From Juneta’s Desks: Books About Writing & Craft

February 16, 2015 admin 6 comments

Writing Books: Most Helpful For Me To Date

The writing craft of storytelling is a forever ongoing evolution for any writer. I love learning about the craft, as much as I love writing. Every writer evolves and improves, even good writers, with the more they learn and practice. The only thing more important is the writer’s heart for it–inspiration, if you lose that. your writing loses something. The books below have taught me and given me inspiration and insight to the craft.

I like the quote below, because sometimes when I am writing I get hung up or blocked by the reality of life instead of the fun of storytelling. It is not meant to be real. It is meant to entertain, inspire, and just maybe, contain a little wisdom that can be applied to the living in real life, but in the end it is a big plausible lie told to entertain in whatever genre or world you write in fiction.

Life is not a Hallmark card, but wouldn’t it be nice if we could experience a few Hallmark moments, adventure, magic etc. through this journey of life. It is one of the reason I am in love with reading.

Books have been friends, companions and teachers my entire life and writer’s my mentors.

“It’s meant to be big entertaining plausible lie, so I make my living telling plausible lies.” Nora Roberts

YouTube Interview With Nora Roberts aka J. D. Robb
Nora Roberts Wikipedia
Nora Roberts Rewrote The Rules For Romantic Fiction & Is one of the most prolific authors out there today

SOME OF MY FAVORITES BOOKS THAT HAVE BEEN THE MOST HELPFUL TO ME

Business For Authors: How To Be An Author Entrepreneur by Joanna Penn
11 Ways To Make Money Free Video Training from author Joanna Penn–signup here
Prosperity For Writers: A Writer’s Guide to Creating Abundance by Honoree Corder
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
Get Your First 10,000 Readers Nick Stephenson Note: check out POPUP for Free Video Training.

FREE 3 WEEK FLASH FICTION COURSE

Click picture to go to course.

See disclosures

Successful Authors That Know The In’s and Out’s and Have Made Writing and the Indie Way Their Business

Some of these authors are also very familiar with traditional publishing having been in this business for many years.

Holly Lisle, Get Her Free Flash Fiction course above

Joanna Penn Free Video Training above

Sean Platt, Dave Wright & Johnny B. Truant Check out their self-publishing podcast once you enter their site under Smarter Artist.

Dean Wesley Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Free Read on site-Killing the Sacred Cow of Publishing Dean Wesley Smith

Just to name a few I like to learn from and follow. There are more, a lot more. They are proof this can be done and they are willing to tell you how they did it. The biggest hurdle I believe we all have is our mindset. The way we think about writing and our own insecurities.

Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker This is a great short read that I have really enjoyed! Available on Amazon.

What You Can Do When The World Is Plotting Against You– Guest post by David Villalva on website Live Write Thrive C. S. Lakin Another website and author I follow with great tips and info. I also found myself signing up for her guest poster David Villalva site, whom I found to be entertaining and informative, his website & The Story Heart Blueprint.

I recommend signing up for the free illustrated guide, which adds even more and a visual to the process. I found this visual presentation re-affirming, presenting a snap picture that brought concepts together in one place. It reinforced my own knowledge in a simple approach with impact.
HOLLY LISLE’S WRITING COURSES

The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writer’s third edition, by Christopher Vogler (One of my all-time favorites. It is quite used. If you look at the header picture you will see the book laying by my computer where at times I have referred it when writing.)
HERE

A video with Christopher Vogler on the subject. Volume is low, so you many need to turn it up on computer as well.

Elements of Fiction Series: This is a whole series, below my favorite : Descriptions by Monica Woods from 1999 (can only get used now) HERE PS: This book gave me a lot of insight into how Show & Tell actually work and how to use it, although the theme of the book is about description.

Write, Publish, Repeat (The No-Luck_Required Guide to Self-Publishing Success) by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant. (Their website and fiction is fun too) HERE