Resources for Writers
If you’ve come this far, you are likely interested in writing. And how could you not be? Entering into the zone and exploring a world of pure imagination is intoxicating. While we all start at different levels of skill, the following resources have helped me develop the skill to tell a story that I can stand behind with pride.
Story Design and Writing Principles
Fantasy Fiction Formula
This. This. This. THIS!
If there is one book that you grab from this list, make it this one. Deborah Chester is an absolute beast when it comes to writing, and in this book she goes into everything from viewpoint, character, to designing scenes and your overall outline. I cannot recommend this enough.
Grab this. Study it. Never look back.
Fiction Formula Plotting
These go hand in hand with the Fantasy Fiction Formula above. In the Fiction Formula Plotting she dives deeper into just plotting and the principles needed in making a tight story, whether it be for an outliner or discovery writer.
The practice goes hand in hand with the plotting book, and provides fill-in-the-blank exercises to help you develop your world, characters, and the plot itself.
Grab it. Review it. Memorize it. And read it again, until her story design principles are etched into your very bones.
Brandon Sanderson’s Writing Lectures
If you are a fiction reader and/or writer and haven’t heard of Brandon Sanderson, stop everything you are doing, grab the Mistborn trilogy, and lock yourself into a cabin with some hot chocolate and coffee and buckle up for the best ride of your life.
In this series, Brandon Sanderson breaks down his writing philosophy, from plotting to character to being a chef rather than a cook. I can’t attest for his newer content, but this series (recorded in 2020) radically influenced my writing and helped me more than I can explain. I’ve listened to it numerous times and cannot recommend it enough.
Enjoy!
Writing Technique (Prose Development)
Steering the Craft
When it comes to incluential and known authors, Ursula K Le Guin stands out in the writing community. She’s brilliant and has a poetic, rhymtnic style of writing that makes everyone want to rise to her level.
In this book she dives into the sounds of words and provides practical exercises to help you level up your writing skill game, and to develop your own style.
Grab it. Do the practice. Experience the results.
Editing and Revising
(Because yes, we ALL have to do it)
Fiction Formula Fix-It
You’re probably noticing the pattern here.
The masterful DC breaks down how to edit a novel, because yes, no matter how good you are, you will have to do multiple drafts of your book.
Because the creative mind is like a child let loose. It’s wonderful to see and brings a smile to your face, but there’s always a mess to clean up afterwards.
Chester explains how to take the daunting task of making a manuscript shine and breaks it down into operable parts, allowing your analytical brain to dive in without suffering overwhelm.
You know the drill: Grab it and let her knowledge transform you into a better version of yourself.
The Emotion Thesaurus
I put this under the editing section because it’s a lot easier to make sure the correct emotions are being displayed AFTER the first draft, because doing so as you go can slow down your creativity.
And the first draft is all about forward momentum. Interrupt that at your own peril.
The Emotion Thesaurus is, as it sounds, a list of emotions and their corresponding internal and external feelings as well as the physical representations of those emotions.
General rule of thumb: You use internal sensations and mental responses for your view point character (the chapter’s protagonist), and use external actions (like tapping a finger on a desk) for your NON viewpoint characters.
This is a must have for all writers.