As a journalist I write stories. It is what reporters and editors call the articles and broadcasts that fill newspapers, magazines and airtime. These are accurate stories, investigated and reported, conveyed with diligence and urgency spread widely with the conviction that they are necessary and newsworthy, deserving public scrutiny. These stories are truth as the journalists know them, each one understanding that the price of any compromise will strip us of the privilege of storytelling.
But it is the story of our lives, the truth that we know instinctively, that requires increasingly more of my attention and consumes my creativity. I want to be able to precisely convey the stories of lives that would otherwise go unreported. These are stories not newsworthy in the traditional sense of journalism. These are stories worthy of our efforts to tell them truthfully, accurately, artfully. These stories
demand writing that comes from a different place-- the soul, not only the mind-- as the words rise up and take shape on the page, born of patience and deliberate excavation.
Exercises
What part of your life, your history, your knowing can you excavate? Is there a truth that you need to tell in your writing?
Try to formulate the Big Idea for your next writing project. The Big Idea is the bumper sticker of your writing, the blueprint declaring where you need to go, the questions you need answered. Some call it a focus statement, others a thesis line. But how do you declare in one sentence what you are uncovering in your writing?
Click below for essays on writing
at writersdigest.com:
Great Inspirational Books on Writing for Writers
I give extra credit in my classes at Northwestern University to students who read a book on writing and write a brief report for the school website or who stand and deliver an oral report of 2-4 minutes on what the book meant to each of them. I am trying to ignite their passions. I am trying to set their writing on fire with inspiration from brilliant and clever writers who have gone before them, struggling with many of the same issues.
So many books on writing have inspired me and given me the answers to my questions at just the right time. Whether by instruction or example, these authors have taught me many lessons on writing and observation that I absorbed and applaud. Here are some of the books I have read in the last few years about writing. I hope that you will discover and rediscover some of these authors as great instructors and guides.
Barrington, Judith, “Writing The Memoir: From Truth to Art,” Eighth Mountain Press, 1997.
Berg, Elizabeth, “Escaping Into the Open: The Art of Writing True,” Harper Collins, 1999.
Bishop, Leonard, “Dare To Be a Great Writer,” Writer’s Digest Books, 1988.
Bradbury, Ray, “Zen in the Art of Writing: Releasing the Creative Genius Within You,” Bantam, 1990.
Bragg, Rick, “All Over But The Shoutin’,” Pantheon, 1998.
Bragg, Rick, “Ava’s Man,” Vintage, 2001
Brande, Dorthea, “Becoming a Writer,” Putnam, reprint from 1934.
Cameron, Julia, “The Right To Write,” Tarcher, 1998.
Capote, Truman, “Music for Chameleons,” Random House, 1975.
Chancellor, John and Walter R. Mears, “The New News Business,” Harper, 1995.
deSalvo, Louise, “Writing as a Way of Healing,” Harper’s, 1999.
Dibell, Ansen, “Plot,” Writer’s Digest Books, 1988
Edgarian, Carol and Tom Jenkins, “The Writer’s Life,” Vintage Books, 1997.
Edgerton, Les, “Finding Your Voice,” Writer’s Digest Books, 2003
Frey, James, “The Key: How To Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth,” St. Martin, 2000.
Friedman, Bonnie, “Writing Past Dark,” Harper, 1994.
Gardner, John, “On Becoming a Novelist,” W.W. Norton, 1983
Gerard, Philip, “Creative Nonfiction,” Story Press, 1996.
Goldberg, Natalie, “Wild Mind,” Bantam, 1990.
Goldberg, Natalie, “Writing Down The Bones, “ Shambhala, Reprinted 1994
Goldberg, Natalie, “Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open The Writer’s Craft,” Bantam, 2000.
Golub, Marcia, “I’d Rather Be Writing,” Writer’s Digest Books, 1999
Heffron, Jack, “The Best Writing On Writing,” Story Press, 1994.
Heffron, Jack, “The Writer’s Idea Book,” Writer’s Digest Books, 2000.
Higgins, George, “On Writing,” Henry Holt, 1990.
Johnson, Alexandra, “Leave A Trace: The Art of Transforming Life into Stories,” Little Brown, 2001.
Kermpthorne, Charley, “For All Time: A Complete Guide to Writing Your Family History,” Boyton Cook, 1993
Keyes, Ralph, “The Courage To Write: How Writers Transcend Fear,” Henry Holt, 1996.
Kilpatrick, James, “The Writer’s Art,” Andrews and McMeel, 1984.
King, Stephen, “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft,” Scribner, 2000.
Klauser, Henriette Anne, “Writing On Both Sides of the Brain,” HarperCollins, 1987.
Kovach, Bill and Tom Rosenstiel, “The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should
Know and the Public Should Expect,” Crown, 2001.
Kreigel, Leonard, “Flying Solo,” Beacon Press, 1998.
Lerner, Betsy, “The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers,” Riverhead Books, 2000
Lamott, Anne, “bird by bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life,” Anchor Books, 1994.
