What (fiction) book has taught you more about writing than any other?
For those of you who are new followers or visitors on the page, you should know that (nearly) every Friday, I post a Weekend Writing Discussion. Sometimes these become popular posts. Sometimes they are failures. In any case, the point is for people to chime in down below with their thoughts on the topic of the weekend. This serves two purposes...
1) It is nice to read sample-size servings from several fellow writers on a specific topic.
2) It is nice to articulate your own thoughts on a topic. After all, a thought cannot become complete until it is in some way articulated. You just might find you learn something as you articulate your own thoughts.
For me, this is one of those instances of "learning something as I articulate my thoughts." This question popped into my mind as a solid direction for this weekend's discussion...only for me to realize that I did not know my own answer to this question. I thought long and hard about it. I came to this conclusion...
The one fiction book that taught me more about writing than any other was J.D. Salinger's Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (don't worry, I'm not breaking the rules; it's two titles, but it's all one book).
The prose in this book is so flawless, and yet so effortless. This book, more than any other, marks Salinger as a master of the craft in my mind...especially because the juxtaposition in style between the first novella and the second is so extreme, and yet...he handles each style immaculately.
Best of all, one of my favorite quotes regarding writing came from this book:
Were most of your stars out? Were you busy writing your heart out?
There are scores of books that have taught me plenty about writing (not just good books, either; this goes for bad books as well!). But from no other book have I gained as much subtle insight into the craft as from this tiny masterpiece.
How about yours, Dear Writer? What is the one fiction book that taught you more about writing than any other?
Weekend reading, in case you missed it:
Recent Weekend Writing Discussions...
Where Do You Find Your Characters' Names?
To Music or Not To Music?
Writers You Have A Hard Time Not Hating?
Play nice and share with others
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Posts
This is easy.
ReplyDeleteAbout two months ago I read "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin. It's the most brilliant fantasy novel I've ever read. I've never read a writer, like Martin, who can juggle so many points of view in one novel so effortlessly (there are 9 pov's in the book).
The prose of Thrones is unlike other fantasy novels. The sentences are brisk and matter of fact. I loved the style.
Probably the most eye opening thing about Martin is that he is the most brutal writer of any genre, that I've read. He puts his characters through the ringer. The ending of "A Game of Thrones" had me muttering, "WTF" for days. Can a writer even end a book like that, Jordan? You probably can't answer my question. It was worth asking.
I don't feel like I'm communicating how much I learned from this book very well. If I could ever say there's a perfect novel, one that every person who aspires to be a fantasy author should read, it would be "A Game of Thrones."
Stormy Weather, by Carl Hiaasen. My first exposure to the satirical crime novel - it taught me how to use humor in fiction.
ReplyDeleteCross between Handmaids Tale for sheer eye-openingness and The Lovely Bones for teaching me how to show the reader something without telling them.
ReplyDeleteAmerican Psycho for creating a great anti-hero
Matched by Ally Condle for reminding why I write.
I'm not sure I know my answer to this question. I'm going to think about it for a bit. In the meantime, I'm enjoying what others have to offer.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad about this problem I commonly have: I am a forgetter of specifics, but an assimilater of entireties. I can't quote lines from books or give any exact examples of something I've read. Since you've requested fiction I'll go with what I've read more than once that has influenced my writing. That would be everything by Flannery O'Connor and the short story "Descending" by Thomas Disch. Those are the first things that come to my mind.
ReplyDeleteLee
Tossing It Out
Blergh! I lost my comment. Let's try again, shall we.
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I read Edgar Allan Poe and the feeling of nails tracing my spine. Loved that chill. Then again, John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" taught me to delve into a book on an emotional level.
I tend to read a lot of horror for the psychological mind dump - books that find a way to take me outside the norm. When I come across an author who can take me to that place without resorting to gore (an easy cheat, in my opinion) - I drown in the words. So if we're talking recent books, Stephen M. Irwin's "The Dead Path" would be on the top of my list. I absolutely loved his descriptive nuance and want to write with his depth.
Of course I read across the board. There are so many books that manage to drown the reader on an emotional level with staying power. Gah...How can anyone expect to pinpoint one book, to encompass the many that inspire us? (Hugs)Indigo
Aha! I just realized why the title of your blog, sounded so familiar to me. 'Across the Universe'. Don't mind me. Thanks for the reminder how much I adored that song. Going now. (Hugs)Indigo
ReplyDeleteSo, so many ... but if I have to narrow it down to just one then it will have to be The Solitaire Mystery by Jostein Gaarder. It's a sublime read, and a masterpiece of multi-layered literature.
ReplyDeleteI love how the different titles people have thrown out there have all been so disparate!
ReplyDeleteIt's incredible you should mention 'Raise High the Roofbeam Carpenters' just now Jordan, as I think I looked on writing in a whole new light after having read this tiny little gem of a story. I didn't know that something could be written so simply yet so profoundly all at once.
ReplyDeleteAs for 'Seymour: An Introduction' and the quote you supplied, well ... I loved it so much I named my blog after it!
I owe a lot to Salinger, from reading 'Catcher' as a rite of passage to discovering his other 'adult' work. He is the one man I go back to again and again.