I've had "Writing the Breakout Novel" by Donald Maass for a few years now and clearly remember reading it for the first time and feeling a bit boggled by it all. It almost made it to the charity pile no less than three times. Only there was a little voice that kept telling me it might come in useful ... I'm so pleased I listened for once.
I reread it a couple of months ago and either I read a different book or perhaps it's just that I'm now ready for it. This book is brilliant. I love it. There are examples of how to do it by the rules and examples of when the rules are broken, but it still works.
Over the years I've amassed a lot of books on writing (including Stephen King's classic memoir 'On Writing'). The geek in me loves them. Loves reading about the mechanics of the craft, even if I don't always get it all. I'd be hard pressed to recommend any one of them over another, because all of them have helped me in some way. Even Strunk and White ... which I was forced to read by an English teacher.
On a separate note I'm a bit annoyed with myself. I wrote this post late on Tuesday and scheduled it to appear on Wednesday when I knew I wouldn't have to time to post. However, Blogger does not post it unless you press Publish ... which I forgot to do. I just saved it.
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