Top ten books on the craft of writing

Top ten books on the craft of writing

When it comes to advice on creative writing, there is a multitude of sources on inspiration, motivation, the habits of good artists, etc. And all of them are important as writing is a mostly solitary activity which drains inner sources of commitment and perseverance. However, when it comes to the craft of writing, the nuts and bolts of HOW you actually need to write, resources are much more sparce. I know people who have completed English degrees, and even Master’s degrees in creative writing, without ever learning how to write a good paragraph or how to structure their story.

Not all is bleak, though. Over the last ten years or so, I’ve made it my mission to explore books, websites, podcasts, etc to find the ones that teach me about the craft of writing. Here are my top ten books:

1.       The Art of Fiction by John Gardner is a seminal work in this space. It’s a practical handbook which explains principles and techniques of good writing, with examples from literature. A must read!

1. Save The Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody adapts the famous screenwriting method to novel writing, breaking down storytelling into 15 essential beats to craft compelling narratives. It includes examples and models how to use the template.

2. Great American Short Stories by Jennifer Cognard-Black explores the evolution of the American short story, offering insights into its literary significance and techniques for both writers and readers. Don’t be misled by the title. There are some excellent pieces of deconstruction and tasks to complete.

3. Effective Editing by Molly McCowan is a practical guide to self-editing, breaking down the revision process into structured levels—from developmental editing to proofreading—to help writers refine their work with clarity and confidence.

4. Writing Great Fiction by James Hynes explores the craft of storytelling, offering insights into character development, plot construction, and thematic depth, with practical exercises to help writers hone their skills.

5. Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk blends memoir with writing advice, sharing unconventional techniques and personal anecdotes to help writers establish authority, build tension, and craft compelling narratives. It is very different to the traditional approach (all the previous books) and offers some good explanations and activities in relation to pacing, twists and drawing the reader in.

6. Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster examines the fundamental elements of fiction, including story, plot, character, and rhythm, offering a timeless perspective on the art of novel writing. This is more of a nostalgic one for me where I can see how the essential elements have not changed over the years.

7. How Fiction Works by James Wood is an insightful exploration of the mechanics of storytelling, analyzing how novels and stories are constructed, with a focus on character, narrative style, and literary technique. There are beautiful examples here of what works and what doesn’t, really breaking down the elements of what makes a story good.

8. The Writing Book by Kate Grenville is a practical, step-by-step guide to fiction writing, offering exercises and examples to help writers develop their voice, refine their craft, and structure compelling narratives. She starts from the very basic – how to come up with ideas – to progress to how to develop a character, to what makes a story compelling, brimming with examples from Australian Literature and exercises to complete.

9. A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders blends literary analysis with writing advice, using classic Russian short stories to illustrate storytelling principles while reflecting on the deeper connections between fiction and life. I have to admit that I was taken by Saunders’ very humble approach and trying to say that no one knows the answer in an intellectual way, that a lot of the process is ambling in the dark. That may not be as helpful but it is comforting.

I would love to hear of sources you have used and would recommend!

Top ten books about being an artist / writer

Top ten books about being an artist / writer

We know we need food and water, exercise and company to thrive. What we often neglect is the creative child in us. Once we’re adults, we often relegate activities that involve painting, dancing, singing, writing, to the ‘frivolous’ or ‘childish’ basket. Or, in the other extreme, we think of them as highly skilled activities that only the truly gifted and well trained should perform.

The truth, though, is that we all need creativity in our lives to prosper and feel good, fulfilled, content. But how to do it in a busy world like ours?

Here are ten books that will hopefully disabuse of those notions. Creativity is for everyone and should be exercised by all. Not as a profession but because it nourishes our soul and connects us to the truly divine in us, the child filled with wonderment and awe.

(a longer version is available on my website).

(Stephen King’s book On Writing is not included here as no one on this planet needs me to recommend it to them. You already all know about it and have probably read it.)

