★★★★☆ | Writing | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
An entertaining book filled with practical advice on how to improve your storytelling, whether in front of a live audience, on a date, or in a written essay. Dicks shares examples of his own stories, then breaks down why they work. ★★★★☆
★★★★★ | Writing | Digital | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
What a delightful book. The first chapter reeled me in with the story of how the Moleskin notebook exploded in popularity in the 1990s. The author clearly has been bitten by the same notebook fetish bug. He cites brand names of notebooks that are all too familiar to me. He decided to write a history of the notebook about ten years ago and proceeded to fill four or five notebooks with scribbles and quotes and references that ultimately became this book.
Allen used effective storytelling techniques to share dozens of examples of notebook usage over the past six hundred years from accounting ledgers in the 1400s, artist sketchbooks in the 1500s, Darwin’s field notes, to modern day journaling. Definitely a niche book, but great for any lover of notebooks and journals.
★★★★☆ | Writing | Print | Own | Goodreads | StoryGraph
It took me months and months to finish this book, and I think that’s the right pace for something like this. This book can only be appreciated in print form. The pictures and notes would not work at all on Kindle. The challenge of the book is that it’s almost impossible for creative people to articulate how they created their work, and this problem pervades the book. Moss takes this in stride, but there are few eureka moments that feel at all instructive. Still, it’s alway fun to get a glimpse into how artists work. If there’s a theme here, it’s art is hard. Keep trying.
…★★★☆☆ | Writing | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
Book Notes
Divide writing time into thirds:
Three rules for ordering of arguments:
★★★☆☆ | Writing. | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I learned at least one thing from reading this book: I have not been doing the Zettelkasten thing right. Mr. Doto here provides a practical guide on how it’s supposed to be done, and in reading it, it helped me conclude decisively that this kind of note-taking is absurd and in no way how I want to take notes.
…★★★☆☆ | Writing | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
An amusing mishmash of quotes and editorializing on the benefits of showing up and sharing your work, including the messy sausage making process. I read this on a Kindle, so may have missed out on the visual aspects of Kleon’s work. But to me, it felt more like a commonplace book of inspirational (and sometimes disconnected) quotes.
…★★★★☆ | Writing | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
A slow read over the course of a few months, one chapter/writing tool per sitting. Lots of great tips and advice to improve your writing.
…★★★★★ | Writing | Print | Own | StoryGraph | Goodreads
One of the best, most practical writing guides I have ever read. I read Hart’s WordCraft ahead of this one. Really great.
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