Tag creative writing

6 Books to Help You Become a Better Writer

Gary Nilsen Leave a comment

(A video version of this post can be found at:  https://www.instagram.com/p/DdfB4KvBGkE/?hl=en )

An open book emitting light surrounded by stacks of old books, with letters floating in the air.

There are significantly more indie authors out there than in years past and a common complaint you hear is that the quality of writing has diminished by the infusion of books that would otherwise fail to meet the standard of a traditionally published one. By no means should that insinuate an indie or self-published author is incapable of putting out an equally good product. But that doesn’t happen without putting in the work. Is it hard work? Yes. Does it sometimes cost a fair amount of money? It can.

But I think it’s possible to acquire certain skills to get your book to a higher level. Having said that, I wanted to recommend six books that I consider fundamental in attaining a higher level of competency as a writer.

Book cover for 'Self-Editing for Fiction Writers' by Renni Browne and Dave King, featuring a colorful pencil and illustrations by George Booth.

1 – Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, by Renni Browne and Dave King. It’s available online for around $11 and is on the shelves of many bookstores in the self-help or reference section. The secondary title on the cover says: How to edit yourself into print. It covers a wealth of clues as to what will strengthen your writing by assessing your own work against the techniques they discuss. Things like show, don’t tell, point of view, dialogue, character, and pacing. By upping your game, using these filters, your reviews will be better and if you so desire to choose a path to traditional publishing, agents will regard your product in a more favorable light.

Book cover of 'Master Class in Fiction Writing' by Adam Sexton, featuring portraits of classic authors and text describing techniques from renowned writers.

2 – Master Class in Fiction Writing, by Adam Sexton. This book is also available online, I think for about $17. As the title would suggest, it’s like taking a course that walks you through all the elements of writing a book: a books structure, characters, plot, the use of description and dialogue, point of view, along with others and everything that goes into each. I went back to school for an MFA in Fiction. I learned a lot of what is discussed in this book along with an entry into a greater writing community as a result, but it was costly.

A black and white photograph of a man sitting in a chair with his feet on a desk, surrounded by books, a computer, and other writing tools, with a dog sitting beside him.

3 – On Writing – A Memoir Of The Craft, by Stephen King. It’s available online and often found alongside Mr. King’s other books. Yes, Stephen King is my all time favorite author, who wrote my all time favorite book – The Stand. Most love his writing and some don’t. Many think he’s just a writer who writes scary books, but he is SO MUCH MORE than that. He breathes life into characters like no one else. So, love him or not, his book is for every writer. It begins with his journey to becoming a best-selling author, but then freely offers some of the best advice and does not pull punches about what it takes and whether you’ll ever achieve the top tier of authorhood.

Cover of 'The Elements of Style' by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, featuring a quote by Charles Osgood and stating 'Fourth Edition'.

4 – The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White, and Roger Angell. It’s available online and most certainly in any good bookstore. If you’re like me, you’ve probably owned a copy since high school or college. I will simply say the book is invaluable. It first came out in 1918 and was commercially published in 1920. It’s been updated several times throughout its history. I owe my entire knowledge and understanding of punctuation to this little, 105 page book. Keep it on the side of your desk as you write.

Cover of the book 'Reading Like a Writer' by Francine Prose, featuring a title and subtitle, along with a notable book badge from The New York Times.

5 – Reading like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write them, by Francine Prose. Available online for a little over $10. You cannot be a writer unless you are a reader. It would be like trying to learn a language without listening to others speak around you. There is a difference between reading a book for enjoyment and reading a book as a writer. Approaching a novel as a writer, you must learn how to understand what other writers have done and why it works. I joked in a post the other day about how writers “steal” from other writers. It’s not truly stealing, but I wasn’t kidding, learning how to absorb the tricks and techniques that others use successfully and then employing those lessons in your own writing will make you stronger. This is the book on how to do that. I can’t speak for all authors, but the only drawback for my having digested this book is that I’m much quicker to pick up on examples of poor writing with the books I read – books I would have happily consumed once upon a time with no judgement.

