a lot of ground and must be digested before moving from one chapter to the next.
One of these days I will write a mystery. It seems that my good friend and fellow writer, Patricia Canterbury, has a lot of fun with these. (She’s published a lot of children’s books but recently published Every Thursday, one of her Nancy Noire mysteries). In writing my current novel, I needed a resource book that could help me with ONE scene (I know, I know… I could have gone to the library, but it may come in handy later!) It’s called Police Procedure and Investigation by Lee Lofland, a former police detective with over 20 years of service. It discusses just about everything: Police academy, arrest, warrants, homicide (and a bunch of other crimes), crime scene investigation, evidence, DNA, the court system, jails and prisons, and even the codes police officers use when speaking to each other. This is just one in a series of resource books for writers. I have one other, Book of Poisons, by Stevens and Bannon. I read that one just for curiosity.
Yesterday I bought another book that looks very promising. I was a little low on cash at the time, but I was afraid that I wouldn’t find it again. Novel Shortcuts, by Laura Whitcomb, another award-winning novelist, is well organized, easy to read, and discusses a number of things: Scene construction, dialog, emotion, plot and plot webs, and so on. I’ll weigh in on it after I finish reading it.
Other books I read this summer: Maximum Ride, the Final Warning, and Daniel X, both by James Patterson, and Louis L’Amour's book of short stories (Volume 1). I wanted to read more, but I just couldn’t. I was too busy reading my other books. When I’m in the process of writing, I rarely read fiction because I don’t want to affect that particular writer's style. I want to invoke my own. (BTW, Daniel X was AWFUL, but I am committed to reading the genre because I write for teens and mid-graders).
If you look on my website, you’ll see that I’ve posted some Tips for Writers. I wrote this for my writers organization, Writers Resource Center, but I thought, hey, this could be something to help those in my fan base (I think I have one!) who aspire to be writers. One of my tips for beginners is to start a resource library. If you love to read and think that maybe—just maybe—you would like to try your hand at novel writing, you might want to think about starting with the basics of writing. There are a lot of books out there, but only a few are really worth buying.
The books I mentioned above are mostly geared for novel writing. There are books I can recommend for other aspects of writing, too, on topics such as the publishing business, marketing, the query letter, writing for teens and children, journalistic writing, etc. I have a broad resource library and have read many 'how-to' books. I can probably help guide you in your quest to find the right book.
If you look on my website, you’ll see that I’ve posted some Tips for Writers. I wrote this for my writers organization, Writers Resource Center, but I thought, hey, this could be something to help those in my fan base (I think I have one!) who aspire to be writers. One of my tips for beginners is to start a resource library. If you love to read and think that maybe—just maybe—you would like to try your hand at novel writing, you might want to think about starting with the basics of writing. There are a lot of books out there, but only a few are really worth buying.
The books I mentioned above are mostly geared for novel writing. There are books I can recommend for other aspects of writing, too, on topics such as the publishing business, marketing, the query letter, writing for teens and children, journalistic writing, etc. I have a broad resource library and have read many 'how-to' books. I can probably help guide you in your quest to find the right book.
So, if you have comments or questions, you know where to find me!
