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    Books about writing.

    I am surprised not to see that PPV has started this already. Are there any good readable books about the writing process - whether screenplays, novel, theatrical scripts or journalism? I say "readable" as I have read ones that are like technical handbooks or "How to.." books, especially about scriptwriting but more along the lines of the history of writing or how particular authors wrote etc. As i say, in the other thread, writers' biographies seem like a good shout but they tend to concentrate more on the writer's life and personality than how they write.

    #2
    Stephen King's excellent On Writing springs to mind, which I seem to recall is subtitled A Memoir of the Craft. Part autobiography, part how-to, it gives a great insight into how King produces his writing.

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      #3
      Not a book, but Future Learn do a free online course on screenwriting: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/screenwriting

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        #4
        Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (primarily fiction)

        On Writing Well by William Zinsser (non-fiction)

        Amazon sells these as a bundle with the King book.

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          #5
          Essays by George Orwell: Politics and the English Language, and Why I Write

          https://www.amazon.com/Why-Write-Pen.../dp/0143036351

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            #6
            The Lamott book that ursus mentions is good. I also liked two books by Julia Cameron, The Artists Way and Right to Write, though i suspect many here would find them a bit hippy selfhelpy

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              #7
              I was going to mention Cameron, but chose not to for just that reason. She's also built a bit of an empire of retreats and the like that I find off-putting. That said, there are enough excerpts out there that it is easy to get a sense of what she does.

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                #8
                I left that goal open for you, BE, on purpose because if I'm considered an arse out there among the other chapters my rep in books is even worse.

                Stephen King's On Writing is an absolute must because he doesn't bore you over 900 pages how you should write, technicalities, he explains so brilliantly what you should feel like when you write. What the difference is between a very good story and an attempt at one. King explains the difference between a proper tale, and just some drunk in a bar ruining what has potential to become one.

                I can recommend, about movie script writing, Blake Snyder's Save the Cat. You will read through it in less than a couple hours but it tells you everything. About beats, which also are important in books, why most movies seem the same regardless of genre, how our human nature accepts a 90min movie so much more than a 120min one, and many more things.
                Last edited by Pietro Paolo Virdis; 24-07-2018, 21:38.

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                  #9
                  I've read somewhere around 20-ish books about script writing and book writing. A couple of them are brilliant, the rest exhausting, but the interesting thing is how close script writing is to writing a book. In my mind it was always that a book could be anything you want, that you could write it anyhow. But no, the most popular follow a mold, a template. It's interesting how close the worst kind of 90min action movie is so close to the best kind of book by an acclaimed author. Almost scary when you dig deeper and find there's a pattern where we will like if it follows that pattern, or subconsciously frown at if it doesn't. The book can bee 900 pages, the movie with a totally different story and other genre can be 80min, doesn't matter. As long as those beats are there, that's so very decisive.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                    Stephen King's excellent On Writing springs to mind, which I seem to recall is subtitled A Memoir of the Craft. Part autobiography, part how-to, it gives a great insight into how King produces his writing.
                    Just run across the thread that this thread was spun off from, and discovered this was already discussed there... Ah well, just put it down as another vote for Mr King's opus. (I've never read any of his other books, by the way.)

                    Edit: Actually, it's OK, apparently I posted the recommendation in this thread a minute or so before it was mentioned there!
                    Last edited by Various Artist; 24-07-2018, 16:00.

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                      #11
                      BE, if you want the Stephen King On Writing audio book I can send it to you. MP3 format. It's even better when he's reading it to you.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                        Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott (primarily fiction)

                        On Writing Well by William Zinsser (non-fiction)

                        Amazon sells these as a bundle with the King book.
                        Both those are a chore. It's like reading a non-published author explain to a published author why they were not published and now they'll explain what lesson they learned, over 400 pages.

