Writing Adjacent Books to Add to Your TBR
Greetings and salutations Scribblers!
Today, I want to talk about writing adjacent craft books. What I mean by this is books that were not necessarily written with writers in mind and that don’t talk about the craft of writing. Nevertheless, these are books that are invaluable to writers because of the universal concepts they cover that relates to or human experience.
Reading Signposts
I’ve got four books for us today. The first one is Reading Signposts by Kylene Beers and Robert Probst. I did a six video series on this book because I think it’s that important. This book gets into how the brain processes when we’re reading and uses six simple but effective strategies to help readers to better engage with a text and analyze it for meaning. Reading Signposts is geared toward teachers, specifically middle grade and high school, but it’s a great reference for writers as well. It really reminds us of some universal concepts in reading and writing and how they tie into things like theme or character arcs. This book is a great way to remind ourselves of the layering and care we need to put into our writing so that we can give readers the best experience possible.
Cosmic Coupling
Our second book is Cosmic Coupling by Starsky and Cox. This book is so fun. Basically it gives you 2-3 pages of detailed relationship possibilities for every star sign pairing. If you’re a writer who knows your character’s zodiac signs and uses that to build out who they are, this is the book for you. If you have a Pisces and a Gemini, it will give you how they might be as friends or as lovers. The book also goes specifically into queer pairings as well. It’s an absolute gold mine of ideas of how your romantic or friend pairings might coexist on the page. As someone who’s barely dated, this book has proven invaluable to me in developing some of my characters relationships on the page.
What Happened to You?
My third book is What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey. This book is phenomenal. Be aware that it does have some deep dives into various traumas, so please check out the content before you dive in. What I loved about this book is that it was written as a conversation between Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey and it put complex concepts into accessible language for those of us who don’t have doctoral degrees. It takes a look at how trauma affects humans and the complexities of healing from it. As writers, this book is a great resource to dive deeper into how trauma affects our characters, because, lets face it, as authors, the more trauma we can give our character the happier we are. And as readers, we love reading these characters and watching as they hopefully overcome their trauma.
The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control
Our fourth book is The Perfectionsist’s Guide to Losing Control by Katherine Morgan Schafler. This book was life changing for me. This book played a huge role in me changing how I approach writing and a lot of other things in my life. But as a writer, there always feels like there’s this expectation that we get it right the first time and if we don’t, then it’s all over. And that is the exact opposite of what writing is. Writing is embracing that messy draft, of revising several times, learning from the mistakes, and growing wiser with every word we put on the page. This book is like a double whammy because not only will help you to let go of being a perfectionist, it can help you really flesh out and deepen that perfectionist character that you’re writing.
As always, your mileage may vary! What books have you read that aren’t meant for writers, but have helped you to level up your writing craft in some way? Share below in the comments!
Consisting of four sections, this course will help you make worlds come alive on the page!
