BOOKS FOR WRITERS | EVERY WRITER SHOULD READ - hey writers if you don't know me I'm author Brittany Wang and I am so excited
to be doing this collab video with a fellow author tuber fiction technician
also known as Jane and we are going to be sharing our list of ten books we
think every reader every writer should read write and as many of you know
sometimes I have my collab videos here on the channel with me sort of doing the
live with me but today we're gonna do something a little different today I
will be sharing five of my favorite writing craft books in this video some
of which are free right now or just 99 cents on Amazon and I'm gonna tell you
about that a little bit but then you get to go over to Jane's channel fiction
technician and you can check out her video for the other five so it's been
really cool to get to know Jane I think over the last few months or so we've
been talking more and she is super nice super knowledgeable and her channel is
filled with a bunch of practical writing tips okay if you love practical if you
love sort of seeing like the tips and the steps sort of outlined in text form
sort of like you're seeing here and you also love yeah just being really
practical and getting those examples because she's really good at sharing
those tips and then being like for example this book or this character or
whatever I really really love that so you're definitely gonna love Jane's
channel if you like all that stuff make sure to subscribe to her after this and
check out her video to get the other five but if you're with us right now
either live or on the replay let us know somewhere in the comments what would be
in your top five writing craft books might even pop them up on the screen
here a little bit and I'm just gonna take a couple seconds to say hi to
people who are here live and if you're watching the replay if you just want to
skip a couple seconds you'll get into the content but Jane is here as well so
I'm just gonna pop her up on here and again don't forget to check out her
video after and her channel with all the amazingness I also see Samantha and she
was telling us before the checks sometimes I pop on here a little bit
before my chats to chat with people who show up early and so Samantha said save
the cat is one of her figure writing craft books
and also the anatomy of story which I have but I haven't read yet so I'm super
excited to check that out I also see Amanda and meri and Robyn and Katie and
Orla and Holly and I did see JJ somewhere in here JJ here we are and
JJ's here too and there's a bunch of you and more people are showing up all the
time so I'm really oh I'm reading story genius at the
moment really liking it that's another one on my list hi Caitlin um cool yes
and um Jane's just letting us know she's been looking forward to this all week
and so have I so I'm going to get through my content in a about a half an
hour and then we're gonna pop over to Jane's channel and she is going to
premiere her video so we'll see her going on but we'll also see her in the
comments and I'll be there as well so I'm really excited
I steal or save the cats 5,000 words per hour by secrets of story structure some
of you are mentioning some of the ones I'm going to be talking about in more
detail and I'm super excited oh hi Mary hi Anne okay let's let's get started you
guys can check out the comments I'm just gonna put them up on the screen so we
don't miss anybody but I want to get right into the content
okay and surprise surprise have you've been on my channel at all you know that
I love save the cat writes a novel and please stay with me cuz it's not the
only book I'm going to be talking about but basically what I'm gonna do is tell
you the title who's it by and then I'm gonna give you three things that I
really loved about the book and then three types of writers I think this book
would be really great for for each of the books that I'm gonna share so let's
get into it obviously save the cat writes a novel is
by Jessica Brody and my favorite things about this book actually have some of
these book in physical forms some of them are in Kindle form so that's why I
have them on the screen but save the got sorry writes a novel is awesome you can
see it that I just have sticky noted it all over the place and I love it because
it is super practical it has a very solid 15 beat story structure which is
modeled after the original save the cat book that was more for screenwriters
this is more for novelists and so I loved the
screenwriter that was still like a really great book and just about
storytelling in general but this is really awesome not only because it goes
through the 15 beats of story structure so you can have a really well paced book
that focuses on the character arc and sort of bringing them through that
journey but it also has this whole section basically like the very chunky
middle in here where there she goes over ten different novels and uses them as
examples breaking them down so you can see how each of these bestselling novels
uses this basically same structure and why it works and why it's awesome and
they're all in different genres so that's what I really like about it too
so whether you write fantasy or whether you write thrillers or the you write
contemporary romance or whatever there is a book that is probably dedicated to
you and your genre that you can check out and sort of see how it works out in
action again I love practical I love like show me all
like the details and how it really works right so in the beginning it's actually
like the first just couple chapters that she talks about the beats and how they
function and how to use them and she even starts more just with your main
character and how all the beats depend on your main character and your hero
