books and learning how to write ..help please..

[magician2magici]

hi ..
so , i'm asking about books that teach how to write a novel , and how to write fantasy story.. like worldbuilding , characters , plots , styles of writings ,...etc.

the problem is i'm new here , i mean english fantasy world , so i don't know what is good and what is bad..

so , can you recommend me names to look for and books that you know are good or amazing ?

salam>>
el-saher..

 

[Kissmequick]

Well, the best way to learn is to do......get it written, then get it right. I would suggest writing is the best form of learning to write, as well as courses where you have interaction with your teacher.

But books can be very helpful at times.

Amazon has a lot of *teach yourself to write* books, several of which I've found very helpful. But a lot will depend on both you and which areas you need to improve in.

Here's a basic list
Amazon.co.uk: writing
None are specifically for fantasy, and there's a few weird things that popped in nothing to do with writing in that list, but good writing is good writing, regardless of genre

Personally I like Marina Oliver's Write and Sell your Novel, and Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell. These are two that have helped me most ( although I like Lawrence Block's book too, nice and encouraging, if out of date) But look through the reviews on Amazon and see which you think would benefit you the most, or check out your local book shop and ask the assistant ( my local ones are very good at finding just what you need)


Good luck and have fun.

 

[Green]

Try Stephen King's On Writing. It's not really a how-to guide, but it is about how he writes and it has lots of useful bits of advice for new writers.

Plus, it's also an interesting read in itself.

 

[j d worthington]

I have to disagree, to a large degree. While such can be helpful for someone who already has some of the basics, the best method is to study the best writers in whatever branch of literature you are interested in writing in yourself. Don't just read -- examine; think about what you're reading, look at the techniques they used, the thought they put into it, the little touches they use to add verisimilitude to both setting and character to make them real to the reader. Study they way they structure their stories, and how different structures bring out different aspects or emphases -- this broadens the range of your tools to enable you to pick how you want to structure your own tale to emphasize what you think important about it. The same is true for the voice chosen -- and I'm not simply referring to first/second/third person, omniscient narrative, etc. I mean the tone taken, which can completely alter the way a story comes across.

Absorb the best from the best is -- if you'll pardon the redundancy -- the best way to learn. "How To" books in writing are for technical points on improvement; the basics have to be learned from the craft: first by reading and studying the best writers, second by writing yourself and by criticizing/editing of your own work, looking for ways to improve and make it more impactful for the reader....

 

[magician2magici]

hi kissmequick , green , j.d.
thanks all for the advices

just i forgot to say , i didn't see at that time it's important - i write novels actually , series of two ended and one still going , fantasy novel , and i''m following tolkien path
but , when i came here , i found that you know things i don't know regarding the condition of arabic fantasy world , which to say like standing on the base and looking to you guys at the top of the mountain ..

so i started to form something like litterature league , translating anything , articles , discussion , theories ,opinions of different authers , hopefully leading a general revolution in arabic fantasy.

so finding good books is a need to complete the picture , but i won't depend on this alone , actually i doubt it could help me so much , it would for sure , as i write , as i know what wrtiting means to be your best teacher at all , i know what i need , or that's what i think and i hope i'm right..
i'm doing what you just advised me to do j.d. , what i read i start to analyze the story , knowing the points of strenght , the weakness , and learning from them.. thanks anyway..

so , these books guys will be great help to me and my league , hopefully it can help..

thanks all and i wait for any other advice..

salam.
el-saher..

 

[mosaix]

I have to disagree, to a large degree. While such can be helpful for someone who already has some of the basics, the best method is to study the best writers in whatever branch of literature you are interested in writing in yourself. Don't just read -- examine; think about what you're reading, look at the techniques they used, the thought they put into it, the little touches they use to add verisimilitude to both setting and character to make them real to the reader. Study they way they structure their stories, and how different structures bring out different aspects or emphases -- this broadens the range of your tools to enable you to pick how you want to structure your own tale to emphasize what you think important about it. The same is true for the voice chosen -- and I'm not simply referring to first/second/third person, omniscient narrative, etc. I mean the tone taken, which can completely alter the way a story comes across.

Absorb the best from the best is -- if you'll pardon the redundancy -- the best way to learn. "How To" books in writing are for technical points on improvement; the basics have to be learned from the craft: first by reading and studying the best writers, second by writing yourself and by criticizing/editing of your own work, looking for ways to improve and make it more impactful for the reader....

J.D. is absolutely right. Learn to read as a writer not a reader.

When you are 'taken' by a sentence or paragraph, go back over it an see how the author did it.

 

[j d worthington]

hi kissmequick , green , j.d.
thanks all for the advices

just i forgot to say , i didn't see at that time it's important - i write novels actually , series of two ended and one still going , fantasy novel , and i''m following tolkien path
but , when i came here , i found that you know things i don't know regarding the condition of arabic fantasy world , which to say like standing on the base and looking to you guys at the top of the mountain ..

so i started to form something like litterature league , translating anything , articles , discussion , theories ,opinions of different authers , hopefully leading a general revolution in arabic fantasy.

so finding good books is a need to complete the picture , but i won't depend on this alone , actually i doubt it could help me so much , it would for sure , as i write , as i know what wrtiting means to be your best teacher at all , i know what i need , or that's what i think and i hope i'm right..
i'm doing what you just advised me to do j.d. , what i read i start to analyze the story , knowing the points of strenght , the weakness , and learning from them.. thanks anyway..

so , these books guys will be great help to me and my league , hopefully it can help..

thanks all and i wait for any other advice..

salam.
el-saher..

Congratulations on finishing the first two, and best wishes on the third. I like your idea of a literature league, etc., and would say (if I'm following you correctly; a caution I add because I didn't quite get what you were asking for before, I think) this would be a very valuable tool for yourself as well as others.

