Adventures in Reading

Tattered Covers

These are the writing/research books on my shelf that I go back to again and again.

 While this book was written for playwrights, I find myself turning again and again to his discussion of character development. It's also a great book on everything else to do with structure, dialogue, conflict, etc. It was only available used, but has been revised and updated and released!

What I particularly liked about this book, and go back to when I'm in need of refreshing my spirit, is her upbeat attitude about the ability of anyone to become a writer. This is a pre-writing book, the one you read when you want to write, but don't think you can.

Hands down, IMHO, one of the best self-editing books around. At the end of each chapter is a check list you can work off of as you go through your manuscript. It helps you look for words you use repeatedly and what mistakes mark you as an amateur. Caution: This is to be read after you have a rough draft, not while you're still writing.

Another one of those books that lifts you to the next level of writing. I heard him speak at a workshop once and can also recommend that. What I particularly liked about this book, was that is teaches you how to keep upping the stakes for readers by upping the stakes for your characters. He's also written a workbook:

Excellent resource.....

  This is a book I pull out when I need to do some hard core brainstorming. It's also a good tool for assessing the salability of your book and has some useful checklists for when you're really stuck.

This is another book I turn to, even when writing novels, because it helps me think about structure. I use it a lot post-writing to help me find the spine of my story for use in a synopsis.

I sometimes get questions from other authors about how I adapted my novels into scripts and this is the book I always recommend to them. It tells you how to find the film story within your book and how to tell if your story is suitable for adaptation.

This is a fun book if you need some quick info about a career. The book tells you not just what the job entails, but the kind of person who would be drawn to that career.

This is a wonderful book for breaking through your personal "glass ceiling."

© 2002 Pauline Baird Jones All rights reserved.