Books On Creative Writing

bigsmokewriting

Just wondering which books on creative writing, whether the 'how to write' kind or the author's memoir type, you've found useful.

The two that keep coming up in our classes are Stephen King's ON WRITING and Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD. Well worth reading. There's always the danger of reading all the books on writing in the world and never actually writing anything yourself, of course...

Antilles

I enjoyed the memoir parts of On Writing but the "how to write" section wasn't helpful at all. King focusses on what I would consider really basic stuff - using good grammar, cutting adverbs etc. That's far too specific, in my opinion, and is the sort of stuff covered in any beginners' writing course.

A lot more helpful is Larry Brooks' "Story Engineering," which I just finished reading. It explains the dramatic structure of stories and how they hang together to enhance the reading experience. Brooks also discusses the specifics, but doesn't spend much time on them because while they're important, they're not what most people want when they ask "how do I write a good story?"

Kinski

I'll just mention a few I've read. The Art of Fiction by John Gardner: I found it entertaining, informative and infuriating in equal measures; contains good sections on basic errors, and on prose rhythm (something which appears to be neglected by many creative writing guides). Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway: apparently a popular textbook on US college creative writing course; contains copius examples and extracts.

I recently tossed Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose to one side after she spent the introductory section lamenting the rise of theory in English studies and gazing back nostalgically on the days of the New Criticism. Reading Like a Conservative would have been a more appropriate title (actually this is often a problem which lurks within such books. Gardner shares it, but with his one I was able to put it to one side; Prose's seemed a much more obnoxious example).

Not a writing guide as such, but The Art of Fiction (such imaginative titles these things have) by the novelist and critic David Lodge is a useful little collection of short essays (originally published as newspaper columns) for anyone who wants some bite-sized criticism to inform their writing. Contains pieces on "Beginning," "Point of View," "Endings" and so on. Lodge selects a classic novel and provides a short analysis of it under the given heading.

For the aspiring poets among you (I'm not one!) another couple which are not guides as such but still should prove very useful: The Sounds of Poetry by the acclaimed US poet Robert Pinsky is a short and very readable guide to the mechanics of poetry. However, I prefer my old college textbook Reading Poetry: An Introduction by Tom Furniss and Michael Bath; though it's pricier than the Pinsky.

Why the hell anyone would want to read a guide to writing by Stephen King is beyond me.

Antilles

Kinski wrote: »

Why the hell anyone would want to read a guide to writing by Stephen King is beyond me.

I was interested because Stephen King is one of the most successful storytellers of our age. I was hoping that the book would discuss his story creation process but instead, I got a nuts-and-bolts approach which, as I said above, is no different to what you'll find in any "introduction to writing" course.

No offense intended to beginners' courses, by the way BigSmoke -- I took one of Nicole's a few years back and it was great! I was just hoping for something a bit more detailed from King.

Kinski

Antilles wrote: »

I was interested because Stephen King is one of the most successful storytellers of our age.

That depends on one's definition of "successful"...

Ellian

A lot of it is quite specific to screenwriting (although a lot could be applied to any creative writing) but the articles by Terry Rossio at wordplayer.com would be up there with the best of them IMO.

Antilles

Kinski wrote: »

That depends on one's definition of "successful"...

He achieves what he sets out to do and creates work enjoyed by millions.

bigsmokewriting

Antilles wrote: »

I was interested because Stephen King is one of the most successful storytellers of our age. I was hoping that the book would discuss his story creation process but instead, I got a nuts-and-bolts approach which, as I said above, is no different to what you'll find in any "introduction to writing" course.

No offense intended to beginners' courses, by the way BigSmoke -- I took one of Nicole's a few years back and it was great! I was just hoping for something a bit more detailed from King.

Ha, thanks! Yeah, I think it's probably quite telling that it's a book that people have already read when they start a writing class. It has a lot going for it - certainly a lot less pretentious than some of the other guides out there - but it's possibly best read at a certain stage of one's writing life. Mind you, for people who hate King's writing, it's probably best to avoid it entirely, but it's good to get a perspective from someone who's been so commercially successful.

John Gardner's 'On Becoming A Novelist' is a great one as well...

EileenG

I really enjoyed "How Not to write a novel" and keep finding useful snippets in it.

Also Lukeman's "The First Five Pages" and "Hooked" by Lee Edgerton.

I got a copy of "Writing down the Bones" by Goldberg and hated it. Gave it to other people in my writing group - they all hated it. Offered it to a different writing group and they said "Oh we love that book and already have three copies." So there's no accounting for taste.

Also "Passionate Ink" by Angela Knight, lots of good stuff on writing sex and violence.

Antilles

EileenG wrote: »

Also Lukeman's "The First Five Pages" and "Hooked" by Lee Edgerton.

I looked up some of the books you mention and found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Edgerton#Biography

Wow!

EileenG

Antilles wrote: »

I looked up some of the books you mention and found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Edgerton#Biography

Wow!

It's still an excellent book on finding the best starting point for your novel, and bringing out the underlying themes as well as the surface problems.

Antilles

EileenG wrote: »

It's still an excellent book on finding the best starting point for your novel, and bringing out the underlying themes as well as the surface problems.

The fact that he was a drug using gigolo who later went on to become a well respected author actually makes me more likely to buy his book.

In fact... *click* *download*

Done

Kinski

Antilles wrote: »

I looked up some of the books you mention and found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Edgerton#Biography

Wow!

And yet he doesn't appear to have written an autobiography. Surely a book that begs to be written!

pickarooney

It's shocking to see the depths a human being can sink to

• Sold life insurance

ThePinkCage

I put together a blog post on the five books I consider definitive.

There are so many how to guides out there, it can be hard to know where to start. I hope it will save you all a lot of time.

http://writerlyderv.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/the-only-writing-books-youll-ever-need/

partnership

I found the book first draft in 30 days by karen S Wiesner to be quite practical in helping lay out characters, scenes etc in trying to put things together.