Books

Quiet - Susan Cain, it's about the mind of an introvert. Would most likely only appeal if you were an introvert, so if you are I highly recommend it. It's so fascinatingly refreshing to be truly understood.

 

Currently reading unleash the warrior within by Richard Mack Machowicz. Great motivational book. Favorite for nofap help so far has been Meet Your Happy Chemicals suggested to me by @britaxe .

 

"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius.

And nearly anything by Alan Watts.

 

I'm a writer but I also love reading. Some of my favorites include Inkheart, Anne of Green Gables, I am Number Four, The Percy Jackson series is my favorite ever because I am a total history nerd. I also liked both Alice in Wonderland books, The Maze Runner Series, Invisible by James Patterson (It has a great twist). I also like the bible and Not a Fan which is also a christian book. I hope to write my own book one day. I'm an Creative Writing major right now... Sorry for the length haha, im just an English nerd for sure haha

 

Badass. I've been reading to mean Meditations.

edit: meaning to read lol

 

Anything by James Michener. He is (/was?) a historical novelist. His books are really educational, and his writing style is good enough to be interesting, but inundated with enough facts so that you don't get too addicted to the book. Perfect balance.

 

Currently reading awaken the giant within by Anthony Robbins, To kill a mocking bird by Harper lee and the power of habit by Charles duhigg
Favourite books - Rise by Trip Lee, Reason For God - Tim Keller, The book of negroes by Lawrence hill and the book I don't read enough the bible

 

I read this one. I come out about 85% introverted on Jungian style tests so I was pretty much nodding my head on the sections of this I read. I actually think this would appeal to extroverts more than introverts. I always want to know what is on the other side.

 

Currently reading: nothing, because I'm lazy and trying to work on my own book at the moment.

Favorites: the Bible, The Hunger Games series, most anything by Sarah Dessen (although many of her books are frustratingly similar) or Nicholas Sparks, 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. (I'm a girl and I like romance. Can you tell?)

I've also been enjoying The Purpose Driven life, though I haven't gotten very far into it, and I'm looking forward to finding time to read Loved Back to Life by one of my favorite speakers, Sheila Walsh.

Down and Out in Providence was one of my favorite college reads. A memoir about a bishop living a life of homelessness for a certain amount of time (a month, if I remember correctly).

 

If you are so inclined, tell us a bit more about what is like to transition from reader to professional writer. I can imagine it is quite the change in mindset.

 

My favorite book is probably We Learn Nothing by Tim Kreider.

It's the only book I've ever read that has made me laugh out loud, given me chills, and brought me to the verge of tears. Sometimes in the same chapter. It's great.

Another one of my favorites (I carry it with me wherever I go) is Lying by Sam Harris. It's very short, and it's all about the ethics surrounding lying. Fantastic.

 

That's a funny question for me because I've always been more of a writer than a reader, even as a kid. Haha so I don't think there has ever really been a "transition" for me. Writing has always been a part of me and something I knew I wanted to do professionally someday. It's exciting to finally be stepping into that new world.

As a kid (and teenager, even) I actually didn't much enjoy reading. I've always been more of a movie/TV kinda gal. The Twilight series, funnily enough, changed that for me. Not a very "well written" series, but the story was interesting to me as a teen, and I kind of discovered that reading could be fun. Nowadays, though, it's definitely interesting to read a book after having written one. I'm very in tune to the technical aspects of everything, like speed, flow, transitions, character development. It's interesting and immensely useful to kind of "search my heart" as I read and try to learn what makes a reader feel happy, sad, scared, invested, etc. If I find myself feeling any particularly strong emotions, I have to stop and say, "Okay, what exactly is making me feel this way, because clearly this author is doing something right, and I want to learn from that."

 

It's also helpful to learn from authors' mistakes (like Twilight...) and take note of any kind of grammar decisions or word choices, particularly using words in dialogue that are too "proper" and not realistic, that make me, as a reader, feel momentarily distracted from the story for any reason. That's never what ya want!

