This Stubborn World

Recommended Creative Writing Books

I leave tomorrow for Barga, Tuscany where I'll be teaching and coaching for Artemisia Holidays link and as I'll be spending tonight packing, my mind is partly on creative writing resources and my favourite books about the writing process. So I thought it would be fun to take my leave with a list of the books that have been most useful to me both for my own writing and as a teacher of creative writing. What follows will be by no means exhaustive but it certainly includes those titles that have most influenced my learning about writing fiction (for the purposes of this list, I'll exclude screenwriting). I'd be most interested to get further recommendations and would much appreciate it if fellow writers might add their favourites here so I might return from Barga to more inspiration...

So, here it is:

The Agony and the Ego - The Art and Strategy of Fiction Writing Explored Edited by Clare Boyland (Penguin) - I love this book, it is full of wonderful interviews with established authors and is full of fascinating insights into their creative processes.

The Right to Write - Julia Cameron - This is an essential companion to any writer. If you loved 'The Artist's Way' and you write, this is even more fascinating. If you are blocked, it gets you unblocked. If you feel frustrated by the writing business, it removes your frustration. It reminded me of why I write in the first place.

Becoming a Writer - Dorothea Brande (Macmillan) - Yes, that old favourite. Still holds its own. This one was immensely infuential to me when I began writing

The Red Notebook - Paul Auster - Auster is one of my favourite writers so naturally this collection of his essays and musings on his creative processes is one that I return to frequently.

Writing Down the Bones - Freeing the Writer Within - Natalie Goldberg - ( Shambhala). Goldberg's classic is great on the subject of writing without self-consciousness/censorship; for that I love it.

Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott - First lent to me by novelist friend Louise Voss, link, this is a great one to curl up with; reminds you that much can be achieved by writing in small increments.

The Writers at Work Series (The Paris Review Interviews) - edited by George Plimpton or Malcolm Cowley (depending on which volume you get). Malcolm Bradbury first recommended these to me when I studied at UEA. The interviews are a rich resource for all writers.

Paris Review Interviews - Women writers at work (Harvill £9.99) - an anthology of the Writer's at Work Series

The Writer’s Chapbook, edited by George Plimpton. (Penguin 1992) - an anthology of pithy quotes from the Writer's at Work series, arranged by subject.

Writing as a Way of Healing - Louise DeSalvo - Gets to the heart of the subject of writing autobiography and how telling our stories can be a transformative process.

The Creative Writing Coursebook - edited by Julia Bell & Paul Magrs (Macmillan 2001) - The UEA coursebook; a great place to start.

The Novel Today: Contemporary Writers on Modern Fiction Ed. Malcolm Bradbury (Fontana) - Bradbury's anthology takes some beating.

The Writer on Her Work - Ed. Janet Sternburg (Virago) - Interviews with women writers

Novelists in Interview - John Haffenden (Methuen) - Did you guess; I have a thing about author interviews... endlessly more useful than most 'how to' books I find...

From Pitch to Publication - Everything you need to know to get your novel published - Carole Blake (Macmillan 1999)

The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook or The Writers’ Handbook - both published annually, full of practical information about publishers, magazines, prizes etc.

I'm sure there are many more but that's already a lot more than I'll be able to fit in my suitcase. I'm certain to find much inspiration in Barga and look forward to hearing your suggestions for further reading on my return.

Purity in Art - Colm Toibin's 'The Master'

It's the school holidays and I'm barely writing; so I'm in 'thinking about writing' mode, which is no bad thing. I get some of my best inspiration at times like this. Inspiration comes in fragments, at odd moments, in unexpected ways. I'm thinking about my novel in progress and I'll work on it a little in Tuscany next week where I'm teaching and coaching for Artemisia holidays link

But in the meantime I'm distracted by holiday activities: yesterday visiting this fabulous National Trust property, the medieval Bodian Castle, climbing the ramparts with the kids; today teaching my son to ride a bicycle in Bushy Park. And in the evenings, reading what I can. Perhaps its not surprising that I've begun to think about 'what next'? And I'm continuing to think about writing about art; in particular an artist biography, though I won't say too much about that one; it needs research and room to grow.

My reading includes Colm Toibin's 'The Master' a fictional portrait of the life of Henry James that was shortlisted for the 2004 Man Booker Prize, dipping into Gij Van Hensbergen's 'Gaudi' again, though I am finding it somewhat dry, and Christian Parisot's 'Modigliani' (research for my novel in progress). Perhaps it is because I am not writing, what leaps out at me are descriptions of the artists'/writer's creative processes; and their states of mind also. A few paragraphs in the Toibin particularly struck me:

"It was easy to feel that he was destined to write for the few, perhaps for the future, yet never to reap the rewards that he would relish now, such as his own house and a beautiful garden and no anxiety about what was to come. He retained his pride in decisions taken, the fact that he had never compromised, that his back ached and his eyes hurt solely because he continued to labour all day at an art that was pure and unconstrained by mere mercenary ambitions...for many in London too, a failure in the market was a kind of success, and a success in the market a matter not to be discussed. He did not ever in his life actively seek the hard doom of general popularity. Nonetheless, he wanted his books to sell, he wanted to shine in the marketplace and pocket the proceeds without compromising his sacred art in any way."

I am often struck with the hard contrast between a desire for purity in art and the demands of today's media-savvy world, where even the act of blogging might be, in that sense a 'compromise'; and to blog about this the greatest irony of all...

But I remain inspired by dedication to art itself, and this description of Modigliani's early working habits, as described in his mother's diary, is a wonderful homage to the importance of artistic passion:

"Dedo has totally abandoned his studies (at the Lycee) and does nothing but paint. He paints all day and every day with an unflagging enthusiasm which astounds and delights me. If this is not the way to success, nothing is"

And at this time, when I'm not writing, to think about dedication, ideals of art and the vitality of these creators is hugely rewarding. As was seeing the look on my son's face today when he pedalled a few hundred yards on his bike without falling off.