tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post112899766121458937..comments2024-03-27T02:00:49.152-04:00Comments on Kate's Book Blog: Reading about Writing 3Kate S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16897618197257393697noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1129869969213464822005-10-21T00:46:00.000-04:002005-10-21T00:46:00.000-04:00I love your series about books on writing, Kate!He...I love your series about books on writing, Kate!<BR/><BR/>Here are a few interesting ones you may or may not know about:<BR/><BR/>The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner (amazing study of style)<BR/><BR/>On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner (more of an inspirational, chatty kinda book)<BR/><BR/>Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction, by Patricia Highsmith (she, along with Samuel Beckett, is my favourite fiction writer; this is a very weird little book)<BR/><BR/>The Stephen King book -- I couldn't get through that sucker, I'll tell ya. The Delaney one sounds great.<BR/><BR/>StuRazovskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02204691525944577597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1129230355763726152005-10-13T15:05:00.000-04:002005-10-13T15:05:00.000-04:00Josh,Thanks for your kind words about my blog. Pe...Josh,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for your kind words about my blog. Perhaps I'll give some more recent Block a try, and I will definitely keep an eye out for the Delany. I rather like grouchy and impatient as a narrative voice for an instructional book about writing.<BR/><BR/>Patrica,<BR/><BR/>I've put the Atwood on hold at the library. I've been reading her essays (recently collected in <I>Moving Targets</I>) and enjoying them. I suspect that a more sustained work by her on writing will be right up my alley.Kate S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/16897618197257393697noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1129025922790686082005-10-11T06:18:00.000-04:002005-10-11T06:18:00.000-04:00Well, I thought King's book was just a silly mess....Well, I thought King's book was just a silly mess. I did enjoy it when he talked about his youth, but yes, I do agree it would have been much more useful if he had tied it into his writing more. The 'nuts and bolts' section seemed pretty barebones to me.<BR/><BR/>I highly recommend Margaret Atwood's 'Negotiating With The Dead: A Writing On Writing'. She doesn't get into the 'nuts and bolts', but her subjects are delicious. Pretty much about what it's like to be a female writer. Very intelligent, insightful and funny, of course. Not too long. Pithy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1129010139031751572005-10-11T01:55:00.000-04:002005-10-11T01:55:00.000-04:00I very much like your weblog, having found it thro...I very much like your weblog, having found it through Dan Green's, and am going to take a look at that Craig Rice biographer's work thanks to your blog's having called it to my attention.<BR/><BR/>Lawrence Block has put together at least three volumes of how-to writers' guides: I think the more recent ones would, naturally, contain less dated material.<BR/><BR/>Stephen King will, on occasion, make the sort of pseudopopulist remark that really grates, as when he wrote that anyone taking more than a couple of years to write a novel is just being lazy. But he's pretty good at analyzing the workings and style of horror and suspense fiction.<BR/><BR/>Samuel Delany's 416-page book assembling essays on the sorts of things he tells his creative writing students, <I>About Writing</I>, is slated for release at the end of this year. It's uneven: you can see him getting grouchier and more impatient with his students as he ages. But it's unique and contains much good material on the craft, status, and life of a writer.<BR/><BR/>--JoshAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com