Bibliography and Resources for the Aspiring Writer
Baron Wormser and David Cappella, A Surge of Language: Teaching Poetry Day to Day, Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2004
Baron Wormser and David Cappella: Teaching The Art of Poetry: The Moves. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. Shows how to have students learn the different “moves” that poets use to create poems by having students transcribe, discuss, and imitate different poems.
Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, Second Edition. New York: Penguin Academics, 2007.
A must. Classic work for understanding how to develop character, how different points of view influence what you can and cannot say as well as helpful hints about craft. A classic work for any writer.
Janet Burroway, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, New York: Longman, 2000.
Note: Her books are the best way to understand the craft of writing fiction, breaking down how to develop characters, plot, setting, and more. A few friends who were in a fiction program recommended her. She covers it all.
Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction, New York: Bloombust 2003
They have a whole set of books which are wonderful and practical, breaking stories down piece by piece.
Jeff Anderson. Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage and Style into Writer's Workshop. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2005.
This is a terrific book to show teachers how to use text to teach style and grammar. Great activities. Introduces how to teach modifiers as a Zoom lens. Great idea of "mentor sentences."
Jeff Anderson. Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft In Writer’s Workshop: Everyday Editing. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2007.
Easy-to-use exercises that are ready-made for use in the classroom.
Jeff Anderson.10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know. 2011. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2007.
Goes much more in depth and has a good scheme for using certain strategies, one at a time, to build competence in writing.
Marzano, Robert J., Pickering, Debra J, Pollack, Jane E. Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001.
Harry R. Noden. Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann,1999
This book is amazing, with a CD and great handouts. He shows how to improve style, notice stylistic techniques, and includes before-and-after editing samples, and it is filled with ideas. He is a master at linking writing and reading, and vice versa. He introduces the idea of a writer's palette. Good incorporation of the visual and the written image. Uses movies too.
Harry R. Noden. Image Grammar Workbook. Logan, Iowa: Perfection Learning Corporation, 2007. Wonderful workbook with great examples and visuals. Must have book.
Ann LeMott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. (Anchor Press, 2007)
An unassuming book about developing a writer’s life. She speaks about getting support from a writers’ group, editing and revising, writer’s block, and publishing. Her tone is always light and funny. She can unmask the anxieties of being a writer.
Jim Burke, Writing: Tolls, Tips, and Techniques Reminders. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2003.
He is so practical and so attuned to how writing and reading interplay. All his books are great.
Jack Myers, The Portable Poetry Workshop. Boston: Thomson, 2005.
A treasure trove of one of the best writing instructions I’ve encountered. Very practical how-to-do approach to writing a poem, openers, closers, adding detail, cuts, fades, juxtapositions, etc. If you can get this book (it was out-of-print) you will treasure it as an endless source of information with practical suggestions.
Does an amazing job of breaking down skills, using practical, cinematic graphic analogies.
Tom Chiarella. Writing Dialogue. Cincinnati: Story Press, 1998.
Best book on the moves that you can make to write dialogue that mirrors how we actually talk. Lots of fun exercises.
Field, Syd. The Screenwriter’s Workbook: Exercise and a Step-by-step Instructions for Creating Successful Screenplays. New York: Delta Book, 1984.
Wonderful not only for screenwriting but for understanding how to develop and plot a story. The films—and scenes in films—that he mentions I use to help students learn how to layer a scene. I turn off the sound and have the students look at the camera's movement. They get Layering immediately. Best book for breaking down a story into its smallest parts and showing how each—a beat, a sequence, a scene, and a chapter/act—comes together to make a whole.
Gregory, Kathleen, Carmron, Caren, and Davies, Anne. Setting and Using Criteria. Merveille, Canada: Connections Publishing, 1997.
Gregory, Kathleen, Carmron, Caren, and Davies, Anne. Self-Assessment and Goal Setting. Canada: Connections Publishing, 2000.
Great for getting kids to own what they are learning.
Gregory, Kathleen, Carmron, Caren, and Davies, Anne. Conferencing and Reporting. Canada: Connections Publishing, 2001.
Gardner, John. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. New York: Vintage Books, 1983.
A classic in explaining psychic distance and how a writer creates the illusion (in his words, “the dream”) of reality in words. Lots of practical prompts.
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.
Good examples of how he came to understand the craft as a tool kit. Easy-to-use examples that come from Maine.
Truby, John. The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc, 2007
A Hollywood consultant and writer, Truby breaks down the essential elements of a story, showing how to create a character with a need, a flaw, and a desire. He shows how the opponent, getting in the way of a hero’s desire, must also have a similar desire. He uses many examples from contemporary films to show how a good story/film has certain ingredients that drive the plot and shape its progression.
Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want To Write Them. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006
From her examples, you learn how to look at stories from a writer's point of view, how words, sentences, paragraphs, characters, narrative, and dialogue emerge from careful attention to detail, and how, in any given moment, a story can turn in many directions. Most incisive analysis of text I’ve read, with wonderful examples, and beautifully written.
All these writers have taken Francine Prose's approach, but they go into much greater practical depth, showing not only what writers do in prose and poetry but also how they do it and, most importantly, how to help students see and do it. The do-it approach is what is most important to me. I believe that people teaching language arts are like people teaching instrumental music: how can you teach a student to play the flute if you have never played it? These books allow teachers to learn the how-tos for themselves so they can teach them to students.