                        I liked K.M Weiland - Structuring your novel. That's the basics I need and want.
                        Last edited by Pietro Paolo Virdis; 24-07-2018, 23:25.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Pietro Paolo Virdis View Post
                          BE, if you want the Stephen King On Writing audio book I can send it to you. MP3 format. It's even better when he's reading it to you.
                          Oh, wow, yeah, that would be great, cheers. You can send it over FB messenger can't you?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Pietro Paolo Virdis View Post
                            I've read somewhere around 20-ish books about script writing and book writing. A couple of them are brilliant, the rest exhausting, but the interesting thing is how close script writing is to writing a book. In my mind it was always that a book could be anything you want, that you could write it anyhow. But no, the most popular follow a mold, a template. It's interesting how close the worst kind of 90min action movie is so close to the best kind of book by an acclaimed author. Almost scary when you dig deeper and find there's a pattern where we will like if it follows that pattern, or subconsciously frown at if it doesn't. The book can bee 900 pages, the movie with a totally different story and other genre can be 80min, doesn't matter. As long as those beats are there, that's so very decisive.
                            That is good as I am considering rewriting my script as a novel now. I want to change a major set of characters and put in another subplot and, anyway, the script never got anywhere.

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                              #15
                              Send me an email zvonko.katic@gmail.com and I will send over the audio book. If you have never read it, this is the one.

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Stephen king is excellent as others have said

                                Kipling Something of Myself has a chapter with some interesting things about writing
                                As does Robert Louis Stevenson


                                Annie Dillard The writing Life

                                For screenwriting William Goldman's Adventures in the Screentrade is still very good

                                Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
                                by Natalie Goldberg is a bit hippy but not unhelpful

                                The Paris Review interviews with writers are always interesting

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                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                  Just run across the thread that this thread was spun off from, and discovered this was already discussed there... Ah well, just put it down as another vote for Mr King's opus. (I've never read any of his other books, by the way.)

                                  Edit: Actually, it's OK, apparently I posted the recommendation in this thread a minute or so before it was mentioned there!
                                  Give it a go. He's changed since the days of Carrie, Cujo and Pet Semetary. A lot.
                                  Put down that third book about a shitload fiddy shades of grey and try King, once.

                                  Stephen King is one of the best story tellers of our time. Without doubt.
                                  Not the greatest ever, that's Dickens.
                                  Nor is he up there literature Noble laureates, but who the fuck reads those obscure ones anyway?
                                  There is something which he has, King, a gift, where the complicated is the point yet made so simple and that simple is made exciting. He is truly worth at least one try.
                                  Try Misery, try that book. Read it and notice how Hitchcock is in every vein of King's inspiration.

                                  Not having read a book by Stephen King is a bit like never having listened to a song by Depeche Mode, or eaten pita gyros, or been to Stonehenge and wonder what it would feel like to just tip every single one of them stones on their arse.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                                    Oh, wow, yeah, that would be great, cheers. You can send it over FB messenger can't you?
                                    No, since the file in total is 331Mb i will have to use WeTransfer and that requires an email, yours, where you will get link to download.
                                    I will include Save the cat and Save the cat strikes back (script writing)

                                    You might want to check out the page as well: http://www.savethecat.com/

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Pietro Paolo Virdis View Post
                                      Give it a go. He's changed since the days of Carrie, Cujo and Pet Semetary. A lot.
                                      Put down that third book about a shitload fiddy shades of grey and try King, once.

                                      Stephen King is one of the best story tellers of our time. Without doubt.
                                      Not the greatest ever, that's Dickens.
                                      Nor is he up there literature Noble laureates, but who the fuck reads those obscure ones anyway?
                                      There is something which he has, King, a gift, where the complicated is the point yet made so simple and that simple is made exciting. He is truly worth at least one try.
                                      Try Misery, try that book. Read it and notice how Hitchcock is in every vein of King's inspiration.

                                      Not having read a book by Stephen King is a bit like never having listened to a song by Depeche Mode, or eaten pita gyros, or been to Stonehenge and wonder what it would feel like to just tip every single one of them stones on their arse.
                                      I love Depeche Mode, does that help? I don't know what pita gyros is or are, though. And I have no desire to read any of the Fifty Shades books...