But that leads me to my final book on the list.

Cover of the book 'Toxic Feedback' by Joni B. Cole, featuring an illustration of skeletal hands over a keyboard, with the subtitle 'Helping Writers Survive and Thrive.'

6 – Toxic Feedback: Helping Writers Survive and Thrive, by Joni Cole. I don’t know if bookstores carry it, but it is available online for about $20. The first thing a writer needs to develop is a thick skin. You won’t survive without one. If you are still writing your first book, secretly hiding it on your computer and not having shared it yet, then the time will come, as it has come to us all, when your words will be read by others – and I’m not talking about a family member who will praise even cringe-worthy prose, just because…Someday, an editor or a beta reader or an agent is going to assess your work with all the honesty of a Marine drill sergeant. After your book is published, you’re going to get awful commentary from readers with 1 and 2 star postings. You must be prepared for that. It also means you need to know how to discuss other peoples writing in ways that offer legitimate, supportive advice and feedback. It is a critical skillset that needs to be acquired – from both directions – giving it and taking it.

So, for less than a hundred bucks you can arm yourself with some amazing advice and tools to help you polish your work to a higher standard. I hope you take a look at these and find them helpful.

Happy writing…

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The Writing Environment – Pick What’s Best For You!

Gary Nilsen Leave a comment

(A video version of this post can be found at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DdMz2ypBcxF/ )

There are a lot of jokes about what, where, and how writers write. I’ve heard that Stephen King works 24/7/365 and listens to loud music. I read that both Ernest Hemingway and Virginia Woolf stood in front of their elevated desks and Roald Dahl sat in a backyard shed. I like the shed idea. One of the writers I personally know does something similar up in New Hampshire and another takes a long, quite walk through the woods before settling down with a clear head.

Whatever the routine…and it’s different for everyone, the setting and the prep are crucial to getting words to pour out of their heads. It’s not as simple as sitting in front of a laptop and doing word crunches. Some of the jokes I mentioned is often of writers doing anything other than writing – they’ll clean the kitchen, do the laundry, toss a ball across the living room for the dog to fetch, write social media posts about writing instead of actually writing. Or we’ll just stare off into space looking like someone who’d just had a lobotomy.

I’m sure many writers are like me. Once the flow begins and you hit that zone where the outside world no longer exists because you’ve managed to achieve the Vulcan mind-meld with your characters, the slightest interruption – you’re wife telling you she’s going to the store or someone choosing that moment to call on your cell, even a TV playing in the background are sure to turn a mild-mannered Dr. Jekyll into a raging Mr. Hyde. AND, that slight hiccup will cost another 20 minutes before you get back to where you were.

Then there is the writing environment. Everyone has heard the cliché of the writer’s garret – the small space which occupies the top floor or the attic of someone’s house. I’d kill for one of those. I don’t know how some manage to create sitting in a Starbucks.

When I was writing my novel Alfheim, I rented a cubicle in The Writers Room – a space just off Broadway in lower Manhattan in New York City for some solitude, but for this book I needed mood enhancers. I didn’t have a quiet forest to clear my head, and I was dealing with fae creatures and elves who existed in a woodland realm. I was trying to conjure episodes of fairy magic and build a world that grew from Celtic mythology and settings.

Music and fantasy art took the place of a forest. My go to was Enya and Loreena McKennitt – from the opening bars of their music to the closing notes, pieces such as Enya’s May it Be or McKennitt’s The Mummers Dance and The Mystic’s Dream transported me instantly to the place where my characters were. And the visuals from a host of talented graphic artists displaying their work on DeviantArt.com helped me with the brushstrokes of my world-building.

For you fantasy writers, you don’t have to be a member of DeviantArt, just go to the site and hit the button for Fantasy and you can plunge down the rabbit hole of imagination from the sheer amount of talent out there.

