Xref: gwinnett misc.writing:4231 news.answers:2954 Path: gwinnett!emory!europa.asd.contel.com!uunet!think.com!sdd.hp.com!apollo.hp.com!netnews From: betsyp@apollo.hp.com (Betsy Perry) Newsgroups: misc.writing,news.answers Subject: Misc.writing Recommended Booklist Message-ID: Date: 9 Oct 92 20:37:06 GMT Expires: Tue, 15 Dec 1992 05:00:00 GMT Sender: usenet@apollo.hp.com (Usenet News) Followup-To: misc.writing Organization: Hewlett-Packard Company, Apollo Division - Chelmsford, MA Lines: 489 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Originator: betsyp@astaire Nntp-Posting-Host: astaire.ch.apollo.hp.com Archive-name: writing/bibliography Last-modified: 10/9/92 Frequency: bimonthly Supersedes: 09/17/92 Misc.writing Recommended Books List Send corrections and additions to Betsy Perry (betsyp@apollo.HP.com) Modifications since last version: Added writeup for Jane Yolen's *Writing Books for Children* Added writeup for Richard Curtis's *How To Be Your Own Literary Agent* Questions included: What books are useful to writers? What magazines are useful to writers? If you're going to write, you have to read; it's that simple. You ought to be reading widely *outside your field* -- reading only the genre you intend to write is a sure way to recycle cliches endlessly. This booklist is confined to books about writing. All of the following books and magazines have been recommended by at least one misc.writing contributor. None of them is universally adored. Unquoted reviews are by the compiler; all others come from other misc.writing contributors. ______________ BOOKS: AGENTS Richard Curtis, *How To Be Your Own Literary Agent* [ need bibliographic data; Writer's Marketplace press? ] "This book is necessarily dated -- I think my version is from 1986, or maybe even 1984 -- but still germane in almost every regard. And it isn't dated much; I found virtually all of the language he discusses in his point-by-point contract review in my own 1991 contract, despite the years that have passed. (And was pleased to discover that the one section I'd made my publisher delete was one Curtis considered extremely disadvantageous.) This book is an absolute must for anyone dealing with book publishers, book contracts, and agents." ________________ BOOKS: COPYRIGHT Stephen Fishman, *The Copyright Handbook: How to Protect and Use Written Works* Berkeley, CA: Nolo Press, 1st national edition, 1991 $24.95 US. USBN 0-87337-130-5. "Nolo's order number is (800) 992-6656; (510) 549-1976 for info. They're a well-respected if somewhat irreverent publisher of legal self-help materials, including some volumes that might be relevant to the business side of freelancing and contracting. The book claims to discuss international copyright law. The further you get from the borders of the US, the bigger the grain of salt you should take everything with, of course." ___________ BOOKS: HOW TO BE A WRITER Rita Mae Brown, *Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writer's Manual* Bantam Books, ISBN 0-553-05246-2 Care and feeding of yourself as a writer. Brown, a working writer, has useful information on what standard of living to expect (near-poverty), how to make ends meet, and what to do with screenplays (take the money and run. What appears on the screen will probably bear almost no resemblance to your work; that's why you write novels.) Also contains some interesting philosophy. DISSENTING REVIEW: One misc.writing contributor finds the chapter on substance abuse essential, the rest forgettable. ___________ BOOKS: HOW TO WRITE Lawrence Block, *Writing the Novel, From Plot to Print* Writer's Digest Books, 1979 The person who recommended this also recommended Block's *Spider, Spin Me a Web* and *Telling Lies for Fun and Profit*, which overlaps material in *Writing the Novel*. Hallie & Whit Burnett, *Fiction Writer's Handbook* Barnes & Noble Books, 1975 ISBN 0-06-463492-0 Hallie Burnett, *On Writing the Short Story* Barnes & Noble Books, 1983 ISBN 0-06-463520-1 "Hallie and Whit Burnett, as founding editors of STORY magazine (which has recently gone back into print as a quarterly), published the first works of writers such as Norman Mailer (who graces the first volume with a Preface), J.D. Salinger, Joseph Heller, Truman Capote, and Tennessee Williams. In these books, they bring their enormous experience to bear in chapters that deal with both the creative process and the craft of fiction." Lajos Egri, *The Art of Creative Writing* Citadel Press, 1965 "Although Egri's books are written with a slightly dated style, they go straight to the heart (in my opinion) of what makes dramatic fiction truthful and exciting. These are not books with formulas or tips about writing, but rather, they analyze what it is that makes a reader care about characters, what makes them realistic, and how a compelling plot grows realistically from them." John Gardner, *The Art of Fiction* Vintage Books, 1985 ISBN 0-39472544-1 "This book is a classic, and is a must buy for anyone seriously attempting to write fiction. However, you will not find any formulas, point