13 Comments
Jan 15, 2023·edited Jan 15, 2023Liked by Terry Freedman

My concern with writing books is that new creators will think they can find a toolbox. My method that I use now in private teaching and that I used as a creative writing professor at GWU and as a lecturer at the Smithsonian's Campus-on-the-Mall was to teach the writer how to teach himself. No one learns by being told or lectured. And reading is the key--and film can be as well. We do, as one of your titles suggests, learn to read and view as writers. One of the keys that I use in part of my Substack: Write it! How to get started is to separate invention from the study of craft. xo ~Mary

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I agree to a large extent, but I think we can all learn from other writers, and then make the craft our own

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STORY CRAFT is a great book, and many nonfiction writers would benefit from it. Curious why you didn't link out to any of the books you reviewed?

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Hi Jody. I did link out to the books, in the captions under the book covers. But thank you for saying this because when I went back to check, not ALL of the links were there. I think I must have been interrupted or something. Anyway, I've put the missing ones in now!

I definitely agree with you about Story Craft. I particularly like the way he takes what could be boring writing (just the facts) and shows you how to turn it into something compelling.

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Awesome-saucem! I'm glad I wasn't just suffering the classic ID10T error.

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Lol. I've never heard that expression before. Love it!

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On Writing by Stephen King is still my all time favorite.

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It's taking me a while because I need to re-read it first!

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Thanks for reminding me of that, Sarah. I will have to review that too!

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Terrific post, Terry - thank you! 😃 I’ve got some reading to do...

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Thanks, Rebecca. Yes, they're all good, for different reasons. Hope you find some of them useful and interesting.

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Thanks for posting these Terry! These books look interesting. Only "Writing Tools: 55 Essentials" is available within my library system. I'll take a look at it the next time I'm at the library. I wrote the others down for future reference.

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Cheers, Matthew. I've read a few books by Roy Peter Clark and they are all good IMO. Very practical advice and analysis from a seasoned writer. So if your library has other books by him you might want to check those out as well.

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