In the way of things which may prove helpful for the specific sort of thing you're looking for, there are several good books on this subject either currently available or out-of-print, but fairly easily found through second-hand sources on the internet, etc. Though it is sf rather than fantasy-oriented, Dream Makers and Dream Makers II, a series of interviews with sf writers conducted by Charles Platt, is well worth looking at for this, as would be Boyers and Zahorski's Fantasists on Fantasy, which includes essays (or portions of essays) by such writers as Tolkien, Lovecraft, Lewis, etc.

Amazon.com: Fantasists on Fantasy: A collection of Critical Reflections by Eighteen Masters of the Art: Books: Robert H. Boyer,Kenneth J. Zahorski

Amazon.com: Used and New: Dream Makers

0425058808: Dream Makers Volii Tr by Charles Platt (Used, New, Out-of-Print) - Alibris

 

[Lith]

You need to both read SF&F and study how to write (and not only read for enjoyment/exposure to the genre, but study the works, as JD said.) But don't limit yourself to SF&F either; read anything that engages your mind, challenges you, and/or is considered a classic. We could give you a list of standard English literature, but you would probably know better than us the best Arabic works to dig into.

Personally I found A Novelist's Guide to Plot, by Madison Davis useful. Aristotle's Poetics is quoted often by how-to-write books, but I haven't made heads or tails out of it (currently lost somewhere in the Rhetoric).

It also depends on what you're looking for in a book; I've found a large number of writing books next to useless. They can help you learn the underlying rules (if they can be considered rules) common to most stories, but there are always exceptions, and you need to take their advice with a healthy dose of skepticism/criticism, otherwise you will likely end up with a plot-driven, stereotype-filled story that's all action and no musing. Which works well for a number of authors, but can't really be called literature. To reach literature status, you have to engage the mind with interesting problems, for which reading philosophy can be better idea fodder than fiction. (Of course, the best fiction stirs the mind anyway...) Though it can be rather remote and theoretical, which doesn't translate easily into the nuts-and-bolts of a story.

If you can, delve a little into literary criticism. There's not so much of it yet for SFF, but there's lots of it for classical literature. It can help you to see what the greats are doing that make them great (though it can also be creatively stifling, so use caution).

So, in a nutshell, study, write, read, repeat.

 

[j d worthington]

If you can, delve a little into literary criticism. There's not so much of it yet for SFF, but there's lots of it for classical literature. It can help you to see what the greats are doing that make them great (though it can also be creatively stifling, so use caution).

There are, however, some very good things along that line. Most of the best deal with specific authors rather than a genre in general, or a type of tale, but they do have broader implications to think about. One of the most entertaining and thought-provoking (and provoking otherwise, too, at times...) is Colin Greenland's The Entropy Exhibition: Michael Moorcock and the British 'New Wave' in Science Fiction. There are tons of books on Tolkien, Lewis, etc. (though the best thing to do with Tolkien is reading his own thoughtful essays on the subject), some of which are worthwhile, others not -- so do a little looking for reviews before selecting one. Be careful to avoid the "fannish" ones, and look for those with substance, as the commentary here is more likely to have wider implications beyond just that particular writer/subject.

But please don't make the mistake of becoming too involved in "world-building" ... that is, to the point where it becomes what special effects has in the movie industry, where it overrides good storytelling, good writing, etc. While important, as classics of the genre (such as E. R. Eddison's books) will demonstrate, one can have some serious flaws in this direction, but if the writing and what the writer has to say are strong, these are of minor importance....

 

[Kissmequick]

Learn to read as a writer not a reader.

I completely agree with that. But as someone who never made it past O level english ( I wanted out of school ASAP lol), I didn't know how to dissect a book, or even where to start when trying to figure out how someone has characterised well. I only knew whether I liked it or not. That's something some of these books have helped with. Along with pointing out flaws in my writing I wasn't really aware of.

I think you need to use the widest possible range of tools to improve.

And so saying I'm off to punish my visa card at Amazon with some of these reccomendations

 

[igloo15]

John Gardner's "The Art of Fiction"

is great I took a creative writing class on prose fiction and thats the book they recommended most out of any. Its not that expensive either relatively cheap but I will warn you that it is very dense lots of text that is very small with no pictures or anything.

 

[RcGrant]

Not related to SFF directly, but the book every writer should have on their bookshelf is The Elements of Style by William Strunk.

 

[Troo]

There's a list I pull out of the bag every time someone asks this question, so forgive me if others have already mentioned one or two of them.

Here's a list of books for those who'd like to learn more about the craft of writing. These are my personal recommendations, so you might want to flick through them before buying and see if they'd suit you.

Story - Robert McKee
I can't harp on about the importance of this book enough, but I have heard some people say they find it too heavy-going, so do check it out before laying down your hard-earned cash, as it's quite pricey. It's worth every penny, though. Although this book focusses on the art of storytelling mainly for Screenwriters, what it teaches is invaluable to all storytellers, no matter the media.

Solutions for Writers - Sol Stein
Sol knows everything.
In this book, he tells you what he knows.
The End.

Robert's Rules of Writing: 101 Off-Beat Lessons Every Writer Should Know - Robert Masello
Masello's "rules" are more "strong suggestions" that you'd be wise to listen to. He's pithy, sarcastic, humorous, and spot on.

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy - Orson Scott Card
Widely recognised as the best book on the subject.

The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published - Rachael Stock
Only useful to UK residents. For US residents there a thousand and one books on this subject.
Rachael has been a publisher in the UK for many years, and her insights into the process and business are fantastic. Any writer who wants to be published here should read it.