systems, or graphs that show you how to construct a story (well, maybe a graph or two). What you will find is meaty chapters on aesthetics, artistic mystery, fiction as dream, genre, interest, and metafiction. You will also find at the back a set of extremely useful exercises. All material is gleaned from Gardner's years of teaching graduate-level creative writing." Rust Hills, *Writing in General, and the Short Story in Particular* Houghton Mifflin, 1987 ISBN 0-395-44268-0 "L. Rust Hills was fiction editor of Esquire Magazine for some 20 years, and his book is jam-packed with rapid-fire commentary on just about every technical aspect of crafting a short story. It is by far the most intelligent and complete such book I have come across, and makes a fine companion to Gardner's *Art of Fiction* mentioned above." Kit Reed, *Revision* Writer's Digest Books, 1989 ISBN0-89879-350-5 "A decent book on revising and rewriting, though I personally found most of it pretty self-evident." Norman Spinrad, *Staying Alive: a Writer's Guide* Donning, 1983 "Spinrad's Writer's Survival Guide, is, as I recall, quite out of date, but a good read. Spinrad is always idiosyncratic (when he's deeply sincere, he appears to lapse _out_ of profanity!), and a lot of the book was columns he'd written about the then-state of the sf market." ________ BOOKS -- HOW TO WRITE CHILDREN'S BOOKS Jane Yolen, *Writing Books for Children*, The Writer, Inc., 1983, ISBN 0-87116-133-8 Advice from a *very* successful author on how to research, create, and market books for the fastest-growing market. Yolen's passion and seriousness shine through every line. ________ BOOKS -- HOW TO WRITE ROMANCE NOVELS Kathleen Falk, *How to Write a Romance and Get it Published* New American Library, 1990 (revised edition), ISBN 0-451-16531-4 "Several writers in my workshop like it; others hate it. My assessment is that it contains some useful information, some marginal generalizations, and some downright stupid adivce. (My favourite: 'You cannot be a successful romance novelist unless you wear silky underwear.') On the whole, this is a worthwhile book to have/read if you're interested in selling a romance novel, if only because of the extensive descriptions of the various formulae in romance writing." _________ BOOKS -- HOW TO WRITE SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/HORROR Barry Longyear, *Science Fiction Writer's Workshop-I* Owlswick Press, Box 8243, Philadelphia, PA, 19101, about $10 "Longyear not only sits you down and lectures you on how to write SF that works, he shows you various examples -- from his own writing -- of what works and what doesn't by showing the first draft of various things and then covering the processes that took it to the final, improved version. There is no, and never will be a, SFWW-II." *Science Fiction Writers of America Handbook* Pulphouse Publishing/Writer's Notebook Press, ISBN 1-56146-406-6, $10.00 Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440 A collection of essays by SF writers on various aspects of the trade. A mixed bag, but the good stuff is very good. Mostly nuts-and-bolts, but some "how I write my masterpieces" essays. Orson Scott Card, *How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy* Writer's Digest Press [[[ anybody got bibliographic data? ]]] "The nuts and bolts part of the book are well handled, with solid examples (from other writers' works) of handling exposition, world-building and the like. What makes the book worth the price of admission to writers who don't workshop, or don't live in an area with other writers in easy reach, is the section on creating the "wise reader". In it, Card explains how his wife, Kristine, became a vital part of his writing process, even though initially she knew nothing whatsoever about what 'worked' in a novel." ___________ BOOKS: HOW TO WRITE PLAYS Lajos Egri, *The Art of Dramatic Writing*, Simon and Schuster, 1946, 1960 "Although it is oriented towards playwriting, most of the advice applies to any dramatic fiction writing." ___________ BOOKS: INSPIRATION Dorothea Brande, *Becoming a Writer* T.P Archer, Inc., 1981 ISBN 0-874-77164-1 "This book was originally published in 1934, and is as fresh as ever today. An excellent and complete book, dealing with almost every aspect of the art of writing, with many wonderful suggestions on how to overcome blocks, view ones own work critically, etc. The current printing has a foreward by John Gardner, himself an author of many books dealing with the art and craft of fiction." Annie Dillard, *The Writing Life* Harper & Row, 1989 ISBN 0-06-091988-4 "Taken from essays that first appeared in Esquire, the TriQuarterly, and several other maagazines, in this book Annie Dillard describes her own personal experience as a writer. The book is not a how-to volume in any sense; the crisp prose provides a direct glimpse into a writer's fertile mind." John Gardner, *On Becoming a Novelist* Harper & Row, 1983 ISBN 0-06-091126-3 "The Foreword by Raymond Carver alone makes this book worthwhile. Although you could call the book 