Treat Your Self Book Haul
5:52 AMBoth Christmas and my birthday have passed. These are the two times a year when I use gift cards to buy books. The rest of the year, I check out books from the library and make lists of what I'll buy come next Christmas. However, there are some times in life when you feel the need to treat yourself to something nice.
So, I decided to use some of my hard earned paycheck and buy some books.
- Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-Step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories by Martha Alderson
- The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
- Thief of Lies by Brenda Drake
- On Writing by Stephen King
- The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
From second grade all the way to about last year, I'd alway been a panster when it came to writing. I never planned out what I was going to write and instead relied on inspiration. Well, this resulted in a lot of unfinished stories. The only stories I ever did finish were writing assignments for school, and, even then, they were short stories and never a full length novel. Though I was able to write a novel by the seat of my pants during NaNoWriMo a few years ago (a manuscript which was so terrible I'm glad I lost it when my computer died), last August I decided to try plotting my current WIP (Work in Progress) before I began writing it. As both a teacher and a Ravenclaw, it's hardly any surprise that I want to learn as much as I can about plotting. The Plot Whisperer Workbook was recommended by Monica B. Sanz—one of four lovely writers who lead the #Wattpad4 Twitter chat every Monday night at 8PM Eastern Time—so I decided to check it out. Though I haven't had time to do any of the exercises in the book, I'm excited to use them this June to help me plan out my next NaNo project which I plan to start writing in July.
The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers was also recommended by a member of the Wattpad4 writer group on Twitter. Erin Latimer writes and reads a lot of fantasy, and as I do as well, so I was happy to take her word for it that I should add this book to my small yet growing collection of writing books. I remember reading portions of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey back in college when I was writing a paper for one of my literature classes. It will be cool to revisit Campbell's ideas again through the lens of a writer.
I first learned of Brenda Drake when I heard about #PitMad, one of several book pitching contests she hosts on Twitter in an attempt to connect writers with agents. After interacting with her through an interview for Wattpad4, I decided to check out her work to see if I'd like it. When I saw Thief of Lies was about to be published and it was about characters who traveled through portals from one library to the next all over the world, I knew I had to read it. Libraries are some of my favorites places in the entire world.
On Writing by Stephen King has been recommended to me time and time again. So when Rebecca Sky of Wattpad4 also raved about it, I decided it was about time I finally did.
The last book I bought was recommended by all four of the #Wattpad4 hosts. Though I've only paged through it, I know I'm going to use The Emotion Thesaurus a lot, especially when editing. Let's face it, you can only have your character roll her eyes to show her annoyance so many times before readers begin to wonder if it's the only range of motion of which she's capable.
Looking back at what I've written, I could've called this post #Wattpad4 book recommendations:)
2 comments
WOOHOO! Books are always the bestest reward. I feel like I absolutely have to get On Writing and The Emotion Thesaurus at some point, just because they're like THE books of writing advice. And Thief of Lies! I admit the premise doesn't seem like it's for me particularly but Brenda is such an amazing person.
ReplyDeletePS: Your picture in the sidebar seems to be a little squished, perhaps check if there's a glitch? Just a heads up!
Thanks for reading, Alyssa! Yes! On Writing has been suggested so many times! I only recently discovered The Emotion Thesaurus, but I can already see it coming in handy. Also, yes, Brenda seems like such a kind and giving person. I will definitely support her by buying her books when they interest me.
ReplyDeletePS: Yes, I know my picture in my sidebar is squished. My blog is a template I downloaded, and I feel like whenever I change one thing on the formatting another aspect gets screwed up :( I'm working on how to fix it.