Their list:Writing is hard. Not for everyone, mind you, but there are some people that land triple axels or swallow swords, and we don’t consider this the norm. Thankfully, these gifted writers have shared their secrets—often the same secret, that their best words weren’t a gift at all, but the fruits of frustrating, wearisome work. We treasure these following tomes, not because they necessarily reveal the tricks to making writing easier, but because they assure us that just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we should give up. If you write, we’re assuming you’re already armed with style guides like the enduring Strunk & White classic, The Elements of Style, along with your AP Stylebook or Chicago Manual of Style. And that you have examples of great writing like Life Stories: Profiles from The New Yorker. We also skipped books that were specific to a certain genre, like Mary Oliver’s excellent Poetry Handbook. Instead, the following are 10 books about the craft of writing. We polled Paste writers, editors and interns to share their favorites and received scores of suggestions from Twitter and Facebook. We even asked Neil Gaiman about his “favorite book on writing and why?”Gaiman’s response? “Stephen King’s On Writing. Because of the title.” Oh, writers.
10. The Artist’s Way by Julia CameronI've read four of these: "The Artist's Way," "On Writing," "The Writing Life," and "Bird by Bird." They're all excellent. Clearly I have to get "The War of Art" as that is a killer title.
9. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
8. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
7. On Writing Well by William Zinsser
6. Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark
5. On Writing by Stephen King
4. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
3. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
2. On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
1. Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on the Writing Life by Anne Lamott
Which of these books have you read and found helpful? Are there others not on the list that have inspired you?
HT to @CanadianNick from Tweeting the link.
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13 comments:
I enjoyed and learned from the Save the Cat books.
I learned from but can't say I enjoyed 'The Art of Dramatic Writing."
On Writing, Bird by Bird and The Artist's Way (didn't finish that, I don't think)are all that I've read.
On Writing and Bird by Bird are utterly fantastic. Can't think of better books on writing that I've ever read. Ever.
The War of Art is about strategies to overcome procrastination. Alas, I made the mistake of reading it instead of writing a script I was really struggling with. As a result, I now associate it with a terrible script...
Bird By Bird and On Writing are both set texts for the vocational modules I teach on the MA Creative Writing course at Edinburgh Napier University in Scotland.
I also recommend The Writer's Tale by Russell T Davies and Benjamin Cook, which are two years' worth of email correspondence while RTD was showrunner on Doctor Who. Some real dark teatime of the soul moments in that, from a BAFTA-winning writer.
There's a brilliant chapter in Ellen Sandler's The TV Writer's Workbook on treatment rewriting that applies just as well to synopsis writing for novelists. Worth buying the book just for that chapter [there's plenty of other good stuff in it, by the way].
Lamott's book is pretty good. Haven't read the others. Best books in my writing library:
The Sequence Approach by Paul Joseph Gulino -- serious solutions to my structure issues
The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri -- great insight into character development
Story by Robert McKee -- I find this book to be a continual source of inspiration to do my best and to not settle for less than my best work.
Save the Cat Goes to the Movies -- Snyder's first book was good; his second provides a very useful approach to genre. The marketing labels don't help me write a good story. Snyder's story genres do.
David Morrell (creator of Rambo) wrote a book on craft and writing thrillers that's excellent (tho' the title escapes me for the moment) and also very handy for screenwriters, too.
I reread ON WRITING once every other month, I really love it ...
Interesting how the often acclaimed Syd Field isn't on this list.
I picked up a book titled "How to Write a Screenplay in 21 Days" by Viki King. Surprisingly useful. A far relaxed way to approach the madness that is writing a screenplay. When you think about what it is you are attempting to accomplish, how it lays out, the map to finishing isn't easy. Perhaps this can help. It's sort of a outline or schedule on getting it done.
The War of Art is something I listen to while driving around LA
Here is a sample of the audio:
http://www.nightingale.com/prod_detail~audio~3504~product~War_of_Art.aspx
Copy and paste link below for Art of War Sample
http://www.nightingale.com/
prod_detail~audio~3504
~product~War_of_Art.aspx
The two screenwriting books that have helped me the most are Robert McKee's STORY and Dara Marks's INSIDE STORY: THE POWER OF THE TRANSFORMATIONAL ARC.
McKee's book covers so much ground that it can be hard to wrap your mind around it, but it's filled with brilliant observations nonetheless, and it never fails to inspire me to do my best work.
Marks focuses almost exclusively on character arcs (as the title suggests), and in doing so illuminates that topic like no other book I've read.
Stephen King's book is wonderful. Pressfields book I wasn't so sure about, but it had some nice ideas.
I generally don't like reading about screenwriting. But if I had to recommend one it would be Elliot Grove's 'How To Write That Hot Script'
The best and most practical books I've read - Master Class in Fiction Writing, by Adam Sexton, and Dynamic Characters, by Nancy Kress.
These were useful to me in terms of learning the techniques of writing a compelling story, whether novel, short story, or screenplay.
I read The Artist's way and Bird by Bird. They are indeed wonderful books on writing. Recently, I have gone through few other classics on writing. Jill Jepson's Writing as a sacred path and Writing begins with life by Laraine Herring make a great impact on me. They have given me a refreshing outlook and soul to my writing.
Samir R Baruah
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