'inspirational' in nature because it deals with the art rather than the craft of writing (and although it says 'Novelist' in the title, the book is also valuable to short story writers), it is not an exercise in cheerleading, but rather a serious discussion of the nature and training of a fiction writer (there is also a chapter titled 'Publication and Survival'). A wonderful book for the serious artist." Natalie Goldberg, *Writing Down the Bones* Shambhala Publications, 1986 ISBN 0-87773-375-9 "The book consists of about 60 two- or three-page chapters, each of which presents a brief technique or suggestion by which to improve one's writing and creative process, with emphasis on the latter. Many times, the advice is presented via anecdotes. A very 'zen' approach to creative writing, as one might guess from the publisher." Brenda Ueland, *If You Want to Write* Greywolf Press, 1987, P.O. Box 75006, St. Paul, Minnesota, 55175 ISBN 0-915308-94-0, $8.95 "This fine little book was originally published at about the same time as Dorothea Brande's book and must be the *most* inspirational writing book ever to fall into my possession. Carl Sandberg called this book 'The best book ever written about how to write.' This is not a "nuts-n-bolts" book; it's one that raises you up, brushes you off, and sends you along the path to new heights of creativity." ________ BOOKS: LITERARY CRITICISM (SF) Stanislaw Lem, *MICROWORLDS* Harcourt, Brace, & Jovanovich, 1984 ISBN 0-15-659443-9 "Lem is probably one of the world's greatest living writers, and one of the few SF writers to publish a volume which analyzes the field critically. Lem makes many excellent points about the state of SF as he saw it when he was writing." DISSENTING REVIEW: "Lem has clearly done very little reading in SF, and his criticism shows this." Larry McCaffery, *Across the Wounded Galaxies* Univ. of Illinois Press, 1990 ISBN 0-252-06140-3 "Larry McCaffery is best known for his criticism of Donald Barthelme and other authors of 'metafiction', but he has, in this book, compiled a stunning collection of interviews with some of America's greatest contemporary SF authors, including William S. Burroughs, William Gibson, Samuel Delany, Octavia Butler, Gene Wolfe, Ursula Le Guin, Bruce Sterling, and Greg Benford. These are not fan-oriented interviews, either, but involved questions that probe each author's views about his or her craft and the state of the art in general. A fascinating and thoroughly enjoyable read." ________ BOOKS: MARKET RESEARCH The Bible of market research is *Writer's Market*, Writer's Digest Books, 1507 Dana Avenue, Cincinnati, OH 45207. Updated annually. There are innumerable variations (*Poet's Market*, *Novel and Short Story Writer's Market*, etc.) Any public library should have these books. You can buy a copy more cheaply by joining the Writer's Digest Book Club; see *Writer's Digest* magazine for a blow-in card. BE SURE TO USE THE LATEST AVAILABLE EDITION! The publishing industry is a giant amoeba; not only do publishers' needs change, but editors change employment as frequently as Warren Beatty ... well, you get the idea. If you can, check the listed editor's name against another source (a friend at the publishing house, the masthead of the magazine) before submitting. *The International Directory of Little Magazine and Small Presses* Dustbooks, P.O. Box 100, Paradise, CA 95967 ISBN 0-916685-17-9 Published annually. "Called the 'bible of the business' by the Wall Street Journal, this thing is *huge*, and full of small and literary markets that you won't find in any of the Writer's Digest books above." __________ BOOKS: RHETORIC Barzun, Jaques. *Simple and Direct, A Modern Rhetoric for Writers* Harper-Collins ISBN 0-06-091122-0 "Does not describe rhetoric in the classical sense, but he does give some excellent suggestions for becoming aware of and tightening up one's writing. Eye opening and well worth the reading. Although it covers mainly Rhetoric, this book really applies to any kind of technical or expository writing, and to some extent narrative fiction. I'd classify it as a General Purpose writing improvement book. Hardback edition out of print." Corbett, Edward P.J. *Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student*, 3rd ed Oxford University Press, New York. 1990. ISBN 0-19-506293-0 $38.00(?) "Highly Recommended text for learning the ins and outs of expository writing. Includes technical topics such as discovering (inventing) material, organizing material, stylistic tricks and stunts, exercises, modes of reasoning and other methods of persuasion, and examples/analysis of these techniques in actual everyday (and formal) use in prose of various people ranging from Homer to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The principles described herein apply to any kind of prose used to persuade and inform an audience. Concentration here is mainly on the written word rather than the spoken word (the more commonly associated domain of Rhetoric)." ___________ BOOKS: STYLE GUIDES AND ENGLISH GRAMMARS Strunk and White, *The Elements of Style* Macmillan, ISBN 0-02-418200-1, $3.50 The classic. 