Here are 100 books that Writing For Your Life fans have personally recommended if you like
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Ever since my primary school teacher read out my essay about a friendly octopus to the whole class, I’ve known I was a storyteller. I went on to enjoy a long career as a journalist–first, writing stories about rock and pop groups for the music paper Sounds (where I coined the term ‘The New Romantics’), then as editor of the pop magazine Record Mirror, and subsequently as a writer/editor for national newspapers including The Observer and The Sunday Telegraph. After that, I became a coach, a public speaking trainer, and a book editor. However, my most enduring passion is helping people find and tell their most meaningful stories.
I’m blowing a big chef’s kiss to this delicious little book.
Like gourmet cuisine, every ingredient is top quality and carefully chosen. The resulting dish is beautifully presented and full of flavour. You’ll find everything you need to know about how to tell a story well–from the 10 principles of storytelling to the gleaming detail and evoking the senses, delivered with verve and clarity by a seasoned scriptwriter and professor of storytelling.
The universe is made of stories, not atoms.' - Muriel Rukeyser. Today s world wants to know you and the real story behind why you do what you do. Whether you have a product to sell, a company mission to share or an audience to entertain, people are far more likely to engage and connect if you deliver a well-crafted story with an emotional core. Bobette Buster is a story consultant to major studios including Pixar, Disney and Sony Animation. In Do Story she teaches the art of telling powerful and engaging stories. With profiles of activists, leaders and visionaries,…
Ever since my primary school teacher read out my essay about a friendly octopus to the whole class, I’ve known I was a storyteller. I went on to enjoy a long career as a journalist–first, writing stories about rock and pop groups for the music paper Sounds (where I coined the term ‘The New Romantics’), then as editor of the pop magazine Record Mirror, and subsequently as a writer/editor for national newspapers including The Observer and The Sunday Telegraph. After that, I became a coach, a public speaking trainer, and a book editor. However, my most enduring passion is helping people find and tell their most meaningful stories.
I feel deeply connected to this book because it helped me navigate the break-up of my marriage.
It puts into beautifully poetic words what I was feeling on an intuitive level about the transformative power of telling our own stories and the importance of ‘storying out’ unarticulated experiences.
Becoming a "storycatcher" and taking ownership of my story pulled me through a dark time and set me on the path toward a more empowering narrative.
Story is the heart of language. Story moves us to love and hate and can motivate us to change the whole course of our lives. Story can lift us beyond our individual borders to imagine the realities of other people, times, and places. Storytelling — both oral tradition and written word — is the foundation of being human. In this powerful book, Christina Baldwin, one of the visionaries who started the personal writing movement, explores the vital necessity of re-creating a sacred common ground for each other's stories. Each chapter in Storycatcher is carried by a fascinating narrative — about…
Ever since my primary school teacher read out my essay about a friendly octopus to the whole class, I’ve known I was a storyteller. I went on to enjoy a long career as a journalist–first, writing stories about rock and pop groups for the music paper Sounds (where I coined the term ‘The New Romantics’), then as editor of the pop magazine Record Mirror, and subsequently as a writer/editor for national newspapers including The Observer and The Sunday Telegraph. After that, I became a coach, a public speaking trainer, and a book editor. However, my most enduring passion is helping people find and tell their most meaningful stories.
I love a deep dive, and this book goes to profound depths to explore different aspects of storytelling, from the personal to the universal.
I found it eye-opening and moving to consider storytelling as a healing spiritual practice and to link my own story to ancient story-sharing traditions such as the ‘ladder to the moon.’
A perfect accompaniment for balmy evenings when you’re sitting around a campfire, honouring your ancestors and sharing life stories.
Over the years, television and other cultural forces have robbed us of storytelling as a tool of communicating, learning, and healing. In The Healing Art of Storytelling, professional storyteller Richard Stone describes this crisis and its devastating effects, and then offers a step-by-step guide for creating a storytelling tradition that we can use to transform our families, our friendships, and ourselves. This ancient art offers us a fresh approach to issues such as coping with death and grieving, building esteem in ourselves and our children, finding courage in the face of uncertainty, and discovering the miraculous in the everyday. With…
Ever since my primary school teacher read out my essay about a friendly octopus to the whole class, I’ve known I was a storyteller. I went on to enjoy a long career as a journalist–first, writing stories about rock and pop groups for the music paper Sounds (where I coined the term ‘The New Romantics’), then as editor of the pop magazine Record Mirror, and subsequently as a writer/editor for national newspapers including The Observer and The Sunday Telegraph. After that, I became a coach, a public speaking trainer, and a book editor. However, my most enduring passion is helping people find and tell their most meaningful stories.
