Fiction Writing Books and Help

If you're writing a novel or a story, read these two books and look at these websites for help.

While Dwight Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer may be the best book on fiction writing around, here are some other books and website that have helped me while I was writing my forthcoming novel, RABID.

Jane Smiley’s non-fiction book 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel is fantastic for her theory of fiction, her presentation and contrasting of other theories of fiction, and her long discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of 100 novels. Must-Read.

What is Art? by Leo Tolstoy was recently republished by Barnes & Noble Books. It’s a fascinating treatise on the place of art and fiction within society. Tolstoy wrote this near the end of his life, when he was regressing into religion, but his theories are worth reading and responding to, even if you don’t whole-heartedly espouse all of his conclusions. Should-Read.

Web Sites for Writing Advice:

Zoetrope: Huge, international online writers’ community for short fiction, poetry, and screenplays.

Deadly Prose: An online critique group of published and aspiring novelists. Requires and application and invitation.

TK Kenyon’s Website: Monthly essays on the craft and techniques of writing.

• When to Use POV Shifts
• When to Use Passive Voice
• Interior Monologue: Just Think No!
• “As You Know, Bob,” When Exposition Masquerades as Dialogue
• Don’t Show, Dramatize!

If you write fiction, you might like to read about where to get ideas.

More on Creating Unforgettable Characters here.

More about theories of reading and writing here.

TK Kenyon