What are Some Excellent Writing Resources?

maxitoutwriter said:

My plan is to write one short story for an or two hour per day, but I'm still looking for other, better methods to improve.

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Writing one short story for three or four hours per day. Or two stories for two hours each per day.

Seriously, you shouldn't rely on a writing "cookbook". There are all manner of books which provide tips on specific things about writing, and/or inspirational/encouraging anecdotes, but the best "method" I can think of is to READ.

A lot. And a lot of different kinds of things. You want to write short stories? Read:

Ray Bradbury
John O'Hara
Flannery O'Connor
Bernard Malamud
Arthur C. Clarke
Eudora Welty
Alice Munro
. . . . .

Read, and pay attention to things the writers do that make the stories work.

caw

Which genres are you interested in writing?

I think you might want to target your study a bit - "writing" is a pretty broad field to approach all at once.

Have you had anyone critiquing your work? Are you removed enough from any of it to analyze it yourself?

If so, what are your strengths, and, more importantly for this exercise, your weaknesses?

I kind of agree with blackbird that reading other people's fiction is the most useful way to go, but lots of people read lots of fiction without learning much about writing. I think you need to be able to analyze what you're reading a little as you go. (Since I started writing, it's gotten a lot harder for me to lose myself in a story and just get washed along. Usually I'm too busy figuring out what the author did well and what the author did poorly - I can learn from both).

So I'd recommend figuring out where you are and what you need to work on, then reading some theory books/sites on whatever that area of writing is, then reading some fiction and trying to apply the theory to that work, and then reading your own work to see if you can apply it there.

JUST theory is pretty empty, but I'd argue that JUST reading and writing, with no analysis, will just lead to having more words read and written without much improvement in quality.

The most important aspect to study at any one time is the one in which you're weakest. What that might be, we have no way of knowing .

Read the kinds of books you want to write. Read other kinds of books. Read a lot.

For non-fiction I can recommend Claire Tomalin and the husband/wife team of Roy and Lesley Adkins, who I think are excellent stylists.

I think it's good to spend some time reading how-to books, but I also think this is best done after you've spent a year of three dedicating every spare minute to Read everything, write much.

Reading works that are of the sort you want to write can be helpful. And don't just confine yourself to the classics or your old favorites or whatever. Look for new authors within your chosen genres. Step outside your comfort zone. And yeah, even read outside your favorite genres sometimes too.

Captcha said:

I kind of agree with blackbird that reading other people's fiction is the most useful way to go, but lots of people read lots of fiction without learning much about writing. I think you need to be able to analyze what you're reading a little as you go. (Since I started writing, it's gotten a lot harder for me to lose myself in a story and just get washed along. Usually I'm too busy figuring out what the author did well and what the author did poorly - I can learn from both).

So I'd recommend figuring out where you are and what you need to work on, then reading some theory books/sites on whatever that area of writing is, then reading some fiction and trying to apply the theory to that work, and then reading your own work to see if you can apply it there.

JUST theory is pretty empty, but I'd argue that JUST reading and writing, with no analysis, will just lead to having more words read and written without much improvement in quality.

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Most who try writing are never going to be very good, no matter how much they read, writer, or study theory.

Theory can be good down the road, but I don't think it helps new writers at all. It's usually just a form of justified procrastination. There is no better way to learn how to write well than by reading all the fiction you can get your hand on, and by writing a soften as possible.

Most who go through college, who get MFAs, who study theory for years and years never show much improvement, either.

To improve, a writer need talent and practice. Without the talent, there will never be much improvement. With the talent, reading everything and writing much is how a writer develops the necessary skill to go with the talent.

Jamesaritchie said:

Most who try writing are never going to be very good, no matter how much they read, writer, or study theory.

Theory can be good down the road, but I don't think it helps new writers at all. It's usually just a form of justified procrastination. There is no better way to learn how to write well than by reading all the fiction you can get your hand on, and by writing a soften as possible.

Most who go through college, who get MFAs, who study theory for years and years never show much improvement, either.

To improve, a writer need talent and practice. Without the talent, there will never be much improvement. With the talent, reading everything and writing much is how a writer develops the necessary skill to go with the talent.

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I think the important thing you're missing is the idea of CONSCIENTIOUS, FOCUSED practice. I've seen a lot of people write a lot of words and never get much better at writing. Maybe this is because, as you say, they lack the necessary spark of talent and could never become good writers regardless of what they do. But I think that at least for some of them, it's because they're just practising the same old mistakes, writing and rewriting in the same way they always have, without disciplining themselves to analyze their work and improve it.

Does raw talent exist and is it absolutely necessary for writing success? Topic for another thread, I'd say, because I think the key thing is that it's very hard for a beginning writer to KNOW whether she has raw talent, and therefore hard for us to know, and therefore hard for us to differentiate between questioners with talent and those without.

So, since, I would argue, degree of talent is unknowable on these boards, we have to offer advice based on the assumption that talent is either present in the person asking the question, or something the person can gain through hard work. If we don't make those assumptions, the best advice would be to give up on becoming a good writer, wouldn't it?

I highly recommend http://fixyourwritinghabits.tumblr.com . It's great for all genres.

Talent, shmalent.

I travel a lot and observe different people. Reading helps me learn the craft of writing, traveling and meeting people gives me ideas for plots and characterization.

here.....


this place is a great resource. check out the various sub-forums, and participate in them.

maxitoutwriter said:

What do you think is the most important aspect of writing to be studied?

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Couldn't tell you. I've never studied any aspect. Even if I had, I still couldn't tell you. You don't need the most import thing for others to study, you need the most important thing for you to study.

The only ways to improve your writing are to read and to write. Constantly. Do it.

Jeff

I don't know about to be studied, but if you don't have clarity and flow constantly in mind nobody will want to finish reading whatever you've written.

maxitoutwriter said:

What do you think is the most important aspect of writing to be studied?

Click to expand...

Couldn't tell you. I've never studied any aspect. Even if I had, I still couldn't tell you. You don't need the most import thing for others to study, you need the most important thing for you to study.

The only ways to improve your writing are to read and to write. Constantly. Do it.

Jeff

I'm going to go out on a groan-inducing limb and suggest writing.com.

I expect a lot of groans, because they really want you to buy stuff. I, personally, haven't received any spam from them, but there's all kinds of "stuff" on their site to buy into. There'd a BR&BC thread for them here. I pretty much agree with the comments in that thread, though I still go to read now and again.

I'd say it's a fairly high-volume site where you can read others' works and find what works, and what doesn't work. I've critiqued a few things, but spend most of my energy there passively reading to see what strikes me as useful, and what does not.