STORY: Recommended Books (so far)

So even though I've mainly used this blog to talk about drawing, my journey has been slowly leading me back to why I even started drawing. And that was to tell my own stories.
Unfortunately my skills as a storyteller are pretty weak, since I never practice those muscles. It's easy to just stick to what you are good not bad at. But if you are a sucker for punishment like me, then you will just keep throwing yourself into things you don't know how to do.

So look forward to see me fail my way through bringing a story to life in 2019. What I wanted to do with this post is to post some books that I have found very useful so far in the early stages of this new Journey. I'll continue educating myself on story, but I feel these have been great in providing a good basis to build from:

1) Structuring your novel 

The first one I'd recommend is ' Structuring your novel' by K.M Weiland, which I bought for £3 on amazon. It gives you a nice overview on story structure, which can be used a framework to poor your ideas into.

2) PIXAR Storytelling

The second one is PIXAR Storytelling, which I briefly had as part of Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. I have put it on my to buy list since. It breaks down certain storytelling rules that PIXAR uses, with examples of the movies.

3) Outlining your novel

Next up I would recommend getting 'outlining your novel' by K.M Weiland. She recommends to start with this one if you plan to go through 'Structuring your Novel' afterwards. But if like me, you are writing your first story, I would just get the basics and start writing before the whole thing becomes so overwhelming that you'll just abandon your project. I will say however that there are great tips here for brainstorming ideas and adding some extra meat and substance to your story.

4) The War of Art

This last one is not actually going to help you understand story any better, but it WILL help you keep your head above water and keep up the momentum to fight on and finish your project! This book aims to break down procrastination and doubt! It's an easy ready, and I'm sure you'll want to hang up some quotes to keep you inspired :)