This book should be called "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Storytelling but Were Afraid to Ask."
I love the fact that it asks and answers the fundamental question, "So, what is a story?" and explains why humans tell stories, what happens in our brains when we listen to them, and how we instinctively follow story structures.
It gave me a solid introduction to the neuroscience of storytelling and explains why we are predisposed and even designed to think in stories.
Like Stephen Krashen's important work in The Power of Reading, Story Proof collects and analyzes the research that validates the importance of story, story reading, and storytelling to the brain development and education of children and adults. Accomplished researcher and storyteller Kendall Haven, establishes the need for understanding the research findings in neural psychology and brain development and the value of a common definition of story if one is to fully grasp the importance and necessity of story to the development of the human mind. To support his case, he reviews a wealth of research from storytellers, teachers, and others…
I am passionate about this book list because it helped me get where I am today, a multiple-times bestselling author and an award-winning senior reporter. I began working as an overnight police round reporter before moving into sports, where I became one of Australia's best news-breaking rugby league journalists. I was then appointed News Corp Australia's Chief National Motorsports Writer and traveled the world chasing Formula 1 story, as well as covering Australia's V8 Supercar races. Everyone has to start somewhere, and for me, this list of books helped me begin and continue to grow to reach the level of success that I have.
This one didn’t change my life, but it did provide me with a no-nonsense guide to pesky things like conjunctions and clauses, superlatives and synonyms, prepositions and pronouns, and, obviously, alliteration. Ha.
What I liked most about this book is that it isn’t written like a textbook. I read what is widely considered to be the writer's bible, The Elements of Style by William Struck and E.B. White, and considered giving up on my dream of becoming a writer because the book made me feel as if only someone with an Einstein-like intellect could write.
But, as Mr. King wrote, the story is what matters; everything else is just dressing. But in saying that, being able to string together sentences helps (I think my jokes are funny, but no one else does), and this book gives a simple explanation of how to make your copy sing.
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental priciples as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more…
Since I can remember, I’ve loved fairy tales. Stories that start once upon a time, somewherefar, far away. Those words are both comforting and exciting. I am fascinated by their evolution and prevalence in different cultures and genres. That same story can be told in a million different ways that are familiar, and completely new. I used a fairy tale to complete my writing minor, then submitted that same story for a Masters writing program, transforming it into my thesis, which became my first published book. I’ve spent a career reading and writing fairy tales, and I hope this list helps you love them as much as I do.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is ripe with retellings, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a darker, more gruesome version than Christina Henry’s. In this violent, twisted landscape, a broken Alice finds herself trapped in an insane asylum, with only one friend—Hatcher. Known for being mad, he’s housed in the neighboring cell, imprisoned for killing people with a hatchet. We follow these damaged characters as they escape their prison and navigate a nightmarish world. While this is not a story for the faint of heart, if you can handle the darkness, Henry’s lovely prose and imaginative story will take you on an unforgettable journey unlike any fairy tale you’ve ever read.
In four new novellas, Christina Henry returns to the world of Alice and Red Queen, where magic runs as freely as secrets and blood.
Lovely Creature In the New City lives a girl with a secret: Elizabeth can do magic. But someone knows her secret--someone who has a secret of his own. That secret is a butterfly that lives in a jar, a butterfly that was supposed to be gone forever, a butterfly that used to be called the Jabberwock...
Girl in Amber Alice and Hatcher are just looking for a place to rest. Alice has been dreaming of a…
I’m an award-winning and USA Today Best-Selling author whose work includes everything from short stories in school journals to horror and epic fantasy. But I’ve long been obsessed with books that work as well for adults as they do for children. The prose must be beautiful and designed to read aloud; the plot must be on point, and the characters must be compelling. And all of this with a PG rating. A tricky ask, even when the authors haven’t added Easter egg extras for adults. It’s because of this that I believe these are some of the best fantasy books ever written. So, enjoy!
I adored this book. It was so brilliant that I couldn’t write for a week after reading it. The crisp, clear, poetic text and darkly-edged brilliance of this fairytale absolutely blew me away.
The imagery and fairytale elements resonated with so many of the old childhood fairytales that it took the story to another level. Added to that was the adventure, with stakes that ramped up with every page. For me, it wasn’t just an unputdownable story but one I didn’t want to leave.
Ryan and his friends don't think twice about stealing some money from a wishing well. After all, who's really going to miss a few tarnished coins?
The well witch does.
