In The Demons' Head #16:
Writing Books; Good or Bad for your Writing
April 24, 2012
Hello everyone,
It's near the end of April
and as the My Name Is Not Bob platforming and Poem a Day Challenge
wrap up and most of us writers move onto our next projects which for
some will be a new novel, others editing, and still others will have
a number of tasks they intend to finish moving forward, I thought
this would be a good time to take a look at a tool I'm sure a lot of
us have used or invested in, Writing Books and I seek to answer the
question do they help or hurt your writing.
When I first decided on
this topic about a month or so ago I honestly figured that my mind
was already made up, but as the month progressed and I got further
into the Elements of Fiction: Plot book my mind started to change.
Originally, I thought that
books that were aimed either directly at your choice of writing, or
were written by those you highly respected that they would be
beneficial, in reality I was wrong on both sides of that coin.
The first writing book I
ever read was called On Writing by Stephen King and it made me
rethink how I do all of my writing and I picked it up simply because
of how much I respect his work. But then I received some writing
books for Christmas from my amazing girlfriend Liz and decided I'd
give em a try, what I found was that as long as you are receptive to
some of the knowledge you can learn a lot, just like I have from the
plot book.
Also, I learned that
writing books can be general. Both from my experience with the Author
101 series, which is geared toward non-fiction writers. I learned a
few secrets from that. The same can be said of my friend Brendon
Wiles who is writing a lot more and has learned some secrets from the
On Writing book that I have.
The reason I bring this up
is because I was thinking back some time ago that these books were
more hurtful to your writing then they could help but as time has
went on I've decided that these things are something that is to be
treasured but read with an open mind. What I mean there is that you
can't want to incorporate EVERY single detail that is mentioned only
because it would drive you insane trying to pull off the perfections.
You still have to be you while your writing.
For the books I recommend,
The entire Elements of Fiction Series, On Writing By Stephen King and
the elements of style just to name a few. If you would like to check
those out check out Amazon or Barns and Noble.
Until the next time you
want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demons'
head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.
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