creating a strong main character then she gives you all the examples and then
the third part at the back is a bonus sort of questions answered section so an
FAQ and some of the things she addresses in there are how to write a pitch or
synopsis for your book addressing how to structure a novel that has multiple POVs
which i found really helpful and then also a little bit about writing a series
and how to plot a series so I really really liked that and if you are this
kind of any of these kind of writers I think this book would be really helpful
for you so plotters obviously this visually great for plotter is very
detailed story structure but I also think that Panthers and if you don't
know what a Pancer is it's someone who writes by the seat of their pants
it doesn't really start out with a fully fleshed out plan they just have an idea
and they start writing this would be really great for you in the revision
process so if you want to pants your novel write the draft
or exploratory right and then go back to this as more of okay how can I sort of
restructure some things or figure out where I have plot holes or different
things and use this to really make my book even stronger Jessica Brody sort of
addresses that in the beginning too so when she encourages it for any readers
right and then also I thought it was really helpful if you struggle with
character agencies so like your character or your characters in general
usually lack a lot of like being the action force in the story or having a
compelling arc I felt like all of her tips in here are really really good to
help you do that effectively and then also if you struggle with pacing in your
book and really making that sort of flow well and not having like slow stops and
knowing like when to transition to different things she literally breaks
down like okay at the 50% mark this is your midpoint and this is what your
midpoints supposed to do and at the 75% mark I think that's the all's lost
moment I think this is what's supposed to happen and this is why I should do it
and so I just I really like all those practical things we'll get to other
books for other people as well but I just wanted to to start with that one
and I'm just gonna there's already a bunch of comments in here so I'm just
gonna take a quick peek Mary says absolutely love this book it's my total
favorite I've even teaching my son who is in a novel class about story
structure using this book that's so fun um cool cool cool and Mary is a cancer
and totally uses it so there you go you have another testimonial right there
let's keep moving on though because I want to make sure we get through
everything in time and see if you guys have any questions but the next book
that I would definitely suggest is five secrets of story structure now I don't
have a physical copy of this because it is free on Kindle you guys on Amazon so
and as far as I know it's it's pretty much always been free I don't know if it
will be free forever but at the time of recording this video it is free and it
is another obviously about story structure another book about story
structure and but here's some of the reasons I really like it in addition to
save the cat red-state the cat first and this is some
of the reasons I really liked it as like sort of like a companion to it even
though totally different authors cam Wilin takes a different take on some
story beats and so it's sort of like a fresh perspective there's some similar
things some different things and she expands on different aspects of story
structure so one of the things is she breaks down the midpoint even more than
I think saved the cat does she calls it the moment of truth and how she
explained it I just thought was really helpful so if you struggle with like the
middle part of your book this would be really helpful for you and again it's
free so like why not the next thing is that she talks about
two story beats that aren't talking about and save the cat called pinch
points and basically if you know save the cat there's like these big chunks
right before the midpoint and right after the midpoint that save the cat
calls the fun games and the bad guys close in and they take a big chunk of
your book but they're sort of nebulous they can be interpreted in many
different ways and there wasn't a lot of like structure within save the cat to
tell me like what I should have in there and so what I loved about these pinch
points is one pinch point is sort of within the fun and games and the other
pinch point sort of lives in the bad guys close in and then came Milan it
sort of talks about what to do before and after the each of the pinch points
which sort of fleshes out again the fun and games and the bad guys close in so I
just found all of that really helpful so if you are a writer who wants to learn a
structure for free you can definitely start here you don't have to start at
save the cats definitely a great foundation if you're struggling with
your mid point or the middle of your book or the fun and games the bad guys
close in story beats I think this would be really good yeah I just loved it I
thought it was really really good I'm just gonna check in the comments here
fiction tech news that says I have not read this and now I have to I agree you
should totally just tell the read it I also don't think I said this before but
all of these books are linked in my description below so you can get to them
really if you want to go check those out later
but don't leave yet because we have three more to talk about and I have a
few bonuses so this is the first bonus that I wanted to tell you about because
in addition to writing reading keep mixing that up a hyuna dition to reading
writing craft books I think it's also really important to be aware as a writer