                                      I also have no interest in horror, hence the lack of King in general. The one of his I'd really like to give a go, though, is Under The Dome.

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                                        #20
                                        "It" by King is brilliant. The book genuinely made me jump when they placed a particular frightening bit at the top of the next page. Yelped out loud, I did. On a bus. The recent film was good and I have heard that, although I previously assumed the contrary, the TV miniseries is excellent.

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                                          #21
                                          Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" I found to be absolutely brilliant and gripping when I read it a few years back. It's probably best if you read it having not seen the film and not knowing anything about the story. I was in that position when I read it and it truly thrilled. It's not really a "horror" book so if you find the horror angle offputting this might be the one of his to try first.

                                          Reading the stuff about King here has made me interested in him again! Today I found the "Skeleton Crew" collection second-hand, and am reading "The Jaunt" from it. It is superb!

                                          You hit the nail on the head, PPV, when you said he makes the complicated simple and exciting.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                                            "It" by King is brilliant. The book genuinely made me jump when they placed a particular frightening bit at the top of the next page. Yelped out loud, I did. On a bus. The recent film was good and I have heard that, although I previously assumed the contrary, the TV miniseries is excellent.
                                            You can still send me that email for the files. If you're worried I'll get your real email in my books and bombard you with all kind of shite, don't you have a Hitler-email?

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by lackedpunch View Post
                                              Stephen King's "The Dead Zone" I found to be absolutely brilliant and gripping when I read it a few years back. It's probably best if you read it having not seen the film and not knowing anything about the story. I was in that position when I read it and it truly thrilled. It's not really a "horror" book so if you find the horror angle offputting this might be the one of his to try first.

                                              Reading the stuff about King here has made me interested in him again! Today I found the "Skeleton Crew" collection second-hand, and am reading "The Jaunt" from it. It is superb!

                                              You hit the nail on the head, PPV, when you said he makes the complicated simple and exciting.
                                              Cheers.
                                              Dead Zone, I will never forget the first time I read it. Me, my sister and my mum were in Croatia when it was still Yugoslavia. In Omis. My dad couldn't come because he would have been detained and all that shit since he had been open about being against the communism down there. Anyway, I had brought a couple of Stephen King with me. I was 13 or 14 and there were a couple of parts in Dead Zone where I got goose bumps. The ice skating kid was one.
                                              Also remember getting properly drunk for the first time down in Omis. Mom and sister had gone to sleep. I stayed downstairs in the restaurant which was one flight of stairs below our hotel room, and the staff started to give me all sorts of drinks for the simple reason I had said I was Croatian from Sweden. One of the happiest moments in my life.
                                              Last edited by Pietro Paolo Virdis; 27-07-2018, 23:19.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Various Artist View Post
                                                I also have no interest in horror, hence the lack of King in general. Under The Dome.
                                                Read one book. Only one, and you will find that it's not about horror. The thing where people connect Stephen King with horror is understandable but that's not why his writing is so good, that he's some H.P. Lovecraft. Oh no, it's the other stuff which is so good. It, the book, is two bricks of books with many pages about a clown killing kids. Yes. But the fantastic is how he manages to describe the comradery between the kids, friendship and bond. That's what makes It so good. Not a scary clown.
                                                Carrie is about a young girl with supernatural powers but that's not the power of the book. The power of the book is about a teenager turning into a woman and her fear to obey and distance herself from an awful mother, both at once or either.
                                                Pet Semetary is about the egotistical in human nature.
                                                Misery is about how we don't allow famous people to live their lives but think we the collective own them as soon as they become famous.
                                                The Shining is not about a hotel filled with old evil and voodoo, it is about how vulnerable we all are to becoming detached from reality and so easily can fall over our own feet.

                                                The supernatural and horror in Stephen King books is only a route in. That's only a side kick. What is truly amazing with his books is the way he portrays people.

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                                                  #25
                                                  If only he could write endings but. Or did less gak in the 80s.

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