Review Of Literature
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Stephen King’s On Writing (2000) is part autobiography, part writing manual and happens to be quite entertaining and informative. It is well worth reading just to learn about Stephen King and his life, but it is also a colorful invitation into the realm of writing. The one fault Stephen King mentions time and time again is lazy, timid writing and he emphasizes the need to trust your own voice and follow simple rules, like “Adverbs are not your friend.” In Stephen King’s words, “...practice is invaluable (and should feel good, really not like practice at all) and honesty is indispensable...”
The subtitle of Bird By Bird (1994) by Anne Lamott is Some Instructions On Writing And Life. Much like Stephen King, Lamott mixes anecdotes of her own experience along with a large measure of writing advice. This book is also easy to read and well worth the effort. Not only is it lucid and full of ideas, but Lamott has a wonderful sense of humor and I found myself laughing out loud at some of her observations. Read her work, and enjoy.
The Complete Guide To Writing Fiction And Nonfiction And Getting It Published (1990) by Pat Kubis and Bob Howland (1990) is arguably the best writing book on the market. It is chock full of excellent information, ideas and direction. To quote the flap, “This comprehensive handbook walks readers step-by-step through the craft of writing and the business of writing. Accomplished authors Pat Kubis and Robert M. Howland provide you with the tools you need to turn out marketable works of fiction and nonfiction¾regardless of your past writing experience.” Or inexperience, I would add.
Techniques Of The Selling Writer (1965) by Dwight V. Swain is an oldie but goodie. The reason it has been around as long as it has is because it is as relevant today as it was in 1965 with its excellent advice and information. Like the Kubis and Howland book, it is a well-organized guide along the road of writing skills, taking the reader one step at a time through the basics of fiction and nonfiction. I highly recommend this book.
Goal, Motivation And Conflict: The Building Blocks Of Good Fiction (1996) by Debra Dixon is another writing manual no serious writer should be without. Ms. Dixon points out that goal, motivation and conflict are the essentials of all writing, especially fiction writing. She also shows how to use these tools to your advantage. This book is easy to read, straight-forward, and has innumerable examples to support her premise.
Self-Editing For Fiction Writers: How To Edit Yourself Into Print (1994) by Renni Browne and Dave King is another invaluable book for writers. Besides advice on how to proof your own material and correct your mistakes, there are exercises throughout the text that show you what you need to do to write well. These exercises are presented as unedited text and you are then given the tools and instructed to edit them. At the end of the book, the authors show how these exercises can be improved. This is probably the best hands on material I have ever seen. I have taken a couple of the exercises in from this book and used them in this paper.
While How To Write Romances (1998) by Phyllis Taylor Pianka may seen unrelated to the type of writing you intend to do, there is no writing as all encompassing and representative of mainstream literature today as romance writing. Yes, I know romances are formulaic, but they also follow all the rules of commercial fiction, and they follow these rules to a fault. In this book, Ms. Pianka shows the writer/reader how to find and develop story ideas, create warm, believable characters and create conflict.
In 12 Keys To Writing Books That Sell (1989), Kathleen Krull teaches her readers how to think like editors. Her goal is to show the writer how to look at one’s own material through the eyes of the editor and develop a working knowledge of how publishing decisions are made. If you want to sell your manuscript to a publisher, or ever plan to do so, I recomend this book.
Donald M. Murray has been teaching writing for years and in A Writer Teaches Writing (1985). He puts all his experience and training on the page. His enthusiasm for writing, and teaching writing, shines through on every page. If you ever intend to teach writing, this book would be a valuable resource.
In The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure For Writers (1998), Christopher Vogler’s goal is to show writers how to use mythical structure to create powerful stories. The best writers use the principles of myth to create stories that are dramatic, entertaining and true. In Mr. Vogler’s book, he gives the reader step-by-step guidelines for structuring plots and creating realistic characters.
There are many books available for help with English grammar, but I will only mention two, William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White’s The Elements Of Style (2000) and The Princeton Review’s Grammar Smart (1993). You can find others at your public library or bookstore that lay out clear and concise rules for being grammatically correct. Of course the spell checker and grammar checker in Microsoft Word and other word processing programs proves invaluable to the writer.