as you're reading novels okay so I have a whole video on my channel that sort of
teaches you how you can study story structure especially if you've read save
the cat or if you've read five secrets of story structure now you have this
structure in your head or you have it written down you can sort of as you read
a novel you can sort of look at the different beats and recognize them as
they're happening especially because the different beats happen at like certain
percentage marks especially like things like the midpoint or you know the finale
or different parts like that you can sort of estimate where they're supposed
to be in the book certain my husband's going in and out sorry few hear loud
noises but yeah so I've really enjoyed this this video on my youtube channel
how to write better stories using your TBR or your to be read list is super fun
and it also breaks down how you can use sticky notes I think I have an example
here with actually one of Jessica Brody's novels where I used a sticky
note to find where all the beats were supposed to be based on the percentages
and then as I was reading I would come to a sticky note and be like okay is
this beat happening here why is it working why is it not and I tend to do
that with a lot of the novels that I read you can even do this with Kindle
because Kindle actually tells you when you get to certain percentage marks
while you're reading the book so you don't even have to put sticky notes into
it so this video again I don't know if I linked it below but I will after this if
I haven't or you can search for it on my youtube channel really really helpful
and if you're a part of my patreon or my mentorship group which is at this link
here you also get two sort of resources with that so you get my story structure
cheat sheet and that is sort of like a combination of the same
that means plus the five secrets of structure and sort of like all put
together already and then you can use it for your novels or when you're studying
another book and then the other thing is a magic tool for writing better stories
using your TBR and that is like an Excel spreadsheet that literally you can put
how long the book is that you're reading and then it breaks it down telling you
exactly what pages each B is supposed to happen so as you're reading a novel you
don't have to do all the math for you you can just use this Excel spreadsheet
to figure out where to put the sticky notes and then be golden and start
reading your book and enjoying it so yeah so this is available to my patrons
and my mentorship group so if you would like to check that out that is just
another thing there I'm just gonna take a look at B just downloaded it awesome
glad you downloading the books and I'm halfway through this book I think you're
talking about five secrets the story structure really enjoying it very
helpful and mary says I watched that video the other day I'm doing that right
now with Harry Potter yes I want to hear about that Mary's actually one of my
wonderful patrons so we've been able to also do a couple book clubs where we
either take a writing craft book and we read it throughout the month and at the
end of the month we talk about what we learned and how we want to apply it to
our writing or we take a novel and we use some of these resources to figure
out what the beats are and then we talk about at the end of the month did how
did this author use those beats and was it effective and what could have been
better and what did we love and it's just been really really fun so um and
just downloaded the five secrets of story structure I loved it I loved it
you guys are like I'm doing this right now so that's amazing and I'm glad
you're not leaving because we definitely have a few more things to talk about few
more books to share so definitely stick with us but I just want to say if you're
enjoying this video not only please like the video and leave a comment but I
would love for you to share a screenshot of this video right now and tag me at
author Britney wing and share it on Instagram and basically let everybody
know that you're enjoying this video and that they should check it out later if
they can't right now and so if you want to sort of take a
screenshot right now and share it on Instagram that's sort of what this is
for and I thought this is just be really fun I'd love to engage with you guys on
Instagram if we're not friends already so anyway let's keep going and my third
recommendation is wired for story and this actually was one of the books that
my patrons and I studied for a month and it was really fascinating it's less of a
structured formula writing craft in a book and it's more of a deep dive into
the craft of writing the actual writing and like storytelling with the words and
not so much with structure so basically the catchphrase for this book is using
brain science to hook your readers from the very first sentence and so when I
saw that I was like this is really interesting I gotta check this out so
here's and I do have this book here I'll pull it out for you guys this was really
really good so a few things that I like is that and she talks about like so many
different things in here so I'm literally talking about only like three
select things that I found really helpful but I loved that she talked
about being really specific in your story and I'm not because I tend to want
to hold some things back sometimes it would be like no wait I don't want them
to know that I don't want to be super specific because then like I'll give
things away and what we don't realize as writers nowadays especially because
there's so many different books that people can be reading right now is if
you don't catch them within the first like chapter so like they're gonna move
on and I've done that too many a book I'm sorry so um she was definitely just
