Bernie Hafeli's Blog - Posts Tagged "books-about-the-craft-of-writing"

There are plenty of excellent books to help would-be writers become actual writers, and to help actual writers become better writers in regard to craft—Charles Baxter's books, Janet Burroway's, Julie Checkoway's, Catherine Brady's "Story Logic and the Craft of Fiction" immediately spring to mind—but none is better able to send the neophyte off on the trail of her or his first short story than Madison Smartt Bell's "Narrative Design". At least that was true in my case. I remember finding the precious instruction manual (for that's what it is, essentially) on the shelves of The Booksmith in San Francisco, hurrying home, and starting in on the task of becoming a short story writer. Maybe it was just that I was ready—at a point in my life where I'd never been more receptive—and, voila, here was this book. In any case, I hungrily read all the stories and everything Bell had to say about them—the line-by-line annotations were particularly helpful—did some, but not all, of the exercises, and it seemed that within a few weeks I was writing stories. Some of those early stories, after a fair amount of revision, have been published in literary journals. So I owe this book. Perhaps you've had a similar experience with a book about writing, or with a friend, fellow author, mentor, family member, or teacher, that influenced your writing. If so, please share.