Since beginning my writing journey, I’ve read tons of books on how to write stories. Some of them were for writing screenplays, others for novels, and still others on specifics like dialogue, point of view, emotion, character, etc. You get the picture, there’s a lot written about writing. Among the fifty or so books I own (and have read), the following is a list of the books that profoundly changed my writing habits, style, and process.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Best way to read it – Audio
Reason to read it – To get yourself into your chair
In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield, also author of The Legend of Bagger Vance, writes about resistance. Resistance being that thing that prevents us from showing up and living up to our creative potential. In his words,
“What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is Resistance.”
The point he makes is to recognize resistance for what it is – it’s that thing that prevents you from settling into your creative space so that you can work. For me, I block time on my calendar for “writing” work and other time for “business” work. And then show up ready to create. The book is a quick read at 165 pages, or a two hour listen on Audible or Libby. Either way, get ready to hear the word “resistance” over and over until it is permanently stamped on your brain. The result – you will recognize resistance in real time and adjust accordingly.
Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel Before Wasting Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere by Lisa Cron
Best way to read it – Paperback
Reason to read it – To avoid superficial characters/stories
In Story Genius, Lisa Cron, also author of Wired for Story, writes about how details of your character’s life before the story even starts will shape all his future decisions in your story. In her words,
“The story you’re telling doesn’t start on page one. It started long before you got there.”
Cron leads you into your protagonist’s past to determine the first moment when their misbelief about the world first entered his mind and asks, “write that scene.” By doing this several times you begin to see a fully developed character whose misbelief is so ingrained, you can no longer separate the person from their actions. You, as the writer, know what is driving their decisions – because you just wrote it. Furthermore, she says the reason why so many people teach ‘plot’ is that “we’re much better at teaching something we’ve learned through experience rather than teaching things we innately know.” (in her argument, this is why everyone teaches plot, or external story, vs. character, or internal story). Cron is funny and engaging all the way through her book making it enjoyable to read. I recommend getting the hardcopy just because you will want it as a reference guide.
The Anatomy of a Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby
Best way to read it – Paperback
Reason to read it – Comprehensive
In The Anatomy of a Story, John Truby, also author of The Anatomy of Genres, writes that the story world isn’t a copy of life. It’s life as we imagine it. And it’s condensed and heightened for the audience’s benefit. He notes, “how else do you get a week’s worth of drama in a two-hour movie?” What I like about Truby’s book is that he takes the reader step by step in creating a character, with a moral dilemma and a problem, and then shows the writer how to develop a maze of obstacles for the protagonist to traverse which causes them to change. In his words,
“Any character who goes after a desire and is impeded is forced to struggle (otherwise the story is over.) And that struggle makes him change.”
He uses examples from popular movies throughout the book building from one section to the next allowing the reader/writer to see the progression used by other authors. Truby’s use and definition of commonly used terms and phrases also gives a new writer the requisite awareness needed to continue on their journey and master the craft of writing. This is another book you will want to reference, so get the book.
Blueprint for a Book: Build Your Novel from the Inside Out by Jennie Nash
Best way to read it – Paperback
Reason to read it – Outlining from the inside-out
In Blueprint for a Book, Nash teaches an efficient way to tackling the hardest part of writing your book – before you start writing. If there is a theme to the books that I’m suggesting, it’s that character is the most important building block to your story. Said another way, all plot and no character makes for a dull book.
Nash takes the reader through fourteen foundational steps to create an outline that is much more than a diagram of the plot. The early steps are dedicated to questions like: Why are you writing this book? What’s your point? Who is your audience? While a new writer may want to “get right to the writing” part, Nash argues that in the long run knowing the answers to these questions will ultimately save the writer time in the end.
The steps culminate into something Nash calls the Inside-Outline. She calls it that because the most important part of every story is the character arc. So, while the “outline” portion identifies the plot elements (what’s happening in the story). The “inside” portion identifies the main character’s reason or reaction (the why). By creating scene after scene in this way, where one causes the next, you create a road map to follow, making your book writing journey easier. In her words,
“You have to be able to see it to create it.”
Prior to reading Blueprint for a Novel, I routinely would get to around 30,000 words, get stuck, and then begin again. This method has helped me to break through the log jam to eliminate dead ends and one-dimensional characters to discover a new way of writing.
From Where you Dream: The Process of Writing Fiction by Robert Olen Butler
Best way to read it – Paperback
Reason to read it – Feeling your story
From Where you Dream is a series of lectures given by Robert Olen Butler, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for his short-story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain, and recorded in his class on Creative Writing at Florida State University. Butler has an obsessive need to push his students past generalizations, analyses, and abstractions. To go deeper within the human unconscious in order to discover the character drive. In his words,
I’ve long called fiction the art form of human yearning. That’s what makes all fiction go. What we understand as plot is, as I’ve often said, yearning challenged and thwarted.
He also says, “writing is sensual.” The lectures progress week by week while showcasing students’ work and critique to get them to dig deeper. I particularly like The Written Exercise in Chapter 9 where he guides the writer through seven steps that begins with awaking to see the world around you and then guides you to vivid memories that ultimately bring you back to the present.
In addition to this book, Butler created an internet project some 20 years ago to demonstrate the creative process in real time. In a series of two-hour webcasts, he creates a short story from conception, based on an old photograph, and ultimately turns it into a polish short story. You can find his archived webcast at www.fsu.edu/butler.
Continue the Conversation:
What are some of the books you’ve read that transformed your writing process or product?