These books collectively explore the nature of creativity, offering wisdom, encouragement, and practical strategies for artists, writers, and dreamers. They delve into the habits, struggles, and philosophies that shape the creative process—emphasizing discipline (The Creative Habit), the mystery of inspiration (Big Magic), and overcoming self-doubt (The Artist's Way). Some focus on storytelling and the craft of writing (Bird by Bird, On Writing, Letters to a Young Writer), while others reflect on the deeper emotional and existential aspects of artistry (Faith, Hope and Carnage, The Luminous Solution, The Writing Life). Whether through personal anecdotes, meditative essays, or direct advice, these works champion perseverance, vulnerability, and the joy of creation.

1.     Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert
This book is almost as famous as On Writing, but I would pick it any day over the S. King book. I actually did. I finished it and immediately started again. It is such a great motivator for those of us who question themselves and the time they devote to the creative process. Gilbert argues here that our creative side is as needed as exercising or sleeping if we want to be fulfilled and happy. I can’t recommend it enough.

2.     The Artist’s Way - Julia Cameron
Cameron is the queen of thoughtful deliberation and through gentle yet effective exercises guides you in the process of discovering your creative self and building creative habits.

3.     Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
This is a beautifully written book regardless of the message but she manages to incorporate stories from her own life to underscore the most important message: hang in there, don’t let the doubts swallow you.

4.     Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke / Letters to a Young Writer - Column McCann
Although there is a century between the writing of these two books, the message is easily summarised with this quote: Art is life. Life is art. Live! Trust yourself (definitely not the critics) and keep trying.

5.     Faith, Hope and Carnage - Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan
The dialogue between these two artists seemingly meanders from god to loss to artistic endeavours, all the while drawing you in to consider the topics and how you express them in your art.

6.     The Getaway Car - Ann Patchett
This may be the most beautiful and poignant description of what an artist sees and imagines and their final product. It is confirmation that all artists view their work as unfinished, no matter their success.

7.     The Luminous Solution - Charlotte Wood
This is possibly an inversion of Rilke’s and McCann’s message: here, Wood shows how art and creative endeavours can help us understand ourselves better and ultimately live a better life. 

8.     The Writing Life - Annie Dillard 
This collection of short vignettes shows us that even the greatest artists have their moments of doubt and weakness but also points to how to overcome those.

9.     How to be an Artist - Jerry Saltz 
Very short and poignant collection of advice on how to live a creative life.

10.  The Creative Habit - Twyla Tharp
Out of all ten books (except The Artist’s Way), this book is the only on structured around creative practice and how to exercise the creative mind and spirit in a constructive, enjoyable and consistent fashion.

Are there other books you would recommend around creative practice?

 Top ten books to movies

Top ten books to movies

It is film awards season, so it seems timely to do a ‘top ten movies based on books.’

There are very many that I have not seen (I tend to avoid watching movies if I like the book a lot), but it does happen: very rarely, there are a few times when film makers get it right: the movie is gorgeous, we don’t feel let down after enjoying the book. And if the movie is really good, we don’t compare it to the book but enjoy it in its own right. Here are my top ten:

1.       Looking for Alibrandi– based on Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta

This is probably the only movie I have seen before I read the book.  I loved it so much I wanted to read the book.  When I read the book, I loved it so much, I wanted to see the movie again.  When watching the movie, I was sent back to my childhood where I was the weird child with the weird foreign family, always torn between trying to fit in and defying the mainstream norms.  Then, reading the book, it happened again, I felt everything Josie felt; and it was not a repetition of the movie.  Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. 

2.      Matilda - based on Matilda by Roald Dahl

I love everything by Roald Dahl but Matilda has a special place in my heart as she is a girl so in love with books that she defies her parents and the tradition of ignorance and greedy excess – to read.  The movie is equally gorgeous; all characters are so beautifully interpreted; it’s almost as if Roald Dahl himself had supervised the movie making.  Our family loves it so much, we refer to Miss Honey and the Trunchbull as if they were our neighbours.  

