Oddly, Facebook wouldn’t let me post the winners of the Catch and Kill Audiobook Giveaway that ended yesterday. Here’s the list of winners!
United States
Tammy H.
Catrina P.
Yvonne K.
Katie C.
Deborah M.
Courtney A.
Kath B
Renee C.
Olivera
Linda W.
David C.
Randy M.
Paula W.
Chaya K.
Bill B.
Collette
Robert R.
Elena A.
Kendra K.
Dale M.
Pam R.
Peter C.
Nickie
Sarah A.
Peter G.
United Kingdom winners
Susan V.
Garry
Pat
Bill B.
Barry S.
Penelope B.
Renee C.
Ian
Lilah D.
Jodie E.
Randy O.
Patricia W.
Allen H.
Mark S.
Mary J.
Colleen F.
Leticia R.
Dale N.
Don B.
Heidi L.
]]>– I love the Deborah Chester book The Fantasy Fiction Formula. I just got it, it’s excellent!
– I read Jim Butcher’s blog where he explains the scene and sequel thing and that is how I write now. Then I got the Bickham book to learn more.
– Philip Athans’s blog is a good one for the sf/fantasy writer, too. He also has a good book on the subject, although I didn’t include it in my list.
If I were to have some honorable mentions, it would include Athans’s book The Guide to Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction.
– Sol Stein’s “Secrets of a Master Editor” and “Practical Craft Techniques”
– I have a number of the books mentioned above on my shelves, however the one which spoke to me the most was “Drown the Cat” by Dario Cirriello. It’s straightforward common sense approach is refreshing. And actually freed my creativity where many of the above blocked it.
– The Writer’s Tale by Russell T Davies. So much good advice in there and it’s entertaining.
– 2k to 10K by Rachel Aaron
– I have Vogler’s book and have read it, too. Very good. I much prefer it to Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces. Campbell’s purpose was to construct a monolithic theory of myth that professional mythologists actually say is rubbish (in fact, a professor of mythology at University of Maryland has said as much in a class on mythology that I took).
Campbell’s ideas might be great for mythic story structure, but as a “unified” theory for explaining all of mythology, it’s not very good, to be honest.
I like Vogler’s book better than Campbell’s, though, because he cuts to the chase and shows specifically how Campbell’s ideas are relevant to fiction. That’s what I’m interested in, not the rest of what Campbell says. I’d rather read the various myths themselves, actually, than read someone’s opinions/theories on them. For that reason, I have quite a few books in my personal library that recount the mythologies of various cultures around the world — classical (Roman & Greek), Norse, British Isles, Celtic, Maaori, Fairy Faith, and much more.
I also like Sir James George Frazer’s The Golden Bough, but, like Campbell, he also sought to create a monolithic theory of myth to try to explain all myths (although his initial purpose was to explain a particular practice in the worship of the goddess Diana). A lot of mythologists of old have followed that monolithic theory pattern, only to be shown later that their ideas don’t hold water. You’d think they’d learn. What I like best about Frazer’s book, though, is his discussion of the various forms of magic in the ancient world. Very helpful in creating magic systems for fantasy.
]]>– You might also enjoy “Blueprint your bestseller: Organize and Revise any Manuscript with the Book Architecture Method” by Stuart Horwitz, “The Bestseller Code: Anatomy of a Blockbuster Novel” by Jodie Archer and Matthew L Jockers and “Perennial Seller: The Art of Making and Marketing Work that Lasts” by Ryan Holiday.
]]>– Here’s my ten, in no particular order,…
1. Scene and Structure, Jack M. Bickham
2. Setting, Jack M. Bickham
3. Story Trumps Structure, Steven James
4. How to Write Best Selling Fiction, Dean Koontz
5. Plot & Structure, James Scott Bell
6. Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction, Orson Scott Card, Philip Athans, Jay Lake and the Editors of Writer’s Digest (this is actually Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy and Writers Digest’s old The Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference thrown together into one volume)
7. How to Grow a Novel, Sol Stein
8. Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print, Lawrence Block (he’s updated this — I’ve got that, too — and its new title is Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print to Pixel)
9. The Art of Dramatic Writing, Lajos Egri
10. Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight V. Swain (Swain was Bickham’s instructor at Univ. of Oklahoma, which is where Bickham’s Scene & Structure is rooted, and then there’s The Fantasy Fiction Formula, by Deborah Chester, who followed Bickham at Univ. of Oklahoma, and she taught Jim Butcher of Dresden Files fame — so, Swain, Bickham and Chester all pretty much teach the same thing that’s been taught in the Professional Writing program at Univ. of Oklahoma for decades, with improvements as time has worn on).
– If You Want to Write from Brenda Ueland is pretty great too.
– The Secret of Story by Matt Bird.
– Structuring Your Novel by Meredith and Fitzgerald. That book taught how to read like a novelist and it breaks down seven novels: The Pearl and Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck, From Here To Eternity to James Jones, Madame Bovary by Flaubert, Tom Jones by Fielding, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by LeCarre, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Lee. It goes over Viewpoint, Theme, Plot or Storyline, Characters and so on. I have learned so much from reading it.
– Elmore Leonard’s ten rules for writing
– If you want to write, Brenda Ueland. On Writing, Stephen King. On Writer’s Block, Victoria Nelson.
– Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat, Libbie Hawker, Take Off Your Pants are two books I refer to constantly to help with plotting
– I probably read over 100 books on the craft now- each one helpful in their own way. I think that using Save the Cat, the Donald Mass workbook and Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell is what helped me to sell my very first attempt at a novel to a NYC editor.
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