I got an ask recently inquiring about any suggestions I have on learning to write/improving your writing. Since then I've been trying to come up with a helpful, coherent, and relatively concise answer, but that's taking a long time.
So, for now I'd say my biggest piece of advice is the cliché: if you want to become a better writer, read (or watch/listen to/etc.) everything you can. Everything. Engage with media from as many different creators as possible and from as many different backgrounds/experiences/cultures as possible. Seek out things you don't know a lot about. Venture into new territory and always try to expand your horizons. This includes engaging with media you would never drift towards naturally, even towards things you don't expect to enjoy (which isn't to say read things that will disturb you or be dangerous for your mental health, more that you should try reading things you know you won't love or that fall way outside your genre comfort zone). You can learn a lot about writing from things you don't like or aren't blown away by. I imagine it like XP farming in a video game. Even if some of what you're doing/reading isn't particularly exciting or interesting, it'll level up your writing skill all the same. You may come away with a better understanding of what you don't like and don't want to do. You may come away with some new idea you wouldn't have thought to include in your normal body of work. You may discover a love for something you never expected. Who knows?
This advice applies to more than books—watch shows or movies, play games, listen to podcasts or free YouTube lectures/video essays, whatever you want. Just try to reflect critically on what you encounter (for example, "how can I incorporate (or avoid) ___ in my own writing?").
If you want any recommendations, I'm more than happy to give some. If you want me to clarify any of these points, just let me know. And since it may interest someone/provide a point of reference as to what stuff I'm reading, here's an incomplete, visual (and hopefully somewhat helpful or interesting) snapshot into some of the media I'm engaged with. I present to you...
All the Items I Currently Have Checked Out from the Library:
(A Cautionary Tale)
Currently Reading:
Hainish Novels & Stories, Volume One by Ursula K. Le Guin, Frank Herbert's Dune the Graphic Novel, Book One by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (illustrated by Raúl Allén and Patricia Martín), Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, American Gods (graphic novel) by Neil Gaiman, P. Craig Russell, and Scott Hampton, The October Country by Ray Bradbury, The Books of Earthsea, The Complete Illustrated Edition by Ursula K. Le Guin (illustrated by Charles Vess)
Just Read In or Found Through My Current Courses:
Nat Turner (graphic novel) by Kyle Baker, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn (play adaptation of the novel), Bad Indians by Deborah A. Miranda
Fun Stuff/Miscellaneous:
How to Slay a Dragon by Cait Stevenson, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (2019), Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker, Unmasking Autism by Devon Price, PhD, 100 Prompts for Science Fiction Writers by Leslie and Jarod Anderson
Writing Books:
How to Write a Mystery edited by Lee Child with Laurie R. King, On Writing Romance by Leigh Michaels, How to Write a Damn Good Thriller by James N. Frey, Writing Fantasy & Science-Fiction by Orson Scott Card, Phillip Athans, and Jay Lake, The Art of Time in Fiction by Joan Silber, Writing Without Rules by Jeff Somers, Fabulous Monsters by Alberto Manguel, The Art of Description in Fiction by Mark Doty, The Essential Guide to Freelance Writing by Zachary Petit, Beginnings, Middles, & Ends by Nancy Kress, Mastering Suspense, Structure, & Plot by Jane K. Cleland, 45 Master Characters by Victoria Lynn Schmidt
Cooking/Food Books:
Pure Vegan by Joseph Schuldiner, The Soup Book (new edition), Neuroenology by Gordon M. Shepherd, The Italian Vegetable Cookbook by Michele Scicolone, Wine Simple by Aldo Sohm with Christine Muhlke, Cook Korean! by Robin Ha (graphic novel)
Coding Books:
Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours (7th Edition) by Phil Ballard, CSS: The Definitive Guide (4th Edition) by Eric A. Meyer & Estelle Weyl, CSS: The Missing Manual (4th Edition) by David Sawyer McFarland, Learning JavaScript (3rd Edition) by Ethan Brown
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Band lineups
This will include all the band and what lineups have been submitted. It will be updated as more submissions come in.
