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Recommended writing references. So you, too, want to be a writer - and worse yet, you want to be a novelist. Stand in line. But I've found the books below to a great help. The links are to Amazon.com, probably the best place for new books, often at the best price if you can't get to your local retailer.
I'm not a horror fan, but for some reason - the intriguing writing I guess - I enjoyed Steven King's The Stand, which led me to his very useful guide On Writing. It is not only a useful guide to writing, but a VERY interesting read on its on.
Janet Burroway's latest edition of Writing Fiction is now available. The updated edition provides a wealth of information and absolutely critical points of novel techniques. Not cheap, but a wonderful bargain if you are serious about writing a novel. Every point is one that has been hammered home in workshop after workshop until I have finally learned how to apply them. If I had only read the book.... Sterling Watson first introduced me to Burroway in his Master's Workshop, then I got a chance to hear her speak at a USF Suncoast Writers' Workshop. This one will stay by my writing desk.
Anne Lamontt's Bird by Bird, a most irreverent introduction to the terrible world of writing and how to survive the alligators and goblins that will haunt every corner of your tiny little writer's mind, is well worth the few bucks. My old friend Rita Ciresi introduced me to this book in her graduate Fiction I class at USF. This is one that will stay on my shelf long after the course is over.
Have you sat in your chair, pen in hand (or fingers poised over keys in this new world), waiting for inspiration? Are you an educated or an uneducated author? John Gardner's classic On Becoming a Novelist will help you understand the difference and help you know how to become one - or the other. Another Watson recommendation that will stay on my shelf until tattered and faded - then replaced and read again.
Now we come to the harder than writing part - selling your book. Writer's Market is a must to understand the submission process and to research the ever-changing publishing landscape. The Guide to Book Publishing, et al., provides the current listing for agents, their addresses, and - most important - their specialties and guidelines.
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© 2000-2008 John M. Taylor |
