Books on writing

Note: This is not a comprehensive list, at all, but ones I’ve found particularly helpful or interesting

• Albert, Susan Witting, Writing from Life: Telling Your Soul’s Story, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, NY, 1996.
• Berg, Elizabeth, Escaping into the Open: The Art of Writing True, HarperCollins, NY, 1999.
• Cameron, Julia, The Right to Write: An Invitation and Initiation into the Writing Life, Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, NY, 1998.
• Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market
  This market guide is published annually by Writers Digest Books.
• Dadey, Debbie, and Jones, Marcia Thornton, Story Sparkers: A Creativity Guide for Children’s Writers, Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, 2000.
• Goldberg, Natalie, Writing Down the Bones, Shambhala, Boston & London, 1986.
• King, Steven, On Writing, Scribner, NY, 2000.
• Lerner, Betsy, The Forest for the Trees: An Editor’s Advice to Writers, Riverhead Books, NY, 2000.
• Maass, Donald, Writing the Breakout Novel, Writer’s Digest Books, Cincinnati, 2001.
• __________, Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook, 2004.
• Newman, Leslea, Write from the Heart: Inspiration and Exercises for Women Who Want to Write, Ten Speed Press, Berkeley/Toronto, 2003.
• Rogers, Bruce Holland, Word Work: Surviving and Thriving as a Writer, Invisible Cities Press, Montpelier, VT, 2002.
• Shaughnessy, Susan, Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.
• Ueland, Brenda, If You Want to Write, 2nd Edition, Graywolf Press, St. Paul, 1987. (Originally published in 1938.)
• Yolen, Jane, Take Joy, The Writer Books, Waukesha, WI, 2003.
  

Favorite Quotations for Writers

“Action is the antidote to despair.” Joan Baez (Quoted in The Sun Magazine, November 2004, p. 48)

“No dream is ever lost if you never cease to try.” From “Slings and Arrows” by Moody Blues.

“Keep at it! The one talent that’s indispensable to a writer is persistence. You must write the book, else there is no book. It will not finish itself. Do not try to commit art. Just tell the damned story.” Tom Clancy (Interview in Writer’s Digest Magazine, January 2001)

“Success is a finished book, a stack of pages each of which is filled with words. If you reach that point, you have won a victory over yourself no less impressive than sailing single-handed around the world.” Tom Clancy (Quoted in Walking on Alligators p.97.)

“Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” Mark Twain (Quoted in Walking on Alligators p.127.)

“When I was young I longed to write a great novel that should win me fame. Now that I am getting old my first book is written to amuse children. For, aside from my evident inability to do anything ‘great,’ I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one’s heart and bring it’s [sic] own reward.” L. Frank Baum, in a letter to his sister 1897 (age 41), quoted in “The Amazing Author of Oz” by Bruce Watson, Smithsonian Magazine (June 2000, p.120)

“…Only by writing and by long, patient, serious work will you find your true self. And why find it? Because it is, I think, your immortal soul and the life of the Spirit, and if we can only free it and respect it and not run it down, and let it move and work, it is the way to be happier and greater.” Brenda Ueland, If You want to Write, p. 111.

“Ted [Dr. Seuss] said that the creative process consisted of only two things: time and sweat.” From Oh, the Places He Went: A story about Dr. Seuss by Maryann N. Weidt, Illus. By Kerry Maguire, Carolrhoda Books, Inc.

“It is a very heroic endeavor to keep coming to terms with the demands of your creative gift.” From the PBS show about Julliard, Jan. 29, 2003

“When I go places and talk about my craft…I emphasize one point over and over again: You don’t have to be great to do a thing, you just have to not get tired of trying to be good at it.” Stephen King

On writing with kids: “I just constructed another way of doing it, which would be, oh just sit down and get it done, and get it done in the time it takes a baby to take a nap.” Carolyn See, Quoted p. 149 in Writing in Flow by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. Writers Digest Books 1999

“…if you take seriously what a number of famous writers have admitted, it is also possible to learn to be a better writer, mainly by writing a lot. More flow equals more writing equals better writing over the long haul.” P. 207 Writing in Flow by Susan K. Perry, Ph.D. Writers Digest Books 1999

“Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm.” Sir Winston Churchill

“Press On! Nothing can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not. Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not. The world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. This slogan ‘Press On’ has solved, always will solve, the problems of the human race.” Calvin Coolidge, 30th U.S. President

“So many of our dreams seem impossible, then improbable, then inevitable.” Christopher Reeve

“Writing a book is like driving a car at night. You only see as far as your headlights go, but you can make the whole trip that way.” E.L. Doctorow

“When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it. Then gradually, I write one page and then another. One day’s works is all I can permit myself to contemplate.” John Steinbeck

“The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business.” John Steinbeck

For Dreamers

Some of the books that have been particularly helpful for me in understanding dreams and the nature of dreaming are:

• Barasch, Marc Ian, Healing Dreams: Exploring the Dreams that can Transform Your Life, Riverhead/Penguin Putnam, NY 2000.
• Taylor, Jeremy, Dream Work : Techniques for Discovering the Creative Power in Dreams, Paulist Press, NY, 1982.
• Taylor, Jeremy, The Living Labyrinth: Exploring the Universal Themes in Myths, Dreams, and the Symbolism of Waking Life, Paulist Press, 1998.
• Taylor, Jeremy, Where People Fly & Water Runs Uphill: Using Dreams to Tap the Wisdom of the Unconscious, Warner Books, NY, 1992.
  
• For an informative list of organizations centered on the study of dreams, check out Billie Ortiz’s list at: http://www.wakeuptoyourdreams.com/resources.html
• For information on individuals who work with dreams, check out the list in my links page.