: Re: What are good reads about writing? What do you recommend as reading material to improve writing for beginners? If one recommendation is put per answer and can be voted separately a good list

@Caterina108

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Joesph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces

I think that writers tend to love mythology, which jives perfectly with how helpful it is for writers to know mythology. This book recounts and unites myths from many cultures throughout the ages under the thesis that important stories-- from parables to fiction to the way we announce breaking news or share personal experiences-- are reappearances of a single, enduring story whose structure lies in the "Hero's Journey."

With inspiration from this book, a new writer can not only gain a better sense of her characters' (and possibly her own) grand story, but will also find inspiration to continue writing, even if only to further contribute to the grand story that unites her with story-tellers from all times and grounds her work in what touching stories are really all about: a universal human connection.

Two companions to this book are The Power of Myth in book form, an interview of the author by journalist Bill Moyers, and the actual The Power of Myth documentary-interview on DVD.

To make his points, Campbell draws from psychology, religion, mythology, cultural ritual, and philosophy; and he lays out character archetypes and stages in a hero's journey. If you want the same information but prefer it in a bite-sized portion, there is Christopher Vogler's The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, which scoops an extra dollop of Carl Jung on top of Campbell's work and flattens it out into an undemanding template for writers, chiefly screenwriters.

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