Lamott, Anne, “Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith,” Pantheon, 1999.
Lavasseur, Jennifer, “Novel Voices,” Writers Digest Books, 2003
Maisel, Eric, “Living The Writer’s Life: A Complete Self-Help Guide,” Watson-Guptill Publications, 1999.
Mandelbaum, Paul, “First Words: Earliest Writing from Favorite Contemporary Authors,” Algonquin, 1993.
McClanahan, Rebecca, “Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively,” Writer’s Digest Books, 1999.
McMeekin, Gail, “The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women: A Portable Mentor,” Conari Press, 2000
Mills, Kay, “A Place in The News,” Dodd Mead, 1988.
Murray, Donald, “The Craft of Revision,” Harcourt, 2001.
Nachmanovitch, Stephen, “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art,” Putnam, 1990.
O’Conner, Patricia T., “Words Fail Me,” Harcourt Brace, 1999.
Parker, Dorothy, “The Portable Dorothy Parker,” Viking, 1973.
Perry, Susan K., “Writing In Flow: Keys To Enhanced Creativity,” Writer’s Digest Books, 1999.
Phillips, Jan, “Marry Your Muse,” Quest Books, 1997
Plimpton, George, “Writers at Work,” Penguin, 1985.
Rainer, Tristine, “Your Life As Story,” Tarcher Putnam, 1997.
Ramsland, Katherine, “Bliss: Writing To Find Your True Self,” Walking Stick Press, 2000.
Rhodes, Richard, “How To Write: Advice and Reflections,” Quill, 1995.
Robertson, Nan, “The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men and nd The New York Times,” Iuniverse, Reprint, 2001.
Rogers, Bruce Holland, “Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer,” Invisible Cities Press, 2002.
Roorbach, Bill, “Writing Life Stories,” Story Press, 1998.
Schneider, Myra and John Killick, “Writing For Self-Discovery,” Element Books, Ltd., 1998.
Spotts, Carle B., “Ideas and Patterns for Writing, “ Holt, Rinheart, Winston, 1967.
Stanek, Lou Willett, “Writing Your Life: Putting Your Past On Paper,” Avon, 1996.
Stanek, Lou Willett, “So You Want To Write a Novel,” Avon, 1994.
Stein, Sol, “Stein on Writing,” St. Martin’s, 1995
Steinberg, Sybil, “Writing for Your Life #2,” Pushcart, 1995.
Szeman, Sheri, “Mastering Point of View,” Story Press, 2001
Ueland, Brenda, “If You Want To Write,” reprinted by Graywolf Press, 1987.
Walkton, Todd and Mindy Toomay, “The Writer’s Path,” Ten Speed Press, 2000.
Welty, Eudora, “One Writer’s Beginnings,” Harvard, 1983.
Williams, Joseph, “Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace,” Pearson, 2003.
Winik, Marion, “Telling,” Vintage, 1995.
Winokour, Jon, “Advice to Writers,” Pantheon, 1999.
Wolfe, Tom, “The Painted Word,” Farrar Strauss, 1975.
Wolfe, Tom, “The Right Stuff,” Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1979.
Wolfe, Tom, “Hooking Up,” Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2000.
Zinsser, William, “On Writing Well,” Harper, 1980.
Zinsser, William, “Inventing The Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir,” Warner, 1998.
Writing to Save Your
Life and more books on writing
http://www.umbhali.com/shop_books.html
Anthologies and Reference Books
“The Best American Essays,” Houghton Miflin (new edition published each year).
“The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing,” Writers Digest Books, 2002.
“Downhome: An Anthology of Southern Women Writers,” Edited by Susan Mee, Harcourt Brace, 1995.
Epiphany
Magazine
“The Grammar Bible,” by Michael Strumpf, Knowledgeopolis, 1999.
“Grammatically Correct,” by Anne Stillman, Writer’s Digest Books, 1997.
“Handbook of Magazine Article Writing,” Writer’s Digest Books, 1989.
“The Literary Journalists,” Edited by Norman Sims, Ballantine, 1984.
“Literary Journalism,” Edited by Norman Sims and Mark Kramer, Ballantine, 1995.
“The Little, Brown Compact Handbook,” edited by Jane Aaron, Longman Press, 1998.
“The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women,” Edited by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Norton, 1985.
“On Being A Writer,” edited by Bill Strickland, Writer’s Digest Books, 1989.
“Punctuation Plain & Simple,” Edgar and Jean Alward, Career Press, 1997.
“Thoughts of Home,” Hearst, 1995.
“The Write Stuff: A Sampling of the Best New Books for Writers, 1998,” Story Press, 1999.
“The Writer’s Digest Guide to Good Writing,” Writer’s Digest Books, 1994.
“A Writer’s Companion,” edited by Louis Rubin, Jr., Harperperennial, 1995.
“The Writer’s Life,” Carol Edgarian and Tom Jenkins, Vintage, 1997.
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