My Writing Resources - Books
I have a stack of resources that I’ve studied to learn the craft, and that I continuously revisit to fuel me when I’m writing. I’ll do a separate blog post for online resources, but here are my go-to books that I would highly recommend.
Stephen King - On Writing
Part autobiography and part writing tutorial, On Writing is full of inspiration and insight into King’s approach. Brandon Sanderson (among others) talks in depth about two different writing styles: discovery writers and architects, and King’s advice is definitely geared towards discovery writers who typically figure out the story as they write rather than starting with a clear outline (effectively draft 1 is their outline). I imagine the methods King uses would be amazingly helpful for any discovery writer, but for long fiction I’m heavily at the architect end of the scale so the practical advice was interesting but limited for me. However, for interest and inspiration I found it invaluable. Whatever type of writer you are, this is a must read.
John Truby - The Anatomy Of Story
As a story consultant and screenwriting teacher, Truby has clearly spent a lifetime analysing story forms, and his model is very clear, understandable and most importantly, I could easily apply it to my writing. Truby’s approach is more flexible than some screenwriting guru’s, stating that 7 of the story elements are present in every great story, and they use most of the total 22 steps that he details, although their placement varies greatly - there is no ‘do this on page x’.
Truby draws on popular examples in film and fiction to bring his method of story structure to life and make it easier than any other I’ve read to put into practice. This has been my go-to book on story and has formed the main basis for how I outline.
I can’t recommend this book highly enough, and I’m eagerly awaiting Truby’s follow up An Anatomy of Genre that is due in November.
Robert McKee - Story
This is a great starting point to develop your understanding of story and the building blocks it is based on. There are some practical approaches given to writing (with particular focus on screenplay’s) around 2/3rd’s of the way through so get there before you use this book to start outlining your story. Mckee’s website claims he is the most sought-after screenwriting lecturer around the globe, and with his well-developed and polished insight into a good story, well told, as well as the achievements of his alumni (including 70 Oscar wins) you can see why.
Karl Iglesias - Writing For Emotional Impact
Iglesias’ book builds on those that have come before to give a clear focus on the emotion of the reader. He infuses emotion back through the core techniques of other screenwriting teachers, as well as bringing techniques I haven’t seen before, for example detailing different ways of creating anticipation and paying it off.
I feel like this book is less well known than the others, but when you’ve developed the techniques of McKee and Truby, this is the next step.
For writing resources part 2, click to read my blog post about the best online resources I’ve found to hone my writing skills:
Mark is the author of We Come In Peace and Doomsday.
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