her - I can't explain it all right now you just need to read the book but when
she talks about being specific and really sharing like those details and
why like don't feel like you need to like hold back all the time like give us
more and give us a sense of where you're going so we know if we want to keep on
this journey that was just like a real big revelation for me so I'm trying to
do that more a my writing also um she gives a lot of clarity on show don't
tell so if you are like yeah my beta readers or I know like are telling me or
I know that I do a lot of telling and not as
much showing then this is really good book for you I really found a lot of
practical help in here and then also rethinking how you do a character bio so
even the free series Bible templates that I give to people when they sign up
for my newsletter of my website they have like so many details that you can
fill out but I loved Lisa Chrome's approach to character bios and that she
really she says start with the characters backstory with their goal and
then figuring out how the backstory leads into their misbelief which then
shapes their character art going forward and then you can figure out you know
color of their hair or like all these different details about their backstory
that like you know is extra that maybe you won't even include but she's like
figure out the heart of the backstory of why they have the belief or the flaw
that they have and then build everything out from there so I really love that I'm
really trying to do that more in my storytelling and plotting as well now if
you are a writer who wants a less formulaic approach than the first two
books that I've mentioned you might really enjoy this book if you want a
deeper dive into hooking your reader I think would be really great and then
making characters and descriptions count there was just a lot of good stuff in
here about that as well so oh and I also wanted to let you know that right now if
you have the app called Scribd which is basically like netflix for e-books and
audiobooks you spend you it's like one fee for the whole month and then you get
access to like all their ebooks and audiobooks right now you can listen to
Wired for story on script and I wanted to let you know this too one if you have
stroke but also I have a referral link down in the description where you can
get Scribd for 60 days for free so that's two months of Scribd for free and
so you could even try it out and cancel it before the two months are up and you
can listen to Wired for story for free so I wanted to give that to you guys in
case you wanted to check it out Jay Jay is another one or patrons she
loved going through I had four story with us as well another person just
downloaded by it's a story structure that's great can
Milan also is a ton of really helpful resources on her websites you should
definitely check her out um and Oh Mary I'm hoping to write a blog post series
on reading like a writer yes oh that's so exciting
why our first story sounds really interesting you'll have to check it out
I'm just like you and wanting to hold things back from the reader I definitely
need to get better with that yes you don't know how much you do it until you
start having beta readers or critique partners starting to tell you what is
going on like you know I need I need more intrigue I need to know what's
going on Amanda is just putting in a plug that she loves script so do i I'm
pretty much addicted to it and then Caitlin said I listen to why first story
media audio it was great and yeah sometimes you get like audio readers and
they're not so great but like I really enjoyed this audio book reader I thought
she was really good cool so let's move on to I can't remember what number this
is and sorry Jane if you're you're watching and you're like wait she didn't
talk about this I did substitute this one last minute I hope that's okay but I
love the emotional thesaurus series this is a series of books that focuses on
different trouble spots a writer might have so for example if you're struggling
with communicating character motions in a compelling way and sort of showing
versus telling you might want to get the emotion thesaurus that's the first and
original book that they have and then I also got the rural setting the source
because I write more fantasy and there's also an urban setting thesaurus but
basically I really love that there's an opening guide to each book that sort of
is more like writing craft advice and thoughts and helpful examples but then
there is pretty much the whole rest of the book is like this I just open to the
page that said bathroom in the earth in the rural setting let's look at the
emotion thesaurus so so for the emotion of satisfaction there's like all of
these like glossary terms and like ways that you can show your character having
satisfactions that I'm just saying she was satisfied um so I really like that
obviously these the two books that I purchased that I've
been going through but there's many more some of them on negative traits and
positive traits for your characters which I'm looking at investing in Lita
but these are great if you're having trouble with descriptions showing versus
telling and you want to focus on specific trouble spots you can get
whatever book is most helpful for you okay I want to make sure we end on time
so I'm gonna go through this video and then wrap up and check any last-minute
comments and then we'll go over to Jay's channel but this is 5,000 words per hour
and this is by Chris Fox and he also has a YouTube channel you should check out
if you haven't already but his um basic thing for this book I
have it as an e-book and it's a super quick read which makes sense because his
whole thing is how to write more words faster and basically he believes that
