Sound's picture
Sound from Azusa, CA is reading Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt December 1, 2012 - 11:18am

I'm looking for a book that will help me with things such as building tension, amping up my horror in horror stories, etc. 

Give me books you've read, and that have helped you with your writing. Doesn't matter if the book is geared towards writing sci-fi, fantasy, horror, etc. 

I enjoyed Stephen King's In Writing, and I took bits of it here and there that helped me. 

Matt Attack's picture
Matt Attack from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner December 1, 2012 - 11:30am

The only thing I can think of (and it's not genre based, but overall) is something Utah told me to read. Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within She does another one too, I'll have to find it. 

It really changed the way I wrote. 

fport's picture
fport from Canada is reading The World Until Yesterday - Jared Diamond December 1, 2012 - 11:49am

Telling Details, Kat Duncan

Writing Scary Scenes, Rayne Hall

Violence: A Writer's Guide, Rory Miller

Rivet Your Readers With Deep Point Of View, Jill Nelson

 

The last is the shortest. All of this is searchable on Amazon, in the kindle section, which I did before buying, so this selection represents a good many books that were examined and passed over before I ever layed down my hard earned cash. For those books I passed by, the reviews and reader highlighted quotes were scraped for saliency and stored in idea fieldstones ala Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method that run up to 1500 words apiece and represent the Coles Notes version of books I will never buy or read which saves me hundreds upon hundreds of dollars.

Sound's picture
Sound from Azusa, CA is reading Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt December 1, 2012 - 8:37pm

@Matt: I've heard that book brought up before. I'll check it out. 

@Fport: I think I'll pick up Writing Scary Scenes and Deep POV. They seem pretty interesting. Actually, all of them seem pretty good. 

 

 

Alex Kane's picture
Alex Kane from west-central Illinois is reading Dark Orbit December 1, 2012 - 9:35pm

On Writing Horror, ed. Mort Castle

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs December 2, 2012 - 1:53am

I hear Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing is supposed to be good. Probably not as far as learning how to build tension though. I would actually recommend books on screenwriting for that. They're more concerned with stuff like that than books on writing fiction.

JEFFREY GRANT BARR's picture
JEFFREY GRANT BARR from Central OR is reading Nothing but fucking Shakespeare, for the rest of my life December 2, 2012 - 2:01am

Save the Cat offers an interesting perspective; it is for screenwriters, but most of it applies direclty to high concept scripts, which in my mind, equate to genre writing.

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts December 2, 2012 - 2:31am

^Blake Snyder is the dude that does the "beat sheet," right? That really is a useful outline technique. I love the Screenwriter's Bible as far as script books go. Bradbury's Zen isn't going to have the kind of stuff the op's looking for, though it is just a great book. King's Danse Macabre has some great insights on horror, and seconding Mort Castle.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 2, 2012 - 8:24am

I have a whole of host of craft writing books on my shelf, and I've gotta tell you, I have yet to read any of them the whole way through (except King's On Writing). I've found that the best way to learn to write is to read novels, short stories, etc. Want to write horror? Devour as much horror as you can. Buy paperback copies and mark them up as if they were textbooks. Highlight, notes, underlining, etc. Then, if you really like the book, buy another copy or pick it up in hardback. I never mark up my hardbacks. 

Try reading books outside of the genre you're writing in. Every author has at least on point of craft that they excel in. I always recommend Elmore Leonard for dialogue. Nobody ever believes me when I say this, but Nicholas Sparks is amazing at drawing out tension. Go to Barnes and Noble and pick up his book The Rescue. Read the first chapter, just the first chapter, and you'll see what I mean. Shit, you don't even have to buy the book.

But, if you're hell bent of getting books on craft, my suggestions would be:

1. Character Traits by Linda Edelstein. She gives a rundown on physchologicl, physical, mental, emotional, financial and phyisological attributes of just about every character you can think of. I've found it to be instrumental in my development as a writer.

2. Writing Mysteries by Writers Digest books. Not horror, but a lot of the same ideas and elements contained in it.

3. Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. More geared towards finished manuscripts (there's a workbook that goes along with the book, too) but there are some great nuggets of information in there. The perspective of the book comes from a verteran literary agent. Great, great stuff.

4. On Writing by King. You've read it. In my opinion, the best book about the craft. Hands down.

Aside from that, and this is just my opinion, the rest just rehash what the others said. You're better off reading novels. That's the best way I've found to learn.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 2, 2012 - 8:33am

One more.

The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman. Great book on how to grab your readers/publishers in the first five pages.

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts December 2, 2012 - 8:41am

Follow Donald Maass's twitter, he does these "tips for a first manuscript" or something like that, which are great.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest December 2, 2012 - 8:48am

I have a Twitter account, but I never use it. I hear it's a good platform for writers, though. I'll check out his Twitter (uh, whatever they call them. Posts, I guess?) 

drea's picture
drea from Rural Alberta, Canada is reading between the lines December 2, 2012 - 9:00am

The one craft book I refer to continually is Architectures of Possiblility, After Innovative Writing by Lance Olsen and Trevor Dodge. 

Not so much specific to genre as essential to non shit fiction. It's amazing, amazing. 

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like December 2, 2012 - 9:19am

http://moodywriting.blogspot.com/ --- Simple, actionable advice (which, if I'm honest, I don't really employ; but the posts make sense when I read them.)

Alex Kane's picture
Alex Kane from west-central Illinois is reading Dark Orbit December 2, 2012 - 1:27pm
fport's picture
fport from Canada is reading The World Until Yesterday - Jared Diamond December 2, 2012 - 2:01pm

Tweets, you twitter tweets.