From older writers in particular. I’ve collected a number of books and essays on the art of creating fiction, but they’re almost all by contemporary authors: Rita Mae Brown, Stephen King, William Safire’s “Writers on Writing,” Fred Busch’s “The Dangerous Profession.”
I’ve been looking for essays by older writers, and have found Mark Twain’s “The Art of Authorship,” which I found fascinating. But I haven’t found any others.
Does anyone have any suggestions? (And, no, this is not a homework assignment. I’m WAY too old for that.)
Well, there’s George Orwell’s The Cost of Letters, in which he answers questions that are suggestions to budding young writers. Some of the answers/questions are a bit outdated, as one of them asks how much it costs to be a writer, to live and such. The answer Orwell provides is from the viewpoint of a British man in 1945. Stuff like that. But there are other good points that are relevant today.
Just about every writer has written something about how to write. One superb, though overlooked example is “Techniques of the Selling Writer” by Dwight V. Swain. Certainly this was the best book on writing I’ve come across.
If you like Twain, you have to read “James Finimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”. Twain hated Cooper’s writing, an this is a hilarious proto-MST3K-like commentary on how not to write a story. Available in many anthologies, including the Bernard de Voto-edited “Letters from the Earth”.
Both L. Sprague de Camp and Ben Bova wrote books on how to write science fiction that I can recommend.
Ray Bradbury. Can’t remember the title. Something like “The Zen of Writing.” Then again, it might be completely unlike. I’d look it up, but I’m experiencing apathy. So sorry.
And don’t forget John Garder’s “The Art of Fiction” and “On Moral Fiction.” Classics, both of them.
Someone mentioned Stephen King’s “On Writing,” right? I really liked that one.
Apologies for the piecemeal approach but my memory ain’t what it …something or other.
Ernest Hemingway is Godlike so find the 2 books of “his” about writing. One is a compilation of excerpts from his correspondence done after his death. The other was by a guy called Arnold Samuelson who spent a year with Hemingway in Key West.
The Swain book I haven’t heard of, so I’ll definitely check that out.
Twain’s attack on Fentimore Cooper is hilarious. He also wrote a sequel which was never published until it showed up in the Library of America series (in his collected essays, I believe). Like most sequels, it was not as good, but then what is?
And thanks all around for the suggestions. I’m making lists as I write.
Somerset Maugham wrote a book called “A writer’s notebook” which I thought was quite good. He also wrote a couple other books on writing that I have been able to find.
“Bird by Bird” should be read by all beginning writers, if only for the chapter titled (I believe) “All First Drafts Are S***”. It’s good to read that someone else goes through this agony.
I have to chime in about the Hemingway piece. In his collections of letters is the gist of his advice to Arnold (who annyoed him to no end).
The three things I took away from it are gems I still use and hear like a mantra in my head:
Write everyday
Read everything you can, both by writers you like and writers you don’t and figure out what you like and why you like it
Re-read what you’ve written. When working on a book, read it through to where you left off before starting work on it again. Do it every time. When it gets too long to do that, read at least the last several sections. It’s the only way to maintain tone throughout.
I’ve read other works on writing, but nothing was as simple, clear or effective as these three rules.
Just a humble opinion interjection here, but do yourself the favor of AVOIDING Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones.” She wrote a novel once (Banana Rose) that was done purely to impress her professor friends (IMHO) and then wrote a book about her writing process. It’s REALLY bad, painful to read, the exercises are really New Agey and it doesn’t help you if you’re a disciplined writer.
[Juan Ramirez voice] I would save you that pain. [/Juan Ramirez voice]