Tell us about yourself!

• Where do you live (State / Country)?
• Preferred pronouns?
• How long have you been on Reddit?
• How long have you been on r/WritingPrompts?
• Do you use r/WritingPrompts to read or write?

Writers:

• How long have you been writing?
• What is your writing motivation?
• What programs do you use to write?
• How fast can you type? Try 1 minute on Aesop's fables

Readers:

• How do you find prompt responses to read?
• Do you also write?

• If not, why haven't you tried?

  Want to share a photo? See our Photo Gallery!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

Do yourself a favor and read Myst: Book of Atrus. It's not going to teach you how to avoid a dangling participle, but if you care about storytelling, it's dense and rich food for thought.

Everything I Know About Writing by John Marsden is excellent https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/82613

Okay, I’ll start. ‘Wonderbook’ by Jeff Vandermeer was recommended to me by u/AGuyLikeThat for world building. Guy is great at world building, so I thought why not?

I’m only part way through, but it’s great! One of my favorite facets isn’t the content itself, which is informative, but the fact it’s far from dry. In fact, it’s illustrated and quite fun!

I’ve often been put off by super dense, self important craft books. It’s like I know I’ll learn something, but slogging through the read better have a payoff!

I might have a few to suggest. <3
Of those not already mentioned: 'We Need Your Art' by Amee McNee, 'The Creative Act' by Rick Rubin, 'Bird by Bird' by Anne Lamott, and 'Writing Down the Bones' by Natalie Goldberg are some of my favorites. 'The War of Art' by Steven Pressfield and 'On Writing' by Steven King are pretty well-known, but good to mention.
I...could go on and on.
I've been a bit blocked for a while and, so, I have taken to buying and reading books on art/craft/creation when I can't write.

I've been trying to get all the resources I can and read them through, but shy away from trying the exercises, sometimes, although those seem super useful

Oh!
And I'm new here. Hi. :)

Writing your novel from start to finish by Joseph bates (I think it's good for beginners).

On Writing by you know who... (Stephen King)

Save the cat writes a novel is pretty good as well. (And is the YA version as well. Though I have not read a lot of it).

The hero's journey, joseph campbell.

Screeeeeech!

Sorry. I needed to drag my soapbox out of the corner. Not sure how it got all the way over there. It’s almost like someone was trying to hide it for some reason. Ah, well, it’s probably just my imagination.

Anyway.

One of my first barriers to writing was that I wrongly believed that words were staples—something that fastened my thoughts onto a page so that someone else could view them. My thoughts, not my words. Unfortunately for me, that’s not correct at all.

Another of my errors was in the study of writing. My exclusive study of writing. While it might seem obvious, writing is a means to an end, not the end itself. Screenwriting, poetry, television, cinema, music, art… They’re all different mediums for conveying a story. So too is writing. When I began to study different formats, it improved both my writing and my story. The same thing happened when I began studying genres that were outside of my preference.

For that reason, the first book I recommend is:

• The Anatomy of Genre by John Truby

I’m currently reading this one. Truby goes through each genre in turn. He lays out their required beats and provides many examples. One thing I found really interesting was how each genre addresses a different life philosophy.

He has another book called The Anatomy of Story. I plan to pick it up after finishing this one. I imagine either of these books would prove to be a boon for any writer choosing to investigate them.

• Trivium by Wooden Books

This book is part of a rather magical series that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. The first book I got was called Quadrivium, which covered four separate subjects: Number, Geometry, Music, and Cosmology. I have returned to this book repeatedly and only recently discovered that it was part of a series. I’ve since picked up Sciencia (various sciences), Designa (visual arts), and, of course, Trivium.

I recommend them all, but Trivium is particularly noteworthy because of its subject matter. It touches on Grammar, Logic, & Rhetoric, all of which are relevant to writing and language.

• The Little Red Writing Book by Brandon Royal

This one’s easy. Who wouldn’t want a book with such a rock star title? Plus, it has some great information about grammar!

Screeeeeech!

What? Don’t look at me like that. I had to put it back. Would you rather I leave it out for someone else to come along and trip over?

How not to write a book (This) is fun, and shows what poor writing looks like with examples and explains why it doesn't work. I will note it can get a bit dickish at times and I have outright ignored the advice but sh...

It's mostly narrative/scene advice, for example never have characters make a plan that just works flawlessly because it kills tension

While I'm here, how to write 5000 words per hour (this) is general advice to write faster but it works so

I actually don't really read books to help with my writing. At best, I might look at a style guide, and occasionally, I will look at online threads or YouTube videos about worldbuilding, but when I read, I tend not to notice the subtlety of prose that I'd want to notice or use.

So, I mainly rely on my own abilities and feedback, however, also not as much as you think because I tend to be my own worst critic :)

In other news, I got some "big projects" that i've been putting off done this week like this crossover with u/tregonial 's Elvari.

I read a book a hundred years ago titled "Stien on Writing" by unsurprisingly someone named Sol Stien. Short and to the point, the author's perspective was largely, be short and to the point. Show don't tell. Most of all, think from the character's perspective.

He also had an interesting take on love scenes and what to focus on, and definitely what not to focus on. Again, it comes down to how the character views the world, not the author.

Another theme Stien loved was omission. He made the argument that the reader can imagine something more efficiently than you as the author can describe. Trust the reader to fill in some blanks, and the story will stick with them longer. An example of this is how one reader perceived the alien species known as the Gemini in my serial. The reader imagined them having iridescent blue skin where I, as the author, imagined more a flat matted blue skin to almost sapphire. It works either way, making the detail not that important in the end.

I think this book influences my writing a lot. My greatest weakness is word economy, which Stien harps on insistently. There are a number of other things I can't recall atm. It's worth a read for sure.

This post was highlighted by mods and automatically crossposted to r/highlights. Check it out to see a feed of highlighted posts!