NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is upon us and we have a list of books to help you through.
Our list includes advice from acclaimed author Angie Thomas, a guide through linguistics from Geoffrey Pullum, characterisation tips from counsellor Eileen Cook, thoughtful essays from Zadie Smith, and a useful writers’ diary to keep your thoughts in order.
Best of luck to all our writing Reading Addicts this month- let us know how you are getting on with this NaNoWriMo!
“Angie Thomas’ creative writing guide includes step-by-step tips, writing prompts and exercises for discovering story ideas, creating memorable characters, realising your setting, shaping your story, getting feedback from others, and much more.
Included are 24 illustrated inspirational quotes from Angie’s own novels The Hate U Give and On the Come Up, and plenty of blank pages for your own words.
Find Your Voice will ignite your creativity and help you bring your own unique stories to life. A must-have for aspiring writers and Angie fans.”
“Language is the medium in which we humans compose our thoughts, explain our thinking, construct our arguments, and create works of literature.
Without language, societies as complex as ours could not exist.
Geoffrey Pullum offers a stimulating introduction to the many ways in which linguistics, as the scientific study of language, matters. With its close relationships to psychology, education, philosophy, and computer science, the subject has a compelling human story to tell about the ways in which different societies see and describe the world, and its far-reaching applications range from law to medicine and from developmental psychology to artificial intelligence.”
“Compelling characters are what keeps readers turning pages and buying books — from fantasies to mysteries to the great literary novel. But how to do you create characters that feel three dimensional and real on the page? Counsellor and author Eileen Cook shares common psychological techniques to help you build your characters and take your story to the next level.
Covering understanding your character’s backstory and how it impacts their choices in your book by doing a structured counselling interview, personality structure (Myers Briggs and Emotional Intelligence) and how that may lead to conflict, and understand dissecting the Stages of Change to see how your character moves through them .
Filled with practical tips, examples and prompts this is a craft book you will return to over and over.”
“No subject is too fringe or too mainstream for the unstoppable Zadie Smith. From social media to the environment, from Jay-Z to Karl Ove Knausgaard, she has boundless curiosity and the boundless wit to match. In Feel Free, pop culture, high culture, social change and political debate all get the Zadie Smith treatment, dissected with razor-sharp intellect, set brilliantly against the context of the utterly contemporary, and considered with a deep humanity and compassion. This electrifying new collection showcases its author as a true literary powerhouse, demonstrating once again her credentials as an essential voice of her generation.”
Zadie Smith’s essay within the collection – The I Who Is Not Me – extrapolates on how autobiography forms novel writing, and explains her concerns with British’s often binary views on race, class and ethnicity.
“This writer’s-block busting workbook guides authors through the process of planning and plotting their novel before writing it, from the initial idea generation and brainstorming through character, setting, and story development. Full of helpful lists, plot maps, character Q&As, field trips, writing exercises, inspiring quotes, and much more, “Ready, Set, Novel!” provides ample inspiration and guidance for first-time novelists and more seasoned scribes alike.”
This lighthearted but useful book can be your best buddy during your writing process- keeping all your characterisation and plot lines in one place.
5 Books to Help Writers with NaNoWriMo
2019’s worst descriptions of women in literature
Confirmation that the art of proofreading is dead
The love-hate relationship with clichés in fiction
