The Jane Austen Writers' Club: Inspiration and advice from the world's best-loved novelist, by Rebecca Smith (New York Bloomsbury, 2016). While creative writing manuals use examples from twentieth- and twenty-first-century writers, The Jane Austen Writers' Club is the first to look at the methods and devices used by the world's most beloved novelist. Austen was a creator of immortal characters and a pioneer in her use of language and point of view; her advice continues to be relevant two centuries after her death. Rebecca Smith examines the major aspects of writing fiction such as plotting, characterization, openings and endings, dialogue, settings, and writing methods. Smith shares the advice Austen gave in letters to her aspiring novelist nieces and nephew and providing many and varied exercises for writers to try, using examples from Austen's work.
Wonderlands: Essays on the Life of Literature, by Charles Baxter. (Graywolf Press, 2022). Novelist, essayist, poet and teacher Charles Baxter generously shares his immense knowledge and approach to reading, writing and teaching. These are not the usual writing tips; these are essays of insight and wisdom. Give your characters a request, not a command; inventory who they are and what they have - because what they have can be lost. He examines charisma, he gives generous nods to other writers (James McBride, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison), all in his distinct and clear voice.
Finishing school: the happy ending to that writing
project you can't seem to get done, by Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton (New
York, TarcherPerigee, 2017). Tennis first convened a Finishing School so that
writers could help one another stay on track and complete their work. Since
they weren’t actually critiquing one another’s writing, there was no jockeying
for the title of best writer or the usual writing group politics; there was
only a shared commitment to progress. Without guilt, blame, and outside
critique, students were more productive than they imagined possible. Through
this approach, they were able to complete novels that they’d been struggling
with for almost two decades, finish screenplays drafts, and revive interest in
long-neglected PhD theses. In this book, the authors share this proven and
easily replicable technique, as well as their own writing success stories.
If you want to write, by Brenda Ueland (Graywolf Press, 2007). For most, the hardest part of writing is overcoming
the mountain of self-denial that weighs upon the spirit, always threatening to
extinguish those first small embers of ambition. Brenda Ueland, a writer, and
teacher, devotes most of her book, published back in 1938, before everyone got
their MFAs in creative writing--to these matters of the writer's heart. Still,
the real gift of the book is Ueland herself: She liked to write, she didn't
care what anyone thought, and she had a great sense of humor.