Sometimes using a word or phrase or spelling that is technically correct but not widely accepted as correct is actually really distracting. You kind of have to decide "do I want to be right or do I want people to have fun reading this and not get distracted." Usually I choose to be "correct," but I can see benefits sometimes to fudging the rules for the sake of the reader.

 

Thanks for the insight! Out of even more curiosity, do you have any good technical books and/or material that you could recommend addressing technical writing? I don't shy away from (and in fact am more attracted to) challenging material. i.e. I might get bored with a layman's view of writing. I have been a reader since youth and part of me has reached a stage where I would like to recognize character development, temporal strategies and tactics, appropriate use of diction and metaphor etc rather than being an oblivious consumer. My writing skills could stand a bit of work as well. I never needed to write more than a few sparse one liners in my core courses as an undergraduate.

Yet today, my livelihood depends on my capacity to communicate effectively and I have reread some of my emails and I can totally see why there might be some confusion (to put it mildly). I purchased a tiny book (Elegant English) and it is a window into what I am looking to accomplish with the English Language. There is something to be said for an elegantly worded solution every now and again.

 

I hope I reach that point in my writing. I have never completed or come close to completing a book, but I hope taking classes will help me make my writing flow better and make my characters more alive. That's my main problem. Writings always been my number one passion. As a kid I actually use to scrabble on paper and pretend to write books. I've got so many great ideas and can't wait to create the worlds.

 

That's a great question! I think I gleaned most of my useful writing skills from school (I had a great English teacher -- her name was mom and she is now the unofficial editor of my books ) and a lot of writing seminars, contests, conversations with fellow writers, writing clubs, etc. As far as actual books, I'm not sure I really have any suggestions. I have a book called "On Writing" written by Stephen King, and I've heard really great things about it but I haven't read it yet, so I can't really give my opinion.

Looking through my mini-home-library, I can't say I've really read any particularly useful books on writing, honestly. I've mostly learned a lot from experience and helpful guidance from my mother and my high school English teacher.

There's an author named Charlie Price who is from my hometown. I've attended some of his lectures at our local community college and his advice has been incredibly insightful to me. I have no idea if he has a book on writing or any videos or audio lectures, but you could probably find that out through Google if you're interested. He's a really wise man.

This conversation is making me realize that perhaps my next endeavor should be to write a book about writing. Haha apparently we need more of them!

 

I have always been in the camp that says "You have to learn the rules first before you are ready to break them"

Something like Correctness → Style

 

Ideas sometimes crop up in the most unlikely of places!

It is like how many books do you see on humor? From a ted talk, writing a book on humor is like dissecting a frog. Nobody wants to do it and the frog dies of it in the end.

 

Some encouragement here: until a few months ago, I was in the same boat as you. I had never even come close to writing an actual book. I felt like I had so many good ideas, but they never moved past a short story, because I just didn't want to slap in a bunch of filler nonsense just for the sake of length.

But one day, at the beginning of this year, I got a passion for a story and it just completely took off, leaving me to have to run just to keep up with it! You never know when that idea might just hit you. That's what happened for me, and it was almost magical. haha The initial "spark" for the idea of my book came from a particular character in one of my favorite TV shows, so keep immersing yourself in the world of media, of any form, and you're bound to get inspired by something (not to mention, you'll learn a lot, whether it be from books, movies, TV, music, poetry, art, about how to tell a good story).

I couldn't begin to give you all of the helpful advice I've heard over the years, but I will give you one piece that has always stuck with me and totally changed the way I approached writing....

Start with characters. Solidify who your characters are, play with them, talk to them, get to know them. Once you get that far, if you get stuck in the plot and don't know where to go from where you're at, all you have to do is let your characters guide you. Just take a look at what's happening, remember who they are, and ask yourself, "What would they do next?" (This advice was from that wise ol' man, Mr. Charlie Price, and it seriously changed my whole outlook on writing).

Anyway, hope that helped some... I don't want to take over this whole thread. haha so if you ever wanna chat writing, it's like basically my life. lol I'd be more than happy to exchange ideas/critiques/whatevs, whenevs.