you can develop a skill to actively improve your your how many words you
write per hour with his steps I have not gotten to 5,000 words per hour but I've
definitely used his steps to increase how many words I write per hour so
practical steps to writing more faster the book is short it's easy to read it's
repeatable the process is repeatable and scalable so again you can improve a
little bit keep improving keep improving and then it is only 99 cents right now
on Amazon so again as per the recording of this video that's how much is right
now so cheap and really helpful book you could pick up helpful for writers who
want to write more faster easy and then tricks and mindset to keep writing even
if you get stuck so here's another thing like if you're the type of person that
you're like I can't finish a draft because I get stuck and you know I get
in my own head and I get writer's block he sort of talks about how to like just
keep writing keep going so you can finish that draft and move on to like
more of the revising stages so I really appreciate this book is definitely a
book that I need to like go back to because I read it a while ago and I feel
like I need to refresh myself but this was a really great book you should
definitely check out um just whoa I just skipped ahead I just
wanted to mention a couple honorable mentions
so book architecture by Stuart Horwich and creating character arcs by K and
while and again we're two other really good books I'm not gonna talk about them
detail but just wanted to mention them and also if you get Scribd not only can
you listen to our for story but you can also read the e-book of creating
character arts right now like I said as the timing of this video today I did
check on script I checked all of these books and those were the two that were
either an audiobook format or ebook format for you so that's awesome
and then I had some books that I really want to read next so story genius is the
next book that lisa krone wrote and so i have that ready and prepped to read and
again she wired for stories well and then john Truby the anatomy of story
which someone mentioned in the beginning as well so I'm really excited to dig
into those I might do them as book clubs for patreon so that would be cool so as
we wrap up I'm so excited we're actually gonna finish on time guys as we wrap up
definitely let us know which will you read next let us know in the comments or
and/or what other books do you recommend and I actually I think I took
screenshots I had I asked this on Instagram as well and let's see
equestrian six three six said the artists way by Julia Cameron
um maybe out writes and reads sorry if I'm pronouncing yours names wrong
Vietnam is story by John T V okay how to outline your novel by K my associate if
there's another camera Ellen book and that was from Ally earnest writes um
author and McTavish sorry again I'm trying to like read fast guys make a
scene um it's called make a scene by Jordan Rosenfeld and then how not to
write enough how not to write a novel by Howard middle mark we had saved the cat
by Mary who is author M Elizabeth on his room and then right Holly Davis and save
the cat emotional craft of fiction and self editing for fiction writers I
definitely need to read that one next I'm just also going to say
to remind you to go to part 2 she is Jane if you're watching this live Jane
is going to be premiering her video in three minutes so we're gonna wrap up I
still want to read some of your comments and then we're gonna jump over there but
if you search fiction technician on YouTube you can check her out and her
link to her video is gonna be down below thanks so much for watching guys I'm
gonna hang out with you guys a little bit more for the comments um but yeah
this has been really fun I hope this was helpful um whoa so many comments um
mostly you guys saying that this looks really fun and more love for the
emotional thesaurus I love these books they're so helpful yay um so useful I'm
reading the emotional thesaurus right now an e-book I still have to get the
settling setting to Saurus yes I have the entire set an updated emotional
thesaurus it's awesome JJ has all of them definitely worth the investment
Robin says would be amazing to raise 5k in an hour I know right something to
aspire to for sure I think Sprint's make writing so much yeah and there's
definitely like his whole thing is sort of centered around increasing writing
sprints Chris's book has been so helpful for Mary I read this on I read this on
your recommendation Britney and it completely fired me up I'm on yes um
awesome I can't wait to read story geniuses actually my textbook for my
next class so funny of the best classes Amanda um how many words can you usually
write an hour um I think my best was like a thousand yeah
same so I'd love to break I'd love to break that and go forward um
voiced by James Scott L love it writers guide to character traits must-haves I'm
trying to get through why for story but struggling yeah if you can listen to it
on script it's so much easier and then they have another book coming out very
soon in the series Oh way to know that I believe it's occupations ah that sounds
like a really good one I have to check that out um you're so welcome Donny Oh
Donny is another one of my patrons you guys this has been so fun
and I hope you got a lot out of it now let's all go to Jane's again it's linked
in the description below and I'm actually gonna be back next week for
another short livestream I'll be announcing on my Instagram when it will
be what it will be about so they all can hang out with me again so make sure
you're subscribed and be friends with me on Instagram and I'll let you know all
the details you guys are so welcome and we'll see
you over Angie's channel