And, I’ll let you in on a little secret. Writers are thievish. We don’t plagiarize, but we do steal…well, let’s just call it borrowing. We find things that work for other writers and artists and we “borrow” their “tech” and put our own spin on things. Think of it as the Sword of Gryffindor – it only takes in that which makes it stronger. It’s about creating a flavor.

If you have a notion of writing a story, I urge you to find the place and mood that puts you where you’re ready to set words on paper. If you are a writer share some of your techniques and go-to’s in the comments.

Happy reading…or writing…

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Book Review: To Catch A Killer

Gary Nilsen 1 Comment

To Catch A Killer

Sheryl Scarborough’s novel follows a teen girl, who as a toddler witnessed her mother’s murder, a horror that remains unsolved. Obsessed with that lack of resolution, Erin is drawn into the world of forensics, largely in part because her adoptive mother’s brother works for the FBI and authored a book on the subject. Her life is further complicated by an uncommunicative parental figure, a strong desire to learn the identity of her birth-father, and deal with the murder of her favorite teacher – the catalyst that launches the story. Tossed into the mix are her burgeoning feelings toward a boy who is a prime suspect and her relationship with two zany girlfriends.

The book felt like a contemporary spin on a Nancy Drew plot as Erin moves deeper into the gray areas of the law in her search for clues to both murders and her paternity. In a classic case of misdirection, suspects keep stepping to the forefront as Erin struggles to handle the full range of teen emotions that pull in all directions.

Though she faces danger on a number of occasions, the narrative never generates a truly palpable sense of peril, and the real culprit barely scores a menacing personality. Teen fans of TV shows like CSI will appreciate the forensics primer as Erin works through the evidence she accumulates.

A fun story even if it lacks strong emotional teeth.

Point of View (POV): Who’s Telling the Story Anyway?

Gary Nilsen 1 Comment

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Every writer has encountered the POV police, those nagging editors who tell you that you’ve violated the rules and gives you a literary slap on the wrist. The transgression – allowing two or more characters access to his or her own feelings or thoughts within the same scene, or worse – the same paragraph. Omniscient writers of the 19th and 20th centuries were masters of it, but the style has evolved into something much better. Today, we have scene or chapter shifts when writing in third person and alternating first person chapters as an additional choice. Violations of this sort contribute to an agent or editor thinking the writer is an amateur at worst or sloppy at best – neither of these things are desirable.

Rather than looking at these violations as something to avoid, writers should seek to capitalize on that element of craft. Use it! Get inside more of the characters’ heads. Let the reader see and feel what’s going on from the varied cast of characters who inhabit your world. The result will be added depth. After all, who likes to listen to a one-sided conversation?

Broadening the POV experience in a novel can create added tension and conflict; all the goodies that make readers turn the page. Any character in a chapter can be given dialogue, but consider what happens when you are in that characters POV, and the thought is not the same as what s/he says, especially if the character isn’t your protagonist. She might be saying I love you, but secretly thinking: I hate you, and I’m going to kill you. The reader now understands where she’s coming from, but the protagonist doesn’t. It’s like watching a movie knowing the killer is standing behind the door and the hero doesn’t. Instant tension. Readers love tension – give ‘em some.

POV is a direct path to characterization. Just as actions speak louder than words, so does what a person thinks, and in novels we get the luxury of knowing what that is. If your standing in a room of people, you have no idea what people are really thinking, only what they’re doing and saying, so use POV to flesh out your characters; all of them.

How do you avoid breaking the rule? First, practice and more practice writing will help. Second, before you begin to write a scene or chapter, take a moment to consider who the best choice would be in terms of moving the story forward and building conflict and tension. Once you’ve decided, then pretend you’re a demon and simply invade the body of that character. Every thought, feeling, and sentence that proceeds from that character’s mouth stems from the experience, knowledge, and education of that character. How and why they say and do things will be unique to that character, and that makes the story three-dimensional.

Don’t try to avoid the rule – grab it and own it.

Happy writing!!!