Guns’N Roses: Axl Rose, Slash, Izzy Stradlin, Duff McKagan and Steven Adler
Mötley Crüe: Vince Neil, Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee
Queen: Freddie Mercury, Brian May, John Deacon and Roger Taylor
Hanoi Rocks: Michael Monroe, Andy McCoy, Nasty Suicide, Razzle and Sami Yafta
Iron Maiden: Bruce Dickinson, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith, Steve Harris and Nicko McBrain
Poison: Bret Michaels, C.C. Deville, Bobby Dall and Rikki Rockett
Rush: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peary
Anthrax: Frank Bello, Joey Belladonna, Scott Ian, Charlie Benante and Dan Spitz
Possessed: Jeff Becerra, Mike Torrao, Larry LaLonde and Mike Sus
Bon Jovi: Jon Bon Jovi, David Bryan, Tico Torres, Alec John Such and Richie Sambora
Skid Row: Sebastian Bach, Dave Sabo, Scotti Hill, Rachel Bolan and Rob Affuso
Talking Heads: David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison
Warrant: Jani Lane, Joey Allen, Erik Turner, Steven Sweet and Jerry Dixon
The Cure: Robert Smith, Simon Gallup, Lol Tolhurst, Roger O'Donnell, Porl Thompson and Boris Williams
The Bangles: Susanna Hoffs, Vicki Peterson, Debbi Peterson and Michael Steele
Def Leppard: Rick Savage, Phil Collen, Steve Clark, Rick Allen and Joe Elliott
The Traveling Wilburys: Nelson Wilbury (George Harrison), Otis Wilbury (Jeff Lynne), Charlie T. Wilbury Jr (Tom Petty), Lefty Wilbury (Roy Orbison), Lucky Wilbury (Bob Dylan)
U2: Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr.
Dokken: Don Dokken, Mick Brown, Jeff Pilsen and George Lynch
Blondie: Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison, Deborah Harry, Frank Infante and Chris Stein
Duran Duran: Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, John Taylor, Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor
Quiet Riot: Kevin DuBrow, Carlos Cavazo , Rudy Sarzo and Frankie Banali
Aerosmith: Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer
Dio: Ronnie James Dio, Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Vivian Campbell
Metallica: James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Cliff Burton and Lars Ulrich
Winger: Kip Winger, Reb Beach, Paul Taylor and Rod Morgenstein
The Human League: Ian Burden, Philip Oakley, Susan Ann Sulley, Joanne Catherall, Jo Callis, Jim Russell and Philip Adrian Wright
The Clash: Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon
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Since the only movie I'm watching tonight is 200 Cigarettes, I've got my list of movies I watched for the first time this year. It's a little low (158 instead of the usual +/- 200) but... well, it's been a year.