And she demands payback: Now Ryan, Josh, and Chelle must serve her . . . and the wishes that lie rotting at the bottom of her well. Each takes on powers they didn't ask for and don't want. Ryan grows strange bumps—are they eyes?—between his knuckles; Chelle starts speaking the secrets of strangers, no matter how awful and bloody; and Josh can suddenly—inexplicably—grant even the darkest of wishes, the kind…
At the age of seven, already a devoted bookworm, I came upon a large stack of early-20th century children's magazines filled with stories, poems, and especially fairy tales, some the classic kind, and some weird, scary or unfamiliar. I don't know where those dog-eared, well-thumbed annuals came from, or what happened to them afterward – they were lost or given away when our family moved, I suppose. But I have never forgotten them, or the effect they had on my imagination and longings. I've been searching for those long-lost tales ever since... and it finally led me to decide I would just have to write a few of my own.
My inner child is still captivated by the Lilliputian world of T.H. White's Mistress Masham's Repose every time I read it. I don't know why the idea of discovering a secret miniature kingdom is so alluring: I think it may have something to do with my love for dollhouses when I was a child. T.H. White was best known for The Once and Future King and The Sword in the Stone, based on the Arthurian legends; he was a master at taking an old story (Gulliver's Travels in the case of Mistress Masham's Repose) and making it truly his own.
'One of the finest, most magical and extraordinary children's books ever written.' - Anne Fine, author and former Children's Laureate
Ten-year-old orphan Maria lives in her ancestors' crumbling mansion. Exploring the grounds one day, Maria discovers a wild, half-forgotten island in the middle of a neglected lake - and an extraordinary secret. For the island is home to a community of tiny people - the Lilliputians that Gulliver first met on his famous travels. But as Maria grows closer to her new friends, her own life is in grave danger. Her wicked governess and the cruel vicar are plotting to…
I am an author, illustrator, and book designer. I never lost my childhood wonder at the printed page. When I write my own books, I create stories for both adults and children with deep meaning weaved into seemingly naive text and images. I enjoy creating worlds in which stories are told for children's and adults' imaginations to coexist. I think being dyslexic led me to enjoy aspects of visual storytelling so much. I have worked in publishing for many years and I am well known for my work on the Penguin clothbound classics where I use my visual illustration style to entice readers new and old to read classic stories and escape into new worlds.
As soon as I opened this book, I could see the inspiration from all the things that I personally love had been weaved into this beautiful visual story. I enjoy how illuminated manuscripts and ancient books inspire the pages with tiny detail. This book adds to its rich storytelling by playing with these elements. So beautifully designed and such wonderful integration of text and image. A stunning tale for young and old, with a message that makes my heart happy.
Wolf is a hunter, feared by every creature. But he has a secret: in the middle of the forest lives a girl whose beautiful voice has entranced him . . .
The Wolf longs for friendship. But is he prepared to sacrifice his own true nature in order for his wish to come true?
A beautiful and lyrical contemporary fairy tale about difference, trust and the power of friendship to overcome any obstacle.
This sumptuous hardback gift book, with gold foil detail, is perfect for lovers of fairy tales and fables, new and old. It is gloriously illustrated by acclaimed…
The first thing I ever wrote was a play about a goose girl, and I’ve been fascinated with fairytales ever since. As a poet, I adore how the images speak deeply to our subconscious—fur, hair, mirrors, blood, snow, fairy fruit. As a nonfiction writer, my book explored witches and princesses, whilst my latest adult novel looks at a fairytale salon in Paris attended by Perrault. I hope this list convinces you that fairytales aren’t only for the nursery but are as important to literature as Greek myths—shaping our narratives and reemerging in surprising places.
Madame D'Aulnoy is one of the key figures in my novel, and her own strange and beautiful fairytales deserve to be much better known. Many are proto-'Beauty and the Beast' narratives where enchantments turn men into rams or serpents, whilst in 'The White Cat' it is a woman who is the animal. In this sumptuous, giftable book, acclaimed artist Natalie Frank's surreal and feminist images bring an extra, adult dimension to these tales.
An enchanting selection of Madame d'Aulnoy's seventeenth-century French fairy tales, interpreted by contemporary visual artist Natalie Frank
Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville (1650-1705), also known as Madame d'Aulnoy, was a pioneer of the French literary fairy tale. Though d'Aulnoy's work now rarely appears outside of anthologies, her books were notably popular during her lifetime, and she was in fact the author who coined the term "fairy tales" (contes des fees). Presenting eight of d'Aulnoy's magical stories, The Island of Happiness juxtaposes poetic English translations with a wealth of original, contemporary drawings by Natalie Frank, one of today's most outstanding visual…
