Ten Novels Every Aspiring Writer Should Read. TYEE LIST #9: Put down that pen and curl up with these giants. Treat your craft seriously, as does Gabriel García Márquez. Some time ago I published an article about 10 novels that aspiring writers should avoid. It wasn't because they were bad -- most of them are modern classics -- but because their readable styles looked so easy that they might seduce a young writer into imitating them. Other novels deserve reading by writers precisely because they can't be imitated. They can only show us how far a particular technique can be pushed, and it's up to us to understand and adapt that technique to our own work. Here are 10 novels that taught me something about the craft and art of fiction. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1984, by George Orwell (1949). 9. 10. Again, I'm not suggesting imitating these novels.
Table of Contents. List25 - Consistently Conciliating Curiosity. Read These Seven Books, and You’ll be a Better Writer. Donald Miller I used to play golf but I wasn’t very good. I rented a DVD, though, that taught me a better way to swing, and after watching it a few times and spending an hour or so practicing, I knocked ten strokes off my game. I can’t believe how much time I wasted when a simple DVD saved me years of frustration. I’d say something similar is true in my writing career. . • The War of Art by Steven Pressfield: This book is aimed at writers, but it’s also applicable to anybody who does creative work. Pressfield leaves out all the mushy romantic talk about the writing life, talk I don’t find helpful. . • On Writing Well by William Zinsser: Zinsser may be the best practical writing coach out there. . • Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott: Before becoming a literary superstar, Anne Lamott taught writing, and Bird by Bird is the best of her advice, broken up into chapters.
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder: Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell: On Writing, by Stephen King: Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury: 30Day.jpg (JPEG Image, 600x776 pixels) - Scaled (82%) Tastefully Offensive | Premium Funny: Shakespeare Insult Kit. John-lennon-quote-happy.jpg (JPEG Image, 720x618 pixels) 1330746369_Screenshot.jpg (JPEG Image, 373x664 pixels) - Scaled (96%) Voices. Short stories at east of the web. A game of Scrabble has serious consequences. - Length: 4 pages - Age Rating: PG - Genre: Crime, Humor A semi-barbaric king devises a semi-barabaric (but entirely fair) method of criminal trial involving two doors, a beautiful lady and a very hungry tiger. - Length: 7 pages - Genre: Fiction, Humor ‘Bloody hell!’ - Genre: Humor Looking round he saw an old woman dragging a bucket across the floor and holding a mop. . - Length: 3 pages Henry pours more coal onto the hearth as a gust of wind rattles through the cracked window frame.
. - Length: 14 pages - Genre: Horror ulissa Ye relished all the comfortable little routines and quietude defining her part-time job at The Bookery, downtown’s last small, locally-owned bookstore. - Length: 8 pages - Age Rating: U The forest looked ethereal in the light from the moon overhead. . - Length: 15 pages - Age Rating: 18 Corporal Earnest Goodheart is crouched in a ditch on the edge of an orchard between Dunkirk and De Panne. . - Genre: Fiction - Length: 20 pages.