To start out on this project [#projectbrainlife], I'm going to list every book in my writing library, what I currently remember about them, and whether I have read them in the past or not.
Physical Copy
Status: Read a few times a while ago
This is the first book on novel writing I ever read, by the author of First Blood, the novel that later was adapted into Rambo. The two pieces of advice that I recall from this book as useful are "writing a letter to yourself about why you are having a problem with the writing" and "triangulation (always use at least three senses for something you want to stick in the reader's mind". The rest of it I recall as mostly a scathing attack on hollywood's sense of storytelling.
I recall it having more to say, but most of the rest has slipped my mind.
Physical Copy
Status: Read once relatively recently
This one I recall as having good lessons on how to implement first, second and third person perspectives, and laid out the difference between close and far perspectives to me. It sings with a feeling of character to it - the author seems to describe even other parts of writing, like setting, in terms of their character. I don't recall the details of this one deeply but I have read it relatively recently.
Physical Copy
Status: Read once a while ago
This is a formula for writing books. It breaks up the story into fifteen "beats". This one helped somewhat with structure, but my real friend for structure was Chuubo's Marvellous Wish Granting Engine (which I have as an ebook.) I don't think I went too deeply into this one because I was turned off by the idea of writing to formula; I think rereading it now that I have made more friends with structure in general would be a good idea.
Physical Copy
Status: Reviewed for the Blog
This is Save the Cat, but for romance stories specifically. It's a derived formula from Save the Cat that talks more specifically about romance. I don't remember being impressed, but I do think it's influenced me.
Physical Copy
Status: Reviewed for the Blog
This is a workshop on specifically how to show rather than tell in your writing. It's good advice, as far as I recall, but it's faded in my memory since I last read it. A refresher would be nice.
Physical Copy
Status: Cracked but not completed
This was my course text in my university-level writing course. I recall it as being surprisingly basic-level, when I recently re-cracked it. Not a priority to review.
Physical Copy
Status: Cracked but not completed
This one is where I sputtered out on my last go-around through my library. It's a book about the practice of writing in imitation of other writers - a technique so basic that it astounds me that I didn't think of it. It covers several writers in turn and talks about their styles. I mostly remember it for its exhortation to include emotion tags on your sentences - to express what your character is feeling in each moment.
Physical Copy
Status: Read once a while ago
A rather unique book, this one concerns itself with developing the character of a writer in life, rather than the actual mechanics of writing things. More of a self-help book than a mechanical treatsie, and somewhat wooish to my recollection, but perhaps worth reading.
Physical Copy
Status: Cracked into but not completed
This deals with how to develop a character arc. I remember getting partway into it, being turned off by the author's style and approach, and dropping it. I wonder what was so repellent about it; I don't recall now.
Physical Copy
Status: Read, Made A Spreadsheet of all the tools, summed up each tool and rated each tool by importance
This one I special-interested on. It's a book of 55 small tips on writing that are useful to some degree. Each one is quite small but there are a lot of them.
Physical Copy
Status: Cracked but didn't get far
This is like the above book, but rather than "do this" it's "don't do this." I don't think I ever got past the title page of this one.
Physical Copy
Status: New and Unread
This one purports to lay bare what a story really is at its heart. I love that premise so of course I picked it up. But I haven't actually cracked it open, yet.
Kindle Book
Status: Read relatively recently
This one deals with the two types of conflict - plot arcs and character arcs. It helped resolve several of my confusions when I first read it, and helped significantly with my confidence in being able to write plot arcs. I'm still more of a character writer than a plot writer, but this is a good one to review.
Kindle Book
Status: Cracked but not completed
This is a writer's workshop of advanced exercises intended to test you. It's heavy material but seems very rewarding if I could just get myself to, like, Do It. This is where I learned to read material aloud from.
Kindle Book
Status: Cracked but not completed
This book is all about how to revise, and the various different kinds of revision. I haven't dove into it deeply, largely because I suck at taking the time to revise, but it's probably worth reading.
I also have several reference books - the Writer's Thesaurus series, Strunk and White's Elements of Style, as well as April Gardner's Body Beats to Build On - but these are more about specific mechanics. I do remember the Writers' Thesauri sometimes having interesting and thought-provoking prefaces however, so I may have to go on to them later. Chuubo's Marvellous Wish Granting Engine might also get a sideways read as a writing book at some point in this series.
And there we go - that's all 15 books on storytelling I own. A paltry sum compared to Gretta's 50, but it's a start.