Tool: Movement and Flow
Professional writers will tell you that they find exercise helpful, not just in counteracting the sedentary lifestyle, but in finding the "Flow" state most useful for writing.
The Way of the Fearless Writer - Beth Kempton
A refreshingly gentle take at how to structure a writing practice for those who are beating themselves up for not writing and those working up the courage to share their writing with others.
Maybe plan to fail too...
My question to you today is what’s the plan when things don’t go to plan?
TOOL: Outlines
These two books tell you exactly what bullet points to list, how many you'll need, and what actually needs to happen in the middle of your novel. Best of all, both of these books feature free online resources you can use right now.
Novelist as a Vocation - Haruki Murakami
A decent Murakami biography with a thin veneer of writing advice. However, if you are looking for insight into his specific practice and novels, this is a book for you
Gentle Writing Books for When Life Gets Rough
Four books with a gentle approach and encouraging tone along with specifics about starting or maintaining a writing practice during difficult times.
2K to 10K - Rachel Aaron
Based on a viral blog post from 2011, Aaron attempts to impart her speed demon writing ways. She claims that most people double their writing output following her method.
Tool: Alternative Narrative Structures
Consider the best pattern for your story might not be a “narrative arc” or five act structure. Stories can also expand or collapse in spirals, meander through multiple plots or points of view, or be loosely associated narratives with a single root point.
Meander Spiral Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative - Jane Alison
Like a natural historian of text, Alison catalogs and describes several alternative narrative structures at both the macrotext and microtext level.
Tool: The Master Study
Today we are going to steal a tool from the visual artist’s cabinets and see if we can bang it into shape that works for writers. It’s called a Master Study, and it’s part copying, part analysis, and all hands-on learning.
Tool: Modulating Voice
Clark gives us the language to describe what is often seen as indescribable, the unique voice of each writer.
Murder Your Darlings - Roy Peter Clark
Clark summarizes over 50 writing books in six categories, with insightful commentary and bullet-pointed lessons at the end of each chapter.