3.      The Book Thief –  based on Markus Zusak’ book

Everything in the book is perfect – particularly the heroine whose hunger for books is so great, she commits crimes.  The relationships between the characters are so beautifully portrayed that it is not possible to not feel for each one of them.  I did not want to see the movie as I was sure it would spoil everything the book did so well.  But my daughter convinced me to go with her, and I am glad she did.  All the components of the book were maintained, except for a small omission with the mother, when she apparently contemplates betraying their fugitive.  Not true!  But the movie can be forgiven for this because everything else is so perfect.

  (Hollywood couldn’t help itself with the ending:  Liesel didn’t die in New York but Sydney!)

4.      The Hunger Games – based on The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The first book has such a perfect combination of action, relationships, the fight of good and evil, believable self-sacrifice and winning against the big guy.  The first movie managed to replicate these combinations without making book fans angry – which is a difficult accomplishment.  But it went further – creating a fan base of both the book readers and those who wouldn’t be seen dead with a book, suddenly buying the trilogy in paperback, hard copy, box set and e-copy.  Well done! 

5.      Brokeback Mountain – based on the shorty story Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

It is difficult to imagine that anyone could translate Proulx’s inimitable style of story telling – sparse in words but rich in meaning.  But Ang Lee, supported by a magnificent cast, managed to do it – create a story that did not have too many words but was so rich in feelings.  And the last words – ‘Jack, I swear, ..’ – are still talked about. 

6.      The Count of Monte Cristo – based on The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

If you are asking which adaptation, I’d say, ‘all of them!’ I love this book so much! I’ve read it as a child, as a graphic novel, as a teenager, as an adult. It never loses its most alluring quality (to me): just revenge! How I love it! But, if I have to single out one adaptation, it would be the one with John Caviziel and Guy Pierce.

(disclaimer: I have not seen the 2024 French adaptation, which is supposed to be awful, but I can’t believe such a thing is possible)

7.      The Handmaid’s Tale – based (loosely) on Margaret Atwood’s book

I am a huge Atwood fan (long before it became fashionable to be so), and although this book was never my favourite, it is memorable. It is a bit discombobulating at first, and it is hard to settle into the narrative. However, once you are in this (now not so much) surreal world where the government controls a woman’s reproductive system, as well as all other aspects of her life, there is no escape from the nightmare. Elisabeth Moss embodies the main character so well, I dare say she’s more real than the book character.

8.   Little Women – based on the classic by Louisa May Alcott

A timeless book and a timeless movie, whichever version you have seen. As a great piece of art, it allows for various interpretations. May I sneak in a book recommendation? Please read March, Geraldine Brooks’s book about the same events and piece of history, from the point of view of the father.

9.    Atonement – based on Ian McEwan’s book

I am a big Ian McEwan fan, and this is my second favourite book of his (On Chesil Beach is my favourite, in case you’re wondering). I think there is no wrong word or paragraph here. There is perfect harmony between the words, characters and the plot. And somehow the movie manages to do that as well, mostly thanks to brilliant performances by Keira Knightly, James McEvoy and an unknown kid called Saoirse Ronan.

10.      Crazy Rich Asians – based on the book by Kevin Kwan

Both the book and the movie are a pure delight. Every word, every character sparkles with idiosyncrasies and energy. While the book has a broader focus, I think the movie was right to focus mainly on Rachel Chu and her boyfriend, allowing this different medium to achieve what the book did – intrigue, family disfunction, joy and ‘love conquers all!’

So, what about your favourite book adaptation? 

Top ten short stories

TOP TEN SHORT STORIES

I’ve been wanting to do a Top Ten about short stories for a long time. I love and I hate short stories. When they are done right, they are perfect. They reveal to you a world you did not know existed. They are, as Jacqueline Woodson says, like a match in the dark; they reveal a little but point you towards all the details still in the dark.

 But there are so many bad ones. Sometimes many of us despair and give up, stop reading short stories completely. 

 Please don’t! This is my attempt to entice you back to this story telling form that, I believe, is the most perfect of all. For the last few weeks, I’ve asked myself the question: if somebody asked you to tell them what was the short story that left the most impact on you, what would you tell them, without thinking about it?

