Before ACID sold, I didn’t tell many people
I was a writer, never mind a writer who was trying to get published (you can
read more about that here). The
only people who read my stories were my husband and then my agent. And a
combination of my shyness about sharing my work and tight finances meant going
on courses was pretty much out of the question.
But I wanted to learn to write better. I needed to learn to write better. So I
turned to writing books. While no book can ever provide you with a formula for
success – I firmly believe that there is no ‘right’ way to write, only the way
that’s right for you – reading about
how other people solve their writing dilemmas is a great way to work out how to
solve yours. These books are my favourites, the ones that helped and inspired
me the most on my journey to becoming a published writer, and that continue to
help and inspire me today.
Stephen King - On Writing
(New English Library, 2001)
I’m a huge King fan anyway – I read IT when
I was thirteen, and have been hooked ever since – so when this book came out, I
snapped it up. If you’re looking for precise
instructions on how to query agents or structure your plots, this may not
be the book for you, but with generous handfuls of autobiography thrown in, it provides a fascinating
insight into the way this celebrated author works.
Sol Stein - Stein On Writing
(St Martin's Griffin, 2000)
This is much more nuts-and-bolts stuff. Sol
Stein is an author, poet and playwright, who’s also edited writers like Dylan
Thomas, Jack Higgins and W.H Auden. In this book, which he descibes as "…not a book of theory… a book of useable solutions…"
he takes you through different techniques to make your writing work. Better
than that, he shows you how to make it come to life and grab your readers by
the throat. It also covers what he calls the ‘triage’ method for revising,
which is one of the most useful ways of revising I’ve ever come across.
Mary O’Hara - Novel-In-The-Making
(David McKay Company, 1954)
Mary O’Hara is another writer I’ve loved
from a young age, ever since I read MY FRIEND FLICKA - still one of my
favourite books ever. Novel-In-The-Making, described as a self-portrait of an author at work, deals with the creation of her
adult novel, THE SON OF ADAM WYNGATE, and is one of the most fascinating looks
at an author’s writing process I’ve ever come across. It reads like a novel itself,
and the description of her workstation on pages 106-7, with pigeonholes for “…paper, carbons, finished chapters, discards
etc…” is just wonderful
Robert McKEE - Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
(Methuen, 1999)
For me, this is The Book. The one that
quite literally turned my writing around. When I first started writing
seriously, I kept coming up against the same problem: my plots either went
round in circles, or fizzled out altogether. There was something I just wasn’t
getting, but I couldn’t work out what, and I couldn’t find anything or anyone
who could tell me. Then, one day, I saw an article in a magazine about McKee’s
book. The library where I worked at the time happened to have a copy in, so I
borrowed it. It was a revelation. Don’t be mislead by the title - there is very
little in this book which relates specifically to screenwriting. Instead, it demystifies
what makes a story work. It’s
hardcore stuff – I had to take notes as I read it, and it was a good year
before what I learnt from it really started to sink in. But it was worth every
minute I spent poring over it, trying to understand what McKee was telling me.
I re-read STORY at least once a year, and every time I do, I get something new
from it.
What
about you? Which writing books do you turn to for help and inspiration?
