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Young Writers Society


Novels That Helped You Write Better



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Sat Jul 31, 2010 9:35 pm
Wariofart says...



The title is probably confusing, so let me explain.

What novels have helped you write better? As in, you learned something from reading that book that helped improve your writing. Maybe they showed you how a really good sub-plot works, or believable dialogue. Or something completely different. Just say the title of the book/author, and how it helped you with your writing.

I'll start:

The Hunger Games was the first book I read that really used the present tense. Now, I sometimes write in the present tense with stories, and I probably wouldn't if Hunger Games hadn't showed me how. Plus, it's a really awesome book.
"This is a song for a scribbled out name
That my love keeps writing again and again
And again"
  





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Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:04 pm
Rosendorn says...



Some people might be tired of hearing me gush about this book, (xD) but I Am Apache.

The book used first person well. Summary well. Description of emotion fantastically. Weaving in fantasy into history and making it perfectly plausible, if not more believable than had there not been magic in the history. The character voice was impeccable. The ending was just beautiful. The first book in a long time I'd loved even after turning the plot over in my head for a few months/a year.
A writer is a world trapped in a person— Victor Hugo

Ink is blood. Paper is bandages. The wounded press books to their heart to know they're not alone.
  





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40 Reviews



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Sun Aug 01, 2010 9:21 pm
Talulahbelle says...



I think that Graceling by Kristen Cashore has really affected the way I write, and how I look at my writing. It really set the bar for what I want to achieve as a fiction writer. The characters were so full and real, her plots avoided any kind of cliche (something I have problems with) and she pulled you in without giving you any warning.
I go to seek a Great Perhaps...
  





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Sat Aug 07, 2010 8:00 am
Kibble says...



When I was nine, I was reading the kind of stock, thin-paperback stuff that's written for 8-10 year olds. Think long series of formulaic stuff, all by different ghostwriters, that primary school libraries buy in bulk. My writing was mostly like that.

Then I read Harry Potter. It didn't impact my writing immediately or directly, but I found that after reading it, I could not go back to the other stuff. I largely stopped reading, because I couldn't find anything as good as Harry Potter.

Finally about a year later, I discovered "real" books, other than HP, and by the time I was twelve, my writing was improving enormously.

So I think Harry Potter, while it didn't improve my writing as such, introduced me to a world of books beyond the typical primary-school-library fare, which in the end was good.
"You are altogether a human being, Jane? You are certain of that?"
"I conscientiously believe so, Mr Rochester."
~ Jane Eyre
  





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Mon Aug 09, 2010 11:05 pm
Francis Michael Buck says...



In my opinion, reading just about any novel will, in some way, make you a better writer. Bad books will teach what NOT to do as well as how to pick up on crappy writing/plot/characters, while good books will obviously show you what IS well done and help you to strive for that. Plus, you'll inevitably expand your vocabulary with just about anything you read. Even a terrible book probably has one or two words you've never heard or don't use often.

With that, the biggest novels that influenced my writing and helped me do better are:

No Country For Old Men (plot structure, characters, and overall prose is just phenomenal)

The Road (mainly prose and character development, less so with plot structure)

Ulysses (writing style, vocabulary)

The Great Gatsby (everything)

Phineas Poe Trilogy (everything, mainly characters and writing style though)

Lord of the Rings (writing style, vocabulary, plot structure, background)

Infinite Jest (pretty much everything, but especially characters and writing)

Philip Marlowe series (writing style and plot structure)

The Fountainhead (great for learning character development and writing style)

Harry Potter (plot structure)

American Psycho (amazing character development, if you can handle the extreme violence)

Twilight (how NOT to write...sorry, couldn't resist)
"Believe nothing, no matter where you've read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
-Buddha
  





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Mon Sep 06, 2010 7:59 pm
Sierra says...



I've noticed reading books that are similar to what i'm writing help me not get writer's block, because i don't get ideas for other stuff.
Twilight has recently been helping/not helping me. It used to help a lot, and now my two main characters are starting to become Bella and Edward. Not good. At all.
What a shame,
We used to be such fragile broken things.
  





