Greetings Fellow Scribes,
Enjoying the Thayer book thus far. Any other must-reads for novel writing?
I hit the Pause button on my novel for now as the screenwriting thing (see: weird format/exposition tools/etc.) was seeping into my manuscript so I figured I would read some books on the book writing craft in the meantime.
One thing that struck me about the Thayer book, right off the bat, is that he states in the Introduction 'most manuscripts are not finished and out of those most are not published'. In the screenwriting world it's likely most scripts are actually completed, but out of the finished ones most are not produced.
Cheers,
~Mike
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How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James N. Frey.
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Kerry Williams SACRIFICE-Amazon
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Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott - "One shitty page a day gets a novel written."
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Susan Wile That's great haha
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I love Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody, Story Genius by Deborah Crom & The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. Good luck to you!
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Vanessa Lillie Good stuff, I had no idea there's a Save the Cat! novel version, thanks!
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Vanessa Lillie Also Stephen Pressfield authored one of my favorite books, "Gates of Fire".
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Mike Childress, some of my favorites are-
Structuring Your Novel by K.M. Weiland
And all of Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi's Thesaurus books! They help me with all of my writing- books and scripts. I especially love The Emotional Thesaurus, The Positive Traits Thesaurus, The Negative Traits Thesaurus, and The Conflict Thesaurus Vol. 1 and 2.
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K.M. Weiland is a genius and original thinker. I recommend all her books highly.
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The list doth grow, thanks!
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I've not read it but there's a "Save the Cat" version specific to novel writing. And I would also echo Susan Wile in recommending "Bird by Bird" and of course "On Writing" by Stephen King is a must-read.
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Jonathan Jordan Someone else recommended the STC novel version and I did not know that was a thing! That's two recommendations thus far so that stays on the list for sure. Funny enough at one point as a kid I had read every Stephen King/Bachman book/short story in publication at the time, and for my birthday one year my sister got me On Writing BUT I moved right after that, and before I started the read it ended up buried in book moving boxes and is now holding court with Tolstoy, Robert Jordan, Nabokov, Tocqueville, et al. Oh the conversations they must be having!