Living Legacies: How to Write, Illustrate, and Share Your Life Stories - by Duane Elgin, Coleen Ledrew, 2001

Writers sometimes begin to write with short stories, and sometimes through nonfiction articles. Writing about life stories is what it’s all about in the long run. You write about what you know, research what you don’t know, and share the end result with the world - or just with your loved ones. This beautifully designed and illustrated guide escorts readers through the process of writing down their stories and illustrating them with photographs, memorabilia, and other images, including digital format (so you become a designer as well as a writer!). By offering readers questions to draw out events and memories, the book emphasizes a person’s full life, in all of its highs and lows, magic moments, and simple pleasures. The book’s supportive approach will inspire even first-time writers to forge a collection of stories to share and pass on to the important people in their lives.

Posted by beanybabe at 9:34 PM PST

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Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them - by Francine Prose, 2006

A highly rated book that teaches the wanna-be writer how to write through careful, slow, and analytical reading. Chapters treat the nuts and bolts of writing (words, sentences, paragraphs) as well as issues of craft (narration, character, dialogue), all of which Prose discusses using story or novel excerpts. This is where the book truly shines; Prose is remarkably egalitarian in choosing fiction exemplars from David Gates to Chekhov. Prose insists that “literature not only breaks the rules, but makes us realize that there are none,” and urges writers to re-read the classics (Chekhov, especially) and view “reading as something that might move or delight you.” Prose’s guide to reading and writing belongs on every writer’s bookshelf alongside E.M. Forster’s Aspects of the Novel.

Posted by beanybabe at 8:22 PM PST

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