Date: Thu, 8 May 1997 03:34:17 -0700 From: Anitra Dancing Subject: TECH/EXER: Good Books On Writing Of the nominees so far, I can review a few: * The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron A creative artist's recovery program -- not to recover *from* writing, but to recover from the many things that can block it. Laid out as a fourteen-week program with specific exercises and self-exploration projects to work on each week, plus ongoing basic elements such as the Infamous Morning Pages and the compulsive's terror, the Artist's Date (one thing you do just for yourself, every week). While Cameron's tone has occasionally made me yell for insulin, or even wax nostalgic over the Inquisition (she is distinctly of the New Age), her insights are sound and her program gets results. I've done the program with an on-line support group, and it was interesting to see the issues of the week crop up in everyone's lives -- even the folks who had gotten involved in another project and dropped the book for that week, hadn't even read the chapter. The basic philosophy of the book is that there is a Creative Spirit in the Universe that will get right down and haul with you as soon as you show any willingness to start using your own creativity. It has certainly been amply demonstrated for me. * Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott You got it right, Paul -- or else I've got it wrong, too. This is one of the first writing books I read, and I've still got my copy. The title comes from an incident when the author was young, when her brother was overwhelmed by the complexity of a school report on birds, that he had put off until the last minute. Their father told him, "Just take it bird by bird." The book is full of very practical advice and insight, told lightly and with much wit. * Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg The Artist's Way, Bird by Bird, and Writing Down the Bones all cover much of the same territory -- tell your truth; don't edit yourself silent; write for the joy of writing and not to become rich and famous; write every day; make time and space for yourself, for your writing. Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg are more earthy and witty about it than Julia Cameron is. I don't think that jealousy toward other writers is spiritually advanced, and I don't indulge it -- but occasionally I feel a twinge of it. Julia Cameron has some very useful ways of exploring that jealousy and learning from it. Anne Lamott and Natalie Goldberg make antic jokes about the horrible people who write when you can't, acknowledging the jealousy and defusing it. Natalie Goldberg also has a number of real writing exercises in her book, like "describe your relationship with inanimate objects." She has a wonderful way of leaving you at the end of every chapter firmly placed at a table with your pen and paper, eager to write. * Zen and the Art of Writing -- Ray Bradbury A very, very short book that manages to sum up most of what the other thirty thousand books on writing actually say. It isn't so much that there is always more to say, as that there is always another way to say it. And while some people can hear it best told in New Age imagery, some people can hear it best peppered with earthy wisecracks, some people are going to take it in best described as an allegory of Zen Buddism. Personal bias now enters. Ray Bradbury was one of the greatest writers of his generation. I was a member of a very good, very solid group of poets in California, most over forty, and one day one of the other poets and I got into a discussion of science fiction as literature. It was a lighthearted discussion -- this person and I have been friends for years; he has not yet gotten me to sit down and watch a football game, and I have not yet gotten him to read a science fiction book. Everybody else got drawn in, and it turned out that the one science fiction author everyone in the room had read was Ray Bradbury. And universally they all regarded him as a great writer, and a poet. (Yes, my friend had also read something by Ray bradbury -- one of his non-sf writings.) I think this is why his insights are so valuable. And also why he manages to phrase them so simply. New entries from me: * The writer's journey: mythic structures for screenwriters and storytellers by Christopher Vogler Based on the work of Joseph Campbell. Give me a moment while I put on my asbestos armor -- I am finding this book easier to read than Joseph Campbell, taken straight. I can't give a thorough review yet, because I've just started the book. How can I list it among "most useful writing book" if I haven't even read the whole thing yet? 1) It had strong recommendations. 2) I'm a believer in the mythic and archetypal underpinnings of all story -- even if I do have a hard time reading the guys who started the idea. 3) What I've read already has unjammed one story I was working on, and given me ideas for several more. He's even inspired me to try Joseph Campbell one more time -- The Hero with a Thousand Faces. * The Fiction Writer's Workshop by Josip Novokavich This is one I first checked out from the library, and I am saving up to buy a copy. I imagine it would be endlessly useful to any individual writer; instead of just a list of advice on setting a scene, for instance, it has a list of specific exercises to do in observing a environment, describing an environment, using sensory detail, etc. For anyone running an ongoing workshop -- well, I used it while i had it, and I want it back again. * Plot by Ansen Dibell * Scene and Structure by Jack Bickham Part of the Elements of Fiction Writing series. I am weak on plot myself -- where I occasionally succeed, credit Ansen Dibell and Jack Bickham. If I spent more time on these books I'd probably write more stories. Instead of daydreaming about interesting characters who -- stand around and look interesting. I haven't read any of the following: * Self-Editing for Fiction Writers * Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print * Wild Mind * The Art of Fiction --John Gardner * The Paris Review Interviews * The Weekend Novelist -- Robert J. Ray ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Write On! | "Oh, we have a home -- we just need a house to put it in." Anitra | -- quotation from a 10 year old homeless girl ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- anitra@speakeasy.org http://www.speakeasy.org/~anitra