What is one craft book and one novel that has influenced your writing?

Hi, writers!

In case you missed last Friday's post, where Shannon kicked off our Summer Panel series, here's what's going on. 

For the months of June, July, and August, we thought it would be fun to take a writing-related question and have all three of us answer it. This idea was inspired by how all three of us will be teaching at various conferences this summer, and one of our favorite aspects of conferences are panels, where you can hear writers and other industry professionals give different perspectives about the same topic.

The part we're really pumped about is getting to hear your answers in the comments! Once you've heard what we have to say, we'd love you to use the comments section below to answer the same question. There's so much knowledge and creativity floating around in our community, and we want us to all be able to learn from each other!

So here's today's panel question:

What is one craft book and one novel that has influenced your writing?

 

Shannon Dittemore

Oh my goodness! So many! The first fiction book that comes to mind is Hunger Games. I read it at a really important time on my own writing journey. It was the book that showed me how valuable writing in the present tense could be. On the craft side of things, I can’t nail down a single book; I’m staring at my shelf, trying to decide which one to talk about. A lot of the craft books are written for adults, so sometimes the language is a bit rough, but one of my favorites is definitely Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

Stephanie Morrill

Oh, Bird by Bird is one of the first and most influential craft books I ever read too! I could also mention On Writing by Stephen King, but I talk about that one a lot too. So I’ll say Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. I read it when I was really getting the hang of writing complete stories, and it pushed me deeper into my craft and helped me to think about elements of my stories in different ways.

For fiction, This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen was one of the first contemporary YA novels I read, and I was like, “This! This is what I’m trying to do!”

 

Jill Williamson

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone was the book that inspired me to write detail-oriented and fully-realized storyworlds. The concept of the Harry Potter books is not all that complex. It’s the way that Rowling takes readers into a fantastical place that adds a sense of wonder to the story that is so impressive. I wanted to create storyworlds like that.

As far as nonfiction goes, Save the Cat really helped me refine my outlining/storyboarding process. Before I read that book, I wrote skeleton outlines for my plot before I started writing. Save the Cat gave me a visual way to do that—and I’ve always been a visual learner. So now I storyboard my novels, and later on, when I get stuck, I pull out that storyboard again or often re-do it, adding and cutting scenes to re-work my plot until it is right.

Now it's your turn! Tell us one craft book and one novel that has influenced your writing.