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Sun Nov 28, 2010 5:35 pm
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EmiAnne says...



the pact by jodi picoult. That book has so much emotion throughout it and I go back and read it quite often to see the ways that she wrote that much emotion into it, and how she made readers hanging onto every word. In my NaNo last year I killed off a character and when I edited that part I had that book open next to my laptop and was referring to i all the time.
Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow"
-mary anne radmacher
  





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Sun Nov 28, 2010 6:00 pm
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Tigersprite says...



The Famished Road by Ben Okri, it introduced me to the world of magical realism and taught me that you can add something magical to every word. Thanks Okri.

Eragon. It taught me everything I should never do in a fantasy book.
"A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do."
Nathan Leopold
  





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Mon Nov 29, 2010 3:48 pm
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Merlin34 says...



Tigersprite wrote:Eragon. It taught me everything I should never do in a fantasy book.

This. So very much this.
http://maxhelmberger.com/
Advice on writing, funny articles, and more.
  





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Mon Nov 29, 2010 9:54 pm
AuroraOrodel says...



Francis Michael Buck wrote:Twilight (how NOT to write...sorry, couldn't resist)


Haha! So very true.

Lord of the Rings has been a more general, ongoing influence but an important one. More recently, though, I read a book of sci-fi short stories called The Turing Test that was amazing. The premises for all of the stories were so original it got me thinking in different directions. I learned a lot about how to convey an emotional landscape and reveal a world from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Madd Addam books. I've been focusing a lot on creating characters and worlds with a lot of depth recently, and The Gunslinger has been really good for that.
"You cannot pronounce as knowledge anything you cannot demonstrate."
~Margaret Atwood

"The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies."
~Fahrenheit 451
  





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Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:15 pm
Calligraphy says...



The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo taught me how to use big vocabulary in a children's book.

A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly taught me many things:

1. How to mix real history with a fake story really well.
2. How to make character's real for their time and place without overdoing it.
3. How to build suspense for small things.
4. How to work letters into the chapters in a believable way.
5. How to go back and forward in time without confusing people.

Francis Michael Buck wrote:Harry Potter (plot structure)

Twilight (how NOT to write...sorry, couldn't resist)


Agree with both.

Tigersprite wrote: Eragon. It taught me everything I should never do in a fantasy book.


You are very right in saying that.

Thanks,

A. S.

P.S. The Little Hose books taught me how to do good descriptions of things.
  





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Mon Jan 03, 2011 7:29 pm
Emmzziee says...



When I was eight, I never ever read stories or anything. I couldn't really read that well, although I always wanted too.
And then my Dad took me to the library a couple of times, and I got a bit comfier with reading. And I chose an adult book this one time, "Goodnight Mister Tom." And that was the very first time I was actually sucked into a book, longing to carry on reading; I think that's what got me to carry on reading.
It's just amazingly written! :D
And I'm reading a book right now, called "The book of tomorrow" by Cecilia Ahern, and some of the descriptions in that are just fab; they really get you thinking...
"But then there are those whose minds are merely a bouquet of stalks, which bud as they learn new information - a new bud for a new fact - yet they never open, never flourish. They are the people of capital letters and full stops, but never of question marks and ellipses..."
:) Xxx
I want to play a game.
  





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Thu Jan 20, 2011 6:26 pm
Talulahbelle says...



I recently read I am Number Four by Pitticus Lore and learned alot from it. Usually when I write scenes I want something important and exciting to happen at all times, but in #4 I saw that it was good to draw things out - to create suspense and anticipation. Now, I just have to learn how to do it!
I go to seek a Great Perhaps...
  





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Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:40 am
Masquerade says...



The Bartimaeus Trilogy- Characterization
Inkheart- Style
Pirates!- Style
"Many people hear voices when no-one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stare at the walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing."
-Meg Chittenden
  





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Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:02 am
MiaParamore says...



Well, I've got to say the Kite Runner's author's vocabulary did open my eyes to the fact that I practically had such a minuscle vocabulary, and I guess its never too late since English wasn't his first language.
"Next time you point a finger
I might have to bend it back
Or break it, break it off
Next time you point a finger
I'll point you to the mirror"

— Paramore
  








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