May 2014: Books on Writing | Mechanics' Institute

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May 2014: Books on Writing

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One of my New Year's resolutions was to start keeping track of the books I've read. As a lifelong heavy reader I've started and stopped this sort of record keeping a couple of times but now that I’m working on a biography project (ask me about it sometime) I’m inspired to be more organized. In the same place (a Black n' Red hardbound notebook), I record both the fiction and non-fiction titles I read, along with a few notes on their content and my thoughts. The only rule is that I must read the book in its entirety (no skimming - I'm a champion skimmer). Here's what I've been reading that relates to writing.

Developmental Editing: a handbook for freelancers, authors, and publishers by Scott Norton (808.02 N888 – 2nd floor). Masochistic writers should read this book as it illustrates how editors approach a manuscript that needs work or "development." I learned a few valuable lessons about writing succinctly and found it terribly interesting to see how editors examine and distill a bloated piece of work into something publishable.

Outlining Your Novel by K.M. Weiland (808.3 W422 – 2nd floor). This is the first Weiland book I encountered and I've read it twice. It contains excellent information about narrative organization so even if you're writing non-fiction, trust me, you'll get something out of this.  Outlining Your Novel, and the newer Structuring Your Novel, offer non-fiction writers perspective on universal story structure and concrete lessons about story arcs, scene design, and character development. Story structure is covered well in several books on writing but Weiland's book has the least amount of blah-blah filler. I skimmed Structuring Your Novel the first time, then sat down with a notebook and hashed out ideas and situations related to my writing project. Take your time with both of these books, I think they will aid you with your own work's structure or enable you to see it in a new light. The author has a great website and an excellent blog for writers. Subscribe without fear, Weiland doesn't post too often but when she does, it's worth it.

I encountered Truthful Fictions: Conversations with American Biographical Novelists (813 L141 – 2nd floor), edited by Michael Lackey, shortly after reading Jack London's Martin Eden, a semi-auto-biographical novel.  This compendium of interviews with sixteen contemporary, biographical novelists is a heavier investment than the other three books above but it provides insight into "life" interpretation and the parallels between history and fiction. I found the dialogue about the authors' writing process to be constructive and the editor's introductory notes about the rise of biographical novels illuminating. What makes Truthful Fictions valuable to the potential biographer is the exploration of the notion of "truth," and the innumerable references to excellent or ground-breaking examples of the genre. I was so moved by author Joanna Scott's interview that I positively inhaled her novel Arrogance (on order – check the catalog), a lyrical rendering of the life of artist Egon Schiele. This book proves the saying correct that a writer must read and read and read. Truthful Fictions will lead you to a few good books.

For more books on story structure check out Story Engineering and Story Physics – both by Larry Brooks who also has a mind-blowing blog called Story Fix – and that’s exactly what it and these two books do, fix the problems with your story. I’m not quite finished with them but, so far, I’m completely devastated (in a good way) by Brooks’ analytical perspective on structure and the “necessaries” of scene. Whatever you are writing – be it fiction or non – you need to read these books.

 

Posted on May. 7, 2014 by Taryn Edwards