Part 26 of an intermittent series where I read or re-read the writing books on my shelf to see if they're worth keeping. See previous part here and Index of all books here.
It's been a while since I've done an update (whispers - 6 months!) on this ongoing task. It seems like the books on the shelf have bred as there are now more there even though I'm supposed to be, with this series of posts, whittling them down.
This time round here's the books from this year so far:
The Clockwork Muse
Can be summed up as chunk your project, decide how much writing time you have, assign chunks to time available, write. But is a little more than that - a good primer on how to project manage a book.
Punk Publishing
Pretty good intro on how to become an indie author - nuts & bolts of book formatting. I picked this up at EasterCon from David Wake after being on a panel with him. What I likes about this book, and why I've kept it, is the 'punk' attitude. Also has valuable formatting advice which I've not really seen elsewhere.
The 9 Modern Day Muses
Excellent how to get over your fears writing book that will need a revisit. Badonsky is the founder of Kaizen Muse and has broken down the creative process into anthropomorphic manifestations of Muses - updating the ancient Greek idea.
Writing For Story
This may be the only one of the four that's upheld the 'writing books have boring covers' theme to WAWAW? Excellent resurce for writers who are confused about structure - how to structure a story, not a play or screenplay, a story - so applicable to any of the many media stories can be told within. I've already re-read a few sections and think this will be a book to revisit often so definitely keeping on the shelf.
So now I've listed them out it's not really a surprise that the last 6 months have seen the shelf grow as I've only read 4 books from the shelf! (and kept them all). Also the synchronicity here is that I started this series of posts in June 2020. I also said: " I wrote more whilst learning to write in 2013-2016 than I wrote in 2017-2020 after being published and supposedly knowing what I'm doing. I've been blocked for a long time, or at least felt blocked (I have written a novel since this time last year so maybe not *that* blocked) and I've felt the need to give myself a boot up the backside and stop procrastinating and start writing more regularly again. Writers write right?" which is even more true now than it was 3 years ago.
As I said in my last post - I've not written anything this year & the revision of Certainty of Dust is stalled. I believe this is due to the fact I have to re-vision. I was thinking earlier in the year that I was going to have the book ready to publish this year. Now I'm not sure if it'll ever be finished.
Revisiting Damon Knight's layers of story (see WAWAW 16) there are 5 'layers' to each story going (from top to bottom) - The Surface (the prose), Form (Short Story, Novel, Poem, Graphic Novel etc. - also if it's "smooth, or intricate and knobbly"), the 'Materials' (Character, Setting, Situation, Emotion), the Idea (the premise) and the Impetus (why write).
"If the story fails at any level, it's no use criticiszing it at a higher level. If the story is wrong at the level of 'materials,' for instance, it will fail no matter how good the Form and Surface are... find the earliest level where it fails and try to fix it there.
So, the problem?
The Surface? The novel needs revision so not yet at copyediting (as a self-edit) phase as yet.
The Form? Should it be a novel? It's currently longer than a novella and it doesn't feel like I could cut it down, rather it needs building up.
The Materials? Possible issues here - but is this the level the problem is at? Character and Setting are a little out of focus.
The Idea? Hopefully the editors don't mind me posting this feedback: "We both thought the premise was great and the writing was solid, with the main characters & their relationships holding a lot of potential." - so, not the Idea then.
The Impetus? Back to Knight: "'Impetus' is the force that makes you want to write this story in the first place. If that force is just the desire to get published, or make money, or to 'be a writer,' the story will probably be weak. Of course you want to get published, and you'd like to make money, and you want to be a writer, but that's not enough. Strong stories are made from things that are inside you wanting to get out."
Did I start the novel with some 'thing inside wanting to get out'? I'm not sure - I started this novel so long ago now that I've lost why I wanted to write it in the first place. I need to fall back in love with it. And that's a whole other post...
Last time round (WAWAW 25) I said: "I will be doing a monthly email newsletter thingy as well – but WAWAW is likely to stay on the blog. All things being equal I'll have a book out next year – The Certainty of Dust (provisional launch Summer '23) as well as an anthology I've been editing this year (more on that in a following blog post)."
And I've not done a monthly newsletter (am still in two minds about it) and all things were not equal, as I've just explained. But the anthology did come out so it hasn't been an entirely wasted year - and there's 6 months left, right? This still could be a productive year. Maybe.
Drop a comment with your favourite writing book or tip here or email me via the Contact page. If you're a publisher or Indie Author and would like me to review your writing book drop me a line!
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