For all you who are struggling to write even though you love it

[AhoDesuGa]

I suggest you read writing down the bones by natalie Goldberg!

What it is: For more than twenty years Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering on writers with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice--"it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind."



It's rather easy to read and that alone should say enough about Natalie's ability to write and how effective her tips and advice are! I hope you give it a shot and benefit from it as I did.

 

[DaoFox]

may give it a peek if i can for free later. have a few other books that try to cover the same topic, but my writing issues come 2nd to my idea generation issues xD

 

[Scribbler]

I recommend The Elements of Style as it's a third of the length of Writing Down the Bones and gets to the point quite quickly. I don't like books that liken short stories about one's life to actual writing advice/guidelines.

 

[AhoDesuGa]

I recommend The Elements of Style as it's a third of the length of Writing Down the Bones and gets to the point quite quickly. I don't like books that liken short stories about one's life to actual writing advice/guidelines.

Oh? Interesting.

 

[AhoDesuGa]

may give it a peek if i can for free later. have a few other books that try to cover the same topic, but my writing issues come 2nd to my idea generation issues xD

Do your best daofox!

 

[Lone_Crane]

When it comes to books about writing, I can't recommend enough The Making of a Story by Alice LaPlante. It's by far the best book I have read on the nuts and bolts of technique used in writing fiction and creative nonfiction. There are also stories and essays that illustrate the techniques talked about, as well as exercises for you to practice on your own.

Writing Down the Bones is good too, more of a book to give you the inspiration/confidence/motivation to write. Stephen King's On Writing is great for that too.

I also really recommend Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Rennie Browne. It contains a lot of useful advice on how to tighten up and clarify your writing. It's really helpful.

And of course, just read more! Nothing gets me in the mood to write more than reading some of my favorite authors.

 

[Lone_Crane]

I recommend The Elements of Style as it's a third of the length of Writing Down the Bones and gets to the point quite quickly. I don't like books that liken short stories about one's life to actual writing advice/guidelines.

Caution with The Elements of Style. It has some incorrect stuff in it, like the section on passive voice: three of the four examples given are NOT passive voice!

Also it can just be kinda unhelpful like when it says: Omit needless words. Well, yeah, duh. But how to know which are needless?! So there's some pointless advice in it like that.