 I immediately thought of seven. I spent the next three weeks reading and re-reading quite a few to fill the remaining three spots. Here are the top ten (in no particular order) that I would recommend without hesitation:  

1.     A Jury of her Peers by Susan Glaspell

A man is strangled to death while his wife sleeps next to him. While the sheriff tries to investigate the murder, his wife and a neighbour discover clues unnoticed by the men.

A brilliant piece, ever so slowly revealing the embers of rage burning below the surface.

2.     So Late in the Day by Claire Keegan

Is there anything I can say about this story that hasn’t been said by almost everyone already? We follow a man on the day he was meant to get married. The reader, if not the main protagonist, is slowly exposed to the dynamics and reasons why the bride decided not to follow through with the wedding.

Similar to Glaspell’s piece, the unveiling of the deeper truth is masterly achieved, one small step at a time, to allow the reader to be baffled by how all the small pieces make an overwhelming statement and indictment, in both cases, on the men in our lives.

3.     The Wind by Lauren Groff

This story about a mother trying to flee an abusive marriage with her children, is told from the perspective of the daughter who tells it to her own daughter as a grown up.

Even now, as I’m typing this, my heart is gripped with anxiety for the mother’s efforts, her passionate hope for a better life.

4.     Who will Greet You at Home by Lesley
Nneka Arimah

A young African woman lives in a world in which mothers must create babies out of everyday materials (mud, yarn, clay, etc.) and nurture them for a year before the babies can come to life as flesh and blood babies. She sweeps the hair in a hair salon and uses it to create those babies. But things never go quite according to plan.

Part fable, part horror story, imbued with magical realism, this story gripped me like no other. No matter how fantastical the elements in the story, they ring more true than anything you’ve seen on the news.

5.     Xingu by Edith Wharton 

As an Edith Wharton reader, you will be familiar with the society presented here. A set of ridiculously rich as well as pretentious ladies form a united group at their lunch and literature group meetings against a newcomer, until the day a well known writer comes to the luncheon, and all they talk about is Xingu.

A delicious satire that makes you want to be there and witness the cringe. It is my favourite Edith Wharton piece.

6.     The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
by Ursula K LeGuin

This story is about a fictional society where everything is perfect. Everyone is happy. Well, except for one person, a child. A child that has been burdened with all the suffering so that everyone else can be happy.

It is chillingly dark and touches on the core of our beings, our essence. Are we prepared for others to suffer so that we can be happy? 

7.     Recitatif by Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison wrote only one short story, but it is a brilliant one.

It is about two girls who meet at an orphanage; one is white, one is black. They meet several times over their lifetime. At no stage is it clear who is white and who is black. In addition, they are troubled by a memory that may be a false memory or not.

It is masterfully construed to allow us to really look into the eye of race and see it for what it is: a social construct.

8.     The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte
Perkins Gilman

This story is written as journal entries by a woman who is seemingly in a holiday house with her husband after giving birth. The woman is grateful that her husband takes her postpartum depression seriously but is also wondering if there is more behind his instructions not to write although she loves to write.

An excellent psychological thriller/horror story before that term had been invented.

9.     The Lottery by Shirley Jackson 

The story revolves around ‘the lottery,’ an event when all inhabitants gather and a ‘winner’ is chosen randomly from the box.

The slow build up is done so masterfully that even the most mundane actions acquire an element of horror hard to explain. Jackson does not disappoint when the story reaches its climax. You were right to be afraid.

10.  Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl

The pregnant main protagonist leads the doctor, the two detectives and the photographer around the house after she finds her husband dead, all the while making dinner – a leg of lamb.

I know it’s no longer fashionable to like Roald Dahl, but he really is a terrific storyteller.  The story has all the elements I love – an intriguing main (female) character, bumbling and yet so macho-macho men, a twist and a satisfying ending. What else can you ask for?

HAVE YOU GOT A SHORT STORY THAT IMMEDIATELY COMES TO MIND?

Top ten worst books everyone loves (except me)

I’ve been itching to write about this ever since the movie adaptation of THAT book. Fully aware that some of you might hate me now. still, I can’t hold back.

10.  The road to the narrow south 

If I can’t ‘feel’ a book, I don’t like it. This one left me completely cold. The scene on the bridge? I should’ve been crying my eyes out, but I felt - nothing.

