Amanda Jean

Fifteen minutes later….

I have a small obsession with writing books. I honestly enjoy reading them, but I wonder how much I technically gain from them, anymore? Maybe very little? Perhaps a nugget of solid information nestled into a lot of repeating rhetoric that every book covers.

There comes a time when you have to put down other people’s books and start writing your own. But if you don’t feel you’ve gotten to that point yet, or you’d just like a shot in the arm (or a more definitive blow to another part of your anatomy), explore these excellent writing workshops in print:

1. The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises Author and writing instructor James Scott Bell mirrors the ancient strategic guide The Art of War in this 2009 book, discussing reconnaissance (preparing to write), tactics (writing advice), and strategy (how to get published) in short, sharp bursts of wisdom and example.

2. Becoming a Writer Dorothea Brande was far ahead of her time when she wrote this book in 1934. Instead of writing a nuts-and-bolts guide, she focused on the qualitative aspects: artistry, self-actualization, the role of the unconscious mind, and more.

3. Elements of Fiction Writing: Beginnings, Middles & Ends Nancy Kress’s 2011 book is more suited for aspiring writers than more seasoned ones, but it is full of suggestions and techniques for hooking the reader from the first sentence and sustaining interest from scene to scene all the way through to the end.

4. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life Anne Lamott’s autobiographical writing guide from 1995 isn’t for everyone, but it’s full of honest, humorous reflections about the writing life, with frank, funny admissions that give you permission to be human, too.

always aging and never dying

now who else does that sound like?