Top 3: Books on writing

When I decided I was going to be a Serious Writer way back in 2004, I read a lot of books on writing. I was a communications major in college — I took like, 2 writing classes — and so books were my only form of education on the matter. And having been homeschooled, I knew firsthand that everything a teacher can teach you can be found in a book. So I read books on writing. A lot of them. And I skimmed a lot of them, too.

(Incidentally, I remember being enormously unimpressed with everyone’s favorite book on writing, On Writing. It was a lot of autobiography and a lot of You Will Never Be Good Because Even I’m Not Good. I should probably visit it again now that I understand Stephen King a little better.)

Without further ado, here are the 3 books on writing I’ve found the most helpful. These are the books I didn’t skim, the books wherein I discovered dozens of useful ideas, the books I’ve reread several times.

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Save the Cat!

You may notice the subtitle of this book, which is “The Last Book On Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need.” Having written 2 feature-length screenplays (in the correct format thank you very much), this is mostly true. However, just because it’s an awesome book on screenwriting does not mean it has nothing to do with writing the novel.

There is loads of great advice in here on crafting your story. For instance, let me explain the main gimmick of the book, the “save the cat” device. I’ve used this countless times because I write shady protagonists. When you have a shady protagonist, you have to make that protagonist do something early on, a selfless act, that will let the audience understand that Deep Down This Is a Good Guy. Like someone might go out of their way to save a cat. In House, we don’t care that House is an angry, cruel person because he saves an innocent patient’s life. In The Catcher in the Rye, we don’t care that Holden Caulfield gets kicked out of school for laziness because we see he isn’t “phony.” Robin Hood gives to the poor. Tony Stark is nice to Pepper Pots. Jack Sparrow is a thief and a murderer, but a funny one.

There’s loads of great advice in the “save the cat” vein. I don’t consult this book immediately in my outlining process, but you bet it’s the first thing I go to when something isn’t working.

I’d recommend this if: You’re stuck on plotting or characterization, or you want to make sure that your plot and characters are the strongest they can be, that you’ve explored all your options.

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Bird by Bird

I am a pessimist. Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird was the first book on writing I read that embraced the pessimistic, realist side of the craft. A close second is Norman Mailer’s The Spooky Art, but that was ridiculously hard to get through and I can’t recommend it. (Sorry, Norman.)

This book taught me stuff like the notecard method, which is the most pain-free way I’ve ever encountered of outlining and troubleshooting your story. It told me it was okay to write “Shitty First Drafts” and be jealous of successful, snobby writing friends, and even that ending relationships with said successful, snobby writing friends might be better for me than bad. It showed me it might be okay to write 500 words a day as opposed to 1,000, if that’s all I can handle. The important part is writing every day.

Lots of good stuff here. But don’t take my word for it. *ba dah dah!*

I’d recommend this if: Books and blogs about writing are usually too cheery for your taste.

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The War of Art

I’ve read this book about once a year since I discovered it. This is my war manual. It tells me, in no uncertain terms, that yes, a lot of writing sucks, and yes, it’s supposed to. “Anything easy is not worth doing,” and what’s worse, “Anything easy means you’re probably doing it wrong and sucking at it and art should be a struggle, dammit.”

This book also addresses criticism. I know I’ve gotten criticism that makes me wish I’d stuck it out in front of the TV and never started writing, but this book helped me through those times.

It’s hard to sum up what exactly the advice in this book says. You just have to read it. It’s the best writing pep-talk you’ll ever get.

I’d recommend this if: You sit down to write and you find yourself procrastinating, or you’re having a hard time taking critique.