Property is No Longer a Theft (1973, Ello Petri)
Zola (2021, Janicza Bravo)
The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021, Michael Showalter)
A Face in the Crowd (1957, Elia Kazan)
Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021, William Eubank)
Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension (2015, Gregory Plotkin)
Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014, Christopher Landon)
Paranormal Activity 4 (2012, Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost)
The Nun (2018, Corin Hardy)
Hell-Bound Train (1930, Eloyce & James Gist)
Family Plot (1976, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Witch of King’s Cross (2020, Sonia Bible)
Teknolust (2002, Lynn Hershman Leeson)
Giant (1956, George Stevens)
Castle in the Sky (1986, Hayao Miyazaki)
Messiah of Evil (1973, Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz)
House (1986, Steve Miner)
The Taking of Deborah Logan (2014, Adam Robitel)
A Woman is a Woman (1961, Jean-Luc Godard)
Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror (2021, Kier-La Janisse)
The Tragedy of MacBeth (2021, Joel Coen)
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (2021, Wes Anderson)
Last Night in Soho (2021, Edgar Wright)
Thelma (2017, Joachim Trier)
The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956, Alfred Hitchcock)
Pig (2021, Michael Sarnoski)
In the Earth (2021, Ben Wheatley)
Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (2021, Lisa Immordino Vreeland)
9 (2009, Shane Acker)
Chimes at Midnight (1966, Orson Welles)
WeWork, or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (2021, Jed Rothstein)
Enemies of the State (2020, Sonia Kennebeck)
A Glitch in the Matrix (2021, Rodney Ascher)
Citizenfour (2014, Laura Poitras)
The Cremator (1969, Juraj Herz)
Angst (1983, Gerard Kargl)
Death on the Nile (1978, John Guillerman)
The Power of the Dog (2021, Jane Campion)
Nightmare Alley (2021, Guillermo Del Toro)
Mirror (1974, Andrei Tarkovsky)
House of Gucci (2021, Ridley Scott)
Free Guy (2021, Shawn Levy)
A Letter to Three Wives (1949, Joseph L Mankiewicz)
Say Amen Somebody (1982, George T Nierenberg)
Poison Ivy (1992, Katt Shea)
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, Jacques Demy)
Zatoichi (2003, Takeshi Kitano)
Pale Flower (1964, Masahiro Shinoda)
Nobody (2021, Ilya Naishuller)
A Time to Kill (1996, Joel Schumacher)
Murder by Numbers (2002, Barbet Schroeder)
Antlers (2021, Scott Cooper)
Drive My Car (2021, Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Ready Player One (2018, Steven Spielberg)
Superman II (1980, Richard Lester)
West Side Story (2021, Steven Spielberg)
Licorice Pizza (2021, Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Batman (2022, Matt Reeves)
You Can’t Kill Meme (2021, Hayley Garrigus)
Being the Ricardos (2021, Aaron Sorkin)
Summer of Soul (2021, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson)
Talk to Me (2007, Kasi Lemmons)
The Night House (2021, David Bruckner)
Here Comes the Devil (2012, Adrián Garcia Bogliano)
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010, Paul W.S. Anderson)
The Ritual (2017, David Bruckner)
The Bye Bye Man (2017, Stacy Title)
Creep (2014, Patrick Brice)
From Within (2008, Phedon Papamichael)
X (2022, Ti West)
Moonfall (2022, Roland Emmerich)
Dead Man (1995, Jim Jarmusch)
The Purge (2013, James DeMonaco)
Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020, Danny Wolf)
Caligula (1979, Tinto Brass, Bob Guccione & Giancarlo Lui)
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932, Dorothy Arzner)
The Alchemist Cookbook (2016, Joel Potrykus)
Spoor (2017, Agnieszka Holland)
Cliffhanger (1993, Renny Harlin)
Runaway Jury (2003, Gary Fleder)
A Scanner Darkly (2006, Richard Linklater)
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1954, Hiroshi Inagaki)
Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple (1955, Hiroshi Inagaki)
Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island (1956, Hiroshi Inagaki)
Mikey and Nicky (1976, Elaine May)
Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022, Akiva Schaffer)
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022, Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert)
Men (2022, Alex Garland)
Old (2021, M. Night Shyamalan)
Saint Maud (2019, Rose Glass)
Bernie (2011, Richard Linklater)
Pineapple Express (2008, David Gordon Green)
Voyeur (2021, Myles Kane & Josh Koury)
Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985, Alan Metter)
Conspiracy Theory (1997, Richard Donner)
Experiment in Terror (1962, Blake Edwards)
The Nightingale (2018, Jennifer Kent)
Leave Her to Heaven (1945, John M. Stahl)
Black Widow (1954, Nunnally Johnson)
The Bob’s Burgers Movie (2022, Loren Bouchard & Bernard Derriman)
Incantation (2022, Kevin Ko)
All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989, Don Bluth)
Nope (2022, Jordan Peele)
House of Bamboo (1956, Samuel Fuller)
Jurassic World: Dominion (2022, Colin Trevorrow)
The Black Phone (2022, Scott Derrickson)
The Presidio (1988, Peter Hyams)
Barbