Reading Rec: My Writing Bibles
My Top 3 Essential Guides for How to Write Well
I love craft books on writing! Love ‘em! I keep a mini library of these books right behind my desk so I can reach for one when I need answers or inspiration. I consider three books foundational texts for my reading and teaching: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott; The Elements of Style, by William Strunk and E.B. White; and Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder.
Although it is filled with practical information, I consider Bird by Bird a spiritual guide for writers. Lamott is wise, warm, funny, and direct. Reading this book (breaking my own rule here by using a gerund as the subject) is like having tea with your own beloved writing mentor as she shares her writing secrets and roots for your success.
The 15 story beats detailed in Snyder’s Save the Cat! guides me through everything that I write—screenplays, fiction, and even creative nonfiction. I find Snyder’s story structure method not only helpful, but comforting. These beats give story direction and purpose. In the same way I wouldn’t want to be adrift at sea without buoys to help me navigate my course, I don’t want to be lost in my writing. Story beats ensure your story has a dramatic arc and that all its pieces add up to give your readers or audience an emotionally satisfying experience. The book is so popular and helpful to writers that author Jessica Brody wrote her own craft book based on it, called Save the Cat! Writes a Novel. I highly recommend.
There comes a point in writing when you have to sweat the small stuff. At this point, you review every word to make sure its meaning, function, worth, and sentence placement are spot on. For this level of scrutiny, Strunk and White, as the book is affectionately known, is your must-have style bible. If I can’t talk you into reading about how to punctuate nonrestrictive clauses or when to use fewer instead of less, at least read Chapter V, “An Approach to Style.” Read it, study it, take it to bed with you, and then do as you wish. After all, it’s your story. But If you work with me, some or many of the lessons in these books will find their way into your writing, and your writing will be the better for it.