I've read a bunch of books on writing over the years and this weekend I've decided to read 2 more that I found recently. Anyone want to share to others the books or videos they found useful? One thing I've found not generally useful is any video or blog that says 'do not', or 'rules'. Here's my 2.5 recommendations btw. Novels - The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller - John Truby One of the best foundation writing books I've read. It covers most basic issues and if you've never taken a course or read a book on writing it is a great starting point. Skip the first chapter though, like most nonfiction books the first chapter hypes the author and the book while trashing others. Short stories - How to Write Short Stories And Use Them to Further Your Writing Career - James Scott Bell My .5 recommendation is because after a long time has passed I really only remember one thing that he kind of drives home hard. That makes it feel like an essay on the topic of "a critical event that might have happened before/after/or during the story" and why it is important. That doesn't mean there is nothing else in it, but that most of it didn't stand out enough for me to remember except the above topic. Video lesson - Brandon Sanderson's video lectures at BYU One of the bigger modern fantasy authors has a few of his lectures at Bringham Young University taped on various channels. He teaches a course there every year on writing and covers a bunch of topics. Each year is slightly different but generally you only need to watch one set. - The YouTube channel Camera Panda has his lecture from 3? years ago - His personal channel has 3 of his 2020 lectures up so far, presumeably more soon - The channel Lanodantheon has a set from 2018 I believe Any recommendations appreciated.
The youtube channel Hello Future Me (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFQMO-YL87u-6Rt8hIVsRjA) have some good videos (video essay) on worldbuilding. Where he use real history and popular shows/books as examples. He alsos got videos on how to write: mental illness, pacing, writing first person and character analysis to name some.
@OrdinaryUser @DragonMage18 just watched one of his videos, probably never nodded so much from a youtube video. So good.
@Vanidor forgot to mention some ytube channals i know about. Tale Foundry (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCusb0SpT8elBJdbcEJS_l2A) They go through (explaining/analysing) existing fiction and folkelores in adition to giving tips on generas or elements of a story. Rewriting the folkelore and write their own shortstory by using what they talked about in previous videos. In adition there's a website where they host writing contests. On their twitch channal they read some of the enteries for the contests and go over the pros and cons of the story. Mythology & Fiction Explained (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH4Bz5Swatl5iHSuCT_Hlxg) Not exactly for writing. But could be very usefull if you want to write something or look for inspiration. In the videos they talk about 1 mythological/fictional character, and explains how they changed overtime. For the mythological creatures they can talk about how they started out and how they changed overtime and became what they are now, diffrent itarations of their stories and how/why it might have happend. World Anvil Worldbuilding (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf5MDxxTuT1OpwOxVfG-ofg) Mainly video tutorials on how to use the world anvil website, but also videos about writing (worldbuilding, finding inspiration, managing a magic system...). Extra Credits (https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz) Yes, I know, this one is realy streching the limits. But in my defence games is also a medium to tell a story. So even if not every video will be usefull some will be. Like the video about level scaling, the video in defence for imagination and the video the dissapointing final level. Yes, you can't take everything on face value if you write a book (afterall games and books are not the same medium). As a bonus videos about real world history.
Although it's not really about writing, I also watch some of the video essay channels about film-making and decision in choreographing. The Closer Look, Screenplay etc. are channels I usually frequent about.
Brandon Sanderson's lectures Books I've found useful that might be useful to you: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. (I have the illustrated version) Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon Sites/blogs I've found useful that might be useful to you: KK Rusch - Sci-fi & fantasy author. Has a lot of useful resources on the business of writing, marketing, etc. Can be a lot to wade through. Holly Lisle - YA Author. Free, straight up articles about the realities of writing and getting published. Site is pretty ugly, but the info is good. The Creative Penn - Fiction & Non-fic author. Again, a lot of useful information. Clean website and easy to navigate.
Seconding very hard Save the Cat! and the free beat sheets for it you can find on the author's website.