Redeeming feature: superb sentences

9.     Moby Dick

I can’t believe anyone enjoys reading 50 pages about different types of sailor knots. 

Redeeming feature: he wrote beautiful love letters to Hawthorne

8.     Prodigal summer 

I’m all for conservation and protecting jackals, but please don’t preach. 

Redeeming feature: she wrote the magnificent Poisonwood Bible 

7.     Flowers in the attic

I like weird books, but there needs to be something else there. This one? Just plain weird. 

Redeeming feature: the twist isn’t bad 

6.     The lord of the rings 

I tried to read this one in all 3 languages I’m literate in. It’s equally boring in all 3.

Redeeming feature: interesting names 

5.     The road 

Great book but - the gloom and doom! I felt like slashing my wrists. 

Redeeming feature: beautiful writing 

4.     A man called Ove

Any aspect of Asperger’s you’ve ever heard of? It’s packed into this one character. 

Redeeming feature: multiculturalism 

3.     Captain Correli’s mandolins 

The worst ending of all times. I can’t forgive him for spoiling a good book. 

Redeeming feature: first half of the book 

2.     Bridge of Clay

This was so painful to read. It’s like someone wanted to be super smart and make every sentence into a poem but achieved the opposite. 

Redeeming feature: he wrote the superb The Book Thief

1.     Where the crawdads sing

Where do I start? The characters are completely unbelievable, the plot is so haphazard, the psychology of the characters is less than cartoonish, and the writing is just so, so bad. I won’t even go into how implausible the actions and developments are. 

Redeeming feature: The cover?

 TOP TEN WEIRDEST BOOKS

(in a good way)

To qualify for this my highly subjective list, books have to be different to the run-of-the mill story. They have to have one, or several, of the following:

·       Unusual narration

·       Unusual plotting

·       Unusual meshing of genres

·       Unusual characters

·       Unusual relationships

·       Unusual ending

And still be highly interesting and satisfying.

The most famous example would be The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is the first book I read and re-read at least ten times as a teenager, filling a whole notebook with quotes. Being the OG, I could have called this list The Dorian Gray list. Being simply weird (ahem, I am looking at you, Flowers in The Attic) or impenetrable to most (yes, I mean you, Ulysses) or just having one gimmick (like  Looks who’s back) doesn’t count.

So, here is my list:

(Caution: if you haven’t read the books – there may be spoilers ahead)

10. The curious incident of the dog in the night time
              Mark Haddon

There has been a whole genre now around the main character being on the autism spectrum. But this one was first. And it is still the best, in my opinion. It manages so fabulously well to keep us interested and engaged. It Is a classical whodunnit – somebody killed the neighbour’s dog – and we follow John Francis Boone as he investigates the murder.

The fact that it’s been banned at some schools for ‘profane language’ is an additional reason to put it on your TBR.

And you will never think the same about people on the autism spectrum.

 9. The heart goes last
              Margaret Atwood

Being the Queen of the dystopian novel, Margaret Atwood adds a wicked twist to this story set in the not-so-distant future. During a severe economic crisis, Stan and Charmaine have lost their jobs and are forced to sleep in their car, vulnerable to roaming gangs. They decide to join a gated community where jobs and houses are guaranteed to everyone. They spend six months in a beautiful house and six months in a prison, while another family lives in that house. Not bad, right? Except if you fall in love with the person living in your house while you are away. There are several twists to keep you reading.

Very original, with trademark Atwood prose.

 8. The Eyre Affair
              Jasper Fforde

This book is set in a parallel universe that revolves around literature. Museums are devoted to writers, politicians sidle up to Chaucer students, and the evil Acheron Hades kidnaps characters from books and holds them to ransom. One day Jane Eyre is gone; there is no trail of her in any of the books.

Highly inventive and well executed.

 7. Lolita
              Vladimir Nabokov

The unreliable narrator tells the story of his infatuation and erotic relationship with Lolita. It is beautifully written and highly engaging. Except, Lolita is a 12-year girl and the narrator’s stepdaughter.