Baron Wormser and David Cappella, A Surge of Language: Teaching Poetry Day to Day, Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2004
Baron Wormser and David Cappella: Teaching The Art of Poetry: The Moves. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. Shows how to have students learn the different “moves” that poets use to create poems by having students transcribe, discuss, and imitate different poems.
Janet Burroway, Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft, Second Edition. New York: Penguin Academics, 2007.
A must. Classic work for understanding how to develop character, how different points of view influence what you can and cannot say as well as helpful hints about craft. A classic work for any writer.
Janet Burroway, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, New York: Longman, 2000.
Note: Her books are the best way to understand the craft of writing fiction, breaking down how to develop characters, plot, setting, and more. A few friends who were in a fiction program recommended her. She covers it all.
Gotham Writers' Workshop: Writing Fiction, New York: Bloombust 2003
They have a whole set of books which are wonderful and practical, breaking stories down piece by piece.
Jeff Anderson. Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage and Style into Writer's Workshop. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2005.
This is a terrific book to show teachers how to use text to teach style and grammar. Great activities. Introduces how to teach modifiers as a Zoom lens. Great idea of "mentor sentences."
Jeff Anderson. Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft In Writer’s Workshop: Everyday Editing. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2007.
Easy-to-use exercises that are ready-made for use in the classroom.
Jeff Anderson.10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know. 2011. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2007.
Goes much more in depth and has a good scheme for using certain strategies, one at a time, to build competence in writing.
Marzano, Robert J., Pickering, Debra J, Pollack, Jane E. Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. Alexandria: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001.
Harry R. Noden. Image Grammar: Using Grammatical Structures to Teach Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann,1999
This book is amazing, with a CD and great handouts. He shows how to improve style, notice stylistic techniques, and includes before-and-after editing samples, and it is filled with ideas. He is a master at linking writing and reading, and vice versa. He introduces the idea of a writer's palette. Good incorporation of the visual and the written image. Uses movies too.
Harry R. Noden. Image Grammar Workbook. Logan, Iowa: Perfection Learning Corporation, 2007. Wonderful workbook with great examples and visuals. Must have book.
Ann LeMott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. (Anchor Press, 2007)
An unassuming book about developing a writer’s life. She speaks about getting support from a writers’ group, editing and revising, writer’s block, and publishing. Her tone is always light and funny. She can unmask the anxieties of being a writer.
Jim Burke, Writing: Tolls, Tips, and Techniques Reminders. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2003.
He is so practical and so attuned to how writing and reading interplay. All his books are great.
Jack Myers, The Portable Poetry Workshop. Boston: Thomson, 2005.
A treasure trove of one of the best writing instructions I’ve encountered. Very practical how-to-do approach to writing a poem, openers, closers, adding detail, cuts, fades, juxtapositions, etc. If you can get this book (it was out-of-print) you will treasure it as an endless source of information with practical suggestions.
Does an amazing job of breaking down skills, using practical, cinematic graphic analogies.
Tom Chiarella. Writing Dialogue. Cincinnati: Story Press, 1998.
Best book on the moves that you can make to write dialogue that mirrors how we actually talk. Lots of fun exercises.
Field, Syd. The Screenwriter’s Workbook: Exercise and a Step-by-step Instructions for Creating Successful Screenplays. New York: Delta Book, 1984.
Wonderful not only for screenwriting but for understanding how to develop and plot a story. The films—and scenes in films—that he mentions I use to help students learn how to layer a scene. I turn off the sound and have the students look at the camera's movement. They get Layering immediately. Best book for breaking down a story into its smallest parts and showing how each—a beat, a sequence, a scene, and a chapter/act—comes together to make a whole.
Gregory, Kathleen, Carmron, Caren, and Davies, Anne. Setting and Using Criteria. Merveille, Canada: Connections Publishing, 1997.
Gregory, Kathleen, Carmron, Caren, and Davies, Anne. Self-Assessment and Goal Setting. Canada: Connections Publishing, 2000.
Great for getting kids to own what they are learning.
Gregory, Kathleen, Carmron, Caren, and Davies, Anne. Conferencing and Reporting. Canada: Connections Publishing, 2001.
Gardner, John. The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers. New York: Vintage Books, 1983.
A classic in explaining psychic distance and how a writer creates the illusion (in his words, “the dream”) of reality in words. Lots of practical prompts.
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.
Good examples of how he came to understand the craft as a tool kit. Easy-to-use examples that come from Maine.
Truby, John. The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. New York: Faber and Faber, Inc, 2007
A Hollywood consultant and writer, Truby breaks down the essential elements of a story, showing how to create a character with a need, a flaw, and a desire. He shows how the opponent, getting in the way of a hero’s desire, must also have a similar desire. He uses many examples from contemporary films to show how a good story/film has certain ingredients that drive the plot and shape its progression.
Prose, Francine. Reading Like a Writer: A Guide For People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want To Write Them. New York: Harper Perennial, 2006
From her examples, you learn how to look at stories from a writer's point of view, how words, sentences, paragraphs, characters, narrative, and dialogue emerge from careful attention to detail, and how, in any given moment, a story can turn in many directions. Most incisive analysis of text I’ve read, with wonderful examples, and beautifully written.
All these writers have taken Francine Prose's approach, but they go into much greater practical depth, showing not only what writers do in prose and poetry but also how they do it and, most importantly, how to help students see and do it. The do-it approach is what is most important to me. I believe that people teaching language arts are like people teaching instrumental music: how can you teach a student to play the flute if you have never played it? These books allow teachers to learn the how-tos for themselves so they can teach them to students.
