NaNoWriMo Guidance: 5 Books To Help Writers Stay Focused, On Track, And Inspired

NaNoWriMo is one of the main events that bookworms and aspiring writers look for during the warm, chill month of November. Even if you don’t plan to take it too seriously, it’s a great chance to stretch your writing skills and even strengthen them. So, regardless of where you are in your NaNoWriMo journey (enduring writer’s block, writing like crazy, or perhaps spending too much time editing)  I hope these books give you the guidance and spark you need to keep writing.

 

1. Several Short Sentences About Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg

One of the more ‘out of the box’ books about writing, Klinkenborg’s Several Short Sentences About Writing encourages writers to, instead of stressing out about how your audience will perceive your work and flow of words, focus on simply writing what comes to mind. Try not to put so much pressure of ‘creating a memorable story,’ It’s more authentic and more likely to be received well by readers when it sounds natural and real.

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Source: Amazon

2. Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog: The Quirky History and Lost Art of Diagramming Sentences by by Kitty Burns Florey

For those who are more keen on Grammar, Sister Bernadette’s Barking Dog covers the vast history of correct grammar, sentence flow, and the like. It also discusses the realistic side of trying to make sure your writing is perfectly corrected and edited and helps readers recognize that the faults in their writing could also be used to their advantage.

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Source: Amazon

3. The Art of Time in Fiction: As Long as it Takes by Joan Silber

Among the simple art of storytelling lies the actual reality of a story being just one event occurring after another one ends. I believe that putting writing into that simple, yet truthful context might help aspiring writers relax a little and not be so hard on themselves when it comes to telling a ‘great’ story. The Art of Time in Fiction covers this concept, in addition to bringing attention to the prominence of time in one’s story.

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Source: Amazon

4. Six Memos for the Next Millennium by Italo Calvino

This is a collection of five lectures the Italian journalist and short story writer was going to give before his death in 1985. In one of the lectures, Calvino focused on the five ‘indispensable’ qualities:  lightness, quickness, exactitude, visibility, and multiplicity. A good one to read if you’re really devoted to the writing craft!

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Source: Amazon

5. The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination by Carl Phillips

Well-known and talented poet Carl Philips’ The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination contains 7 essays discussing the art of wonderful, and often overlooked, poetry.

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Source: Amazon

How’s your NaNoWriMo story coming along? Is this your first time participating or have you done it before?

YouTube Channel: Boho Berry

 

Featured image via HubSpot

h/t Paste Magazine