The true genius of the book is that Nabokov leads us so expertly through the narrative that we forget who the narrator – a sleazy middle-aged paedophile – and who the victim is. It makes us examine our own prejudices and biases.

Controversial but brilliant.

 6. 4321
              Paul Auster

This book contains four versions of Archie Ferguson’s life. Each of the seven chapters, representing seven life stages, is divided into four parts, each of which represents a different version of his life. His parents and friends remain largely the same, but in each version there is a different twist, or a different characteristic, that leads Archie on a different trajectory.

This is my favourite of the ‘sliding doors’ scenarios, including movies, short stories and novels.

I’ll let you find out for yourself what the numbers from the title represent.

 5. Achtsam morden (Mindful murder)
              Karsten Dusse

This novel had potential to be just one of those books that sucks you in with a great premise, only to let you down in the execution and particularly ending (my most common complaint). But Dusse manages to pull it off and follow through on the promise he makes.

Bjorn Diemel, attorney to underworld figures, with a frenetic pace to his work and no work-life balance, is forced by his wife to take a seminar on mindfulness. He agrees, in order to save his marriage, but then applies the lessons he learns to his work and client dealings.

Never has there been a funnier way to see people killed.

 4. The cleft  
              Doris Lessing

This is the story of humankind, as told by an anonymous Roman historian. In the beginning, the world was populated by women only, who called themselves cleft. They reproduced asexually. There was peace and harmony. Until one of them gave birth to a child with a strange genital appendage. They called it ‘monster’ and killed it. Over time more were born….

It is a seriously disturbing story, and in the hands of anyone less skilled, it could have been plainly weird. But Lessing imbues it with such pathos, it really makes you think about humanity for many weeks after you’ve turned the last page.

 3. If on a winter’s night a traveller
              Italo Calvino

In terms of heated discussions, this may be the most polarizing book I’ve read. When I reviewed it a couple of years ago, I got more comments on it than almost any other review. And the comments were in one of two camps: either ‘best book ever’ or ‘I tossed it across the room; I could not stand it.’

But isn’t that what a really good book should do? Make you lose yourself, one way or the other? It’s been called genius, smart, a metaphor on life, on the creative process, a mystery novel, a romance, a tragedy - and I agree with all of it. It is hard to say what it is about. It’s probably easier to say what it is not.

Boring or predictable it is not.

It starts with this: a Reader starts reading a novel which has pages missing. He goes back to the bookshop to get a new copy, where he meets the Other Reader. He gets a new copy, but it is a completely different story ... He hopes the same thing happened to the Other Reader ...

I  particularly enjoyed the ruminations on the solitary aspect of a reader but even more so the solitary aspects of a writer’s life.

 2. The cement garden
              Ian McEwan

Four underage siblings first lose their father and shortly after their mother. Considering they don’t want to go to an orphanage, they hide the mother’s corpse in the basement, pouring cement over it.

That is not the weird part. Or not the weirdest part. What the narrator reveals happened during childhood and now culminating in their post-parent life will give you a feeling of unease without actually knowing quite why. Until you do.

Some people have called it a mixture of Lord of the Flies and Flowers in the Attic. I wouldn’t disagree but would stress that it is much better written. And the ending is a killer.

1. Cloud Atlas

              David Mitchell

My number one is this brilliant book that has not been hurled across rooms as many times as If on a Winter’s Night, but it is in the same category: you either get it and you love it, or you think it is impenetrable and a complete waste of your time.

I am clearly in the first group. It has led me to read all of David Mitchell’s books and, while I like them all, I am still waiting for him to reach the same brilliance he did in this book.

So, what happens in the book? Good question. A LOT happens here, and I don’t know that I can do it justice in a few lines.

There are seven stories divided into two parts, each story feeding into the next, that one feeding into the next, and so on. Each story is set in a different time and each story is a different genre. You might be tempted to say WTF, but once you make the connections, your jaw will drop, and you will want to start reading again to see what you have missed while trying to work out what it’s all supposed to mean. 

What do you think of these books?

What is the weirdest book (in a good way) you have read?