92 pages that can change your life. *Not* a general reference manual. William Zinsser, *On Writing Well* Harper and Row, 1988, ISBM 0-06-091479-3 "The book is subtitled 'An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction' and contains lots of good, basic advice on writing. This book is an interesting read as well as being useful." For exhaustive reference: *The Chicago Manual of Style*, 13th edition University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-10390-0 The OED of style guides. Not sure what how to make "appearance" a possessive? See p. 160. (appearance', as it happens.) *Words into Type* Prentice-Hall, ISBN 0-13-964262-5 Amusing, quirky, and often irritating: Fowler, *Modern English Usage* Oxford University Press You either love this one or you hate it. A period piece, written by an Englishman immediately after the Great War. [[[ I have no information other than the title on the following: Thomas S. Kane, *The New Oxford Guide to Writing* Oxford University Press, 1988 $22.95 ]]] If you are concerned about biased language: Rosalie Maggio, *The Dictionary of Bias-Free Usage, a Guide to Nondiscriminatory Language* Oryx Press, 1991. ISBN 0-89774-653-8 "Instamatic review: Looks like a good starting place for decisions about some issues in language." _________ MAGAZINES: HOW TO BE A WRITER Pulphouse Publishing, *The Report* Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440 $2.95/copy, $10.00/four issues Pulphouse's blurb says, "a writer's magazine, filled with writers talking about all aspects of writing". Primarily for people interested in speculative fiction (SF, fantasy, horror). Comes out more-or-less quarterly. *Poets & Writers Magazine* $3.50/copy. $20/six issues (I think). "This magazine is great. It's full of interviews of authors like Amy Tan and John Irving, and includes many articles about creative writing and even *teaching* creative writing. This magazine is aimed at serious authors, not the "gee, I wanna write" audience that Writer's Digest seems geared towards. There are also copious listings of contests, grants, and workshops in the back half of each issue. *And* there's even a helpline for subscribers. Yep, call up and get advice on writing/publishing direct from the staff!" _________ MAGAZINES: MARKET REPORTS -- GENERAL *Publishers Weekly* P.O. Box 1979 Marion, OH 43306-2079 $97.00/year Subscription inquiries: (800)842-1669 Expensive; contains useful industry gossip, hot off the presses. (I learned about the various suits against Donning Press from *PW*; *Locus* and *SF Chronicle* didn't get the story until a month later.) Skim it in your library -- the book reviews can help you get a handle on what your competition is up to. _________ MAGAZINES: MARKET REPORTS -- CHILDREN'S BOOKS Society for Children's Book Writers' Newsletter (included in $40/year membership fee) Society of Children's Book Writers P.O. Box 296, Mar Vista Station Los Angeles, CA 90066 _________ MAGAZINES: MARKET REPORTS -- SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY/HORROR *Bulletin* [[[of the Science Fiction Writers of America]]] To subscribe without joining SFFWA, contact Pulphouse Publishing, Box 1227, Eugene, OR 97440 *Gila Queen's Guide to Markets* Kathy Ptacek, editor PO Box 97, Newton, NJ 07860-0097 $24.00/12 issues; sample copy for $3.00 "I can't recommend this publication highly enough. Invaluable leads & jam-packed with current information. Each issue has a thematic focus as well as including updates on anthologies, editor shifts, & the like." *Locus* Locus Publications, P.O. Box 13305, Oakland, CA 94661, $35.00/year A better source of industry gossip than *SF Chronicle*; I suspect a working SF writer could live without it, though. Richard Curtis's industry column has ended, removing one good reason to subscribe. *Scavenger's Newsletter* Janet Fox, ed., 519 Ellinwood, Osage City KS 66523-1329, phone (913) 528-3538 (quoting from SFFWA Newsletter) "This little zine focuses on market information, covering, in the current issue, 91 magazines and fanzines." *Science Fiction Chronicle* P.O. Box 2730, Brooklyn, NY 11202-0056, $30/year Has semi-yearly Market Report sections. Useful source of information on new theme anthologies, semi-pro magazines, and other non-obvious markets. ________ MAGAZINES: NOT RECOMMENDED *The Writer* *Writer's Digest* Most misc.writing contributors find these magazines are aimed at people who want to be writers rather than people who write. If you judge a magazine's intended audience by its advertisers, you'll notice that most ads in *Writer's Digest* promise to edit/read/ghost-write/publish your masterpiece for pay; very few tell you how to invest your enormous royalty income. Some of the columns in *Writer's Digest* are quite good; read these in the library. -- Betsy Hanes Perry (note P in userid) betsyp@apollo.hp.com Hewlett-Packard Company "It seems to us that the readers who want fiction to be like life are considerably outnumbered by those who would like life to be like fiction."