Thank you for stopping by my BookLovers Shop!
My goal with this page is to support other writers and to support literacy. To that end, I'll be reviewing books on the craft of writing that I've found useful and will also include some fun must-have items for writers and booklovers in general.
BOOKS ALL WRITERS SHOULD READ AT LEAST ONCE
Self Editing for Fiction Writers, - by Renni Browne and Dave King - Self editing is a critical piece of the writing process, and this book lays it all out in understandable terms. It's a practical, specific, pertinent and entertaining guide to the craft of writing...that teaches you how to edit like an editor. With exercises that are fun as well as instructive.. Scene & Structure, by Jack M. Bickham - This book is the most easily understandable book I read early on in my career on how to structure a novel. Bickham goes through creating a novel chapter by chapter. If you don't understand story structure after reading this, you're doing something wrong.
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Techniques of the Selling Writer, - by Dwight V. Swain - This book was my bible when I first started writing...even though I didn't understand half of it. For those truly serious about writing, this is one of the best books out there on the creative process of writing commercially oriented fiction . He offers expert advice along with a host of tricks and techniques to make your stories enjoyable and enticing. It's an older book, so the language can be dated, but the advice is timeless. MOTivation & Conflict (GMC): The Building Blocks of Good Fiction, by Debra Dixon - I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you read nothing else when learning to plot your story, read this book. It isn't enough to simply know the formal structure of a novel, you also have to know the underpinnings...the foundation. Without a good foundation, the structure will fail, either before it's finished or at the end. Neither a good prospect. Goal, motivation and conflict are the bones under the flesh of your novel.
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The Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White. A timeless pocket primer (updated in 2018) that takes you through the elementary rules of grammar usage through the principles of composition and form, and finally an approach to individual style. A quick reference book that should sit close at hand on any writer's bookshelf. Every aspiring writer should read The Elements of Style and memorize Rule 17. "Omit needless words." ON WRITING, by Stephen King (A Memoir of the Craft) - A must-have for writers at any level. For the aspiring writer, this book is both helpful and hopeful and tells you "how to" without telling you "how to." I read it as a published author of over a dozen books and found it incredibly energizing as well as offering technical knowledge in a very different way. He talks about language and vocabulary and using what you have. In the opening he talks about his childhood as "a landscape from which fogged out memories appear like isolated trees...the kind that look like they want to grab you and eat you." This book is like that. It will gobble you up ...in a good way. |
BOOTCAMP FOR NOVELISTS Beyond the First Draft: Techniques of the Pros - by Linda Style - I must include my own book here because so many of my students told me this book helped them see the story clearly and gave them the exact tools they needed o take their story to another level. This book is for writer's who've completed the first draft of your story and now want to make it the best it can be. BEYOND THE FIRST DRAFT is a compilation of my online classes at Bootcamp for Novelists and contains an entire six months of classes, which include lectures, examples and exercises. Reviewers on Amazon give it five stars and say "It's the best book on writing ever!"
You can buy the full book or just the sections you need, Part I, Part II, and Part III. |
Writer's Fun Stuff!You can find all of the items above...and much more at my SassyGurls Shop right here! And on Amazon.
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