Mommy Writes Fantasy: A Writing Blog

November Book Reviews!!!

+J.M.J.+

Well, I've really gotten behind on this whole blogging deal. I'm gonna try to remedy that here. I don't have much to share other than that good progress is being made on "Kingdom." I'm ahead of schedule so far. I think, minus any horrendous mishaps, it'll be just peachy for a December 15 launch like I had planned. I may even release it a week sooner, on the 8th, as that's a very special Catholic feast day--my favorite Marian feast day, that of the Immaculate Conception. We shall see if things turn out favorably for that.

In other news, I recently reviewed two FANTASTIC books on story structure. I highly recommend them to anyone reading my humble blog. They are:

-"Creating Character Arcs" by the ever-lovely K.M. Weiland. This book started as PHENOMENAL series on character arc on her blog, and blossomed into a beautiful reference which I fully intend to purchase a hard copy of.

-"Take Off Your Pants" by Libbie Hawker, whom I've just recently discovered lurking in my Kindle library. Why I didn't read this book sooner, I don't know, but don't make my mistake. Go. Buy. It. It'll change your life.

"Creating Character Arcs" Review

I've been a follower and a fan of Katie Weiland's for a while, and I've read pretty much every book she's written on the craft of storytelling. She gets more amazing with each book, I'm telling you. She has an INSANE passion for story craft, and it shows in her down-to-earth, humorous and deeply insightful how-to books.

"Creating Character Arcs" is all about, well, character arcs: postive change, negative change, and flat arcs. She also has some other fabulous resources jammed in there that I haven't quite taken a full stroll through yet, but fully intend to once I have the hard copy and a highlighter in hand. She walks you through the steps of each arc and what these kinds of arcs look like in popular film and literature examples, making it easy to understand and put into practice right away. (I annoy my husband by shouting out character arc and plot points during movies now, that's how much I've learned from this amazing woman and her blog/books.)

"Take Off Your Pants" Review

As for Libbie Hawker, her warm yet business-like attitude with a flair for humor drew me into "Take Off Your Pants" right away. I found myself reading her book while eating breakfast and binge-reading chapters while sitting at my dining room table, backside falling asleep on the hard wood of the chair.

It's a short read, an easy read, but the information is SO. DENSE. In a good way. I keep going back to it as I'm implementing the outlining method she teaches, and each time something new strikes me and the information sinks in further. Her method is deceptively simple and shockingly fast and easy to implement, especially if you already have a thorough study of story structure under your belt.

I found myself connecting her ideas to those I'd learned before and seeing how they all fit together to make her method work so well. She doesn't use the exact same terminology as Katie Weiland, nor is she as nitty-gritty or detailed, but boy, they both draw from the same amazing well that is knowlegdge of story craft.

I think this book is especially awesome for those writers who like keeping their story as open-ended as possible, and don't quite find their fit with more thoroughly-detailed outlining methods that encourage exploring every nook and cranny of your story before ever writing the words "Chapter One".

I fall somewhere in between, so combining a thorough knowledge and practice of story structure with Libbie Hawker's pace-focused method will really help strengthen my weak areas. I've learned even more than I thought possible, and the thought that there's more to learn and improve makes me wriggle in excitement.

Well, there's my book reviews for the month. Haha. I got super excited about these books and just had to share it with you guys. With that, I wish you all a Happy Friday. Write on!

Have you guys read any good writing how-to books lately? What were they? How did they inspire you to grow your craft? Share in the comments below; I'd love to chat!



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