So for yesterday’s Ten Day Writing Blogger Challenge I decided to take the day off, since I didn’t take a day off on Sunday. Make sense? Well, it worked for me. My daughter was sick (germy camp is germy) and I wasn’t feeling all that great either.
So she spent the day reading in the living room fort she constructed and I sat in a nearby chair and did much the same (reading, not fort construction). In the evening we watched an episode of Doctor Who. As sick days go, it wasn’t too bad.
But I’m back at it today with books on writing.
Today’s prompt:
Profile 3 to 5 top writing craft books.
I’ve picked the three below because they each changed something about the way I write. In video game terms, I felt I leveled up after working through each book. That being said, I think the key word in that sentence is work. I’ve read a metric ton of writing craft books (no, really, I bet if you stacked them all on a scale, they would weigh a metric ton), but some I just skimmed, some I got halfway through, others I did read and maybe did some of the exercises, but I wasn’t militant about it.
The three below? I threw myself into the process. My mindset was: I am going to do this thing, no matter the outcome. It’s very much how I’m approaching Write 1/Sub 1 this year.
Anyway, my three books are:
Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook
Interestingly enough, the outcome of this was the spine for The Geek Girl’s Guide to Cheerleading.
The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller
The jury is still out on this one, at least where the product piece of it is concerned (we’ll see, we’ll see–and that’s all I’m saying about that). I used it to write/revise Speechless. I will say this particular craft book is not for everyone. It’s dense and intense and a completely different way of looking at building a story. Still, I got a lot out of it.
Around the Writer’s Block: Using Brain Science to Solve Writer’s Resistance
This is less a how-to book and more of a how-to-get-writing book. Some days all it takes for me to start my writing session is to acknowledge that I’m feeling that tug of resistance. The author, Rosanne Bane, has a terrific website, The Bane of Your Resistance, if you want to try before you buy. I recommend both the book and the website.
My birthday, that is. Did I write on my birthday? Why, yes. Yes, I did. Not quite as many words as last week (that three-day weekend helped the word count), but I’m pleased.
Coming soon (as in September 2013) another volume of funny science fiction and fantasy stories will hit the shelves.
Writing Wrongs 