Reading about writing

Authoring this blog for the last 15 months has given me a good excuse to work on my writing skills.

I know that I'll never be a novelist or poet. But that doesn't mean that I can't improve how I explain things or write about something that happened to me. I know that I'll benefit from this, and hopefully you will also.


Recently I've been reading, or listening to, some books on writing. And I thought I'd share these with you. You should find most of these at your local library. So all you may need is an investment of time to improve your writing abilities.

I like Anne Lamott's style and she's written several books that just make me laugh. I borrowed an audio version of her book Bird by Bird and I've enjoyed listening to it several times. She writes it around how she teaches students to write and to approach tackling the challenges of writing. I especially like sections on first drafts and getting down to actually producing writing. With these tips I might even feel up to tackling NaNoWriMo in a few years!

I just finished reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. Then I was chatting with one of my sisters in Ireland and she's also in the middle of reading this one. We both like it a lot. It's got very short chapters with gentle advice on writing, how to think of topics to write about and how to get help in improving your writing. She's also got an interesting idea about having a writing booth at fairs and other public events. I'll definitely read this again.

Finally I'm almost through Mary Pipher's book Writing to Change the World. This book is really a combination of tips about writing and gentle activism, combined with thinking about where you've come from. One example from a section called Finding Your Voice is

Your self-exploration is a way to pay attention to the world, within yourself and outside yourself, and to experience what Allen Ginsberg called "surprise mind".

Try answering these questions on paper:
What makes you laugh, cry, and open your heart?
What points do you repeatedly make to those you love?
What topics keep you up at night, or help you fall asleep?
...

These books have a good deal of overlap. So reading them has helped me attack some basic writing problems and improve slightly.

All that's needed to finish is a lot of practice in both writing and reading. This blog gives a great opportunity for the former and others help me with the latter.

Have you read any good books that have helped you to improve your writing?

Labels: book, nablopomo, writing

posted by Bernard @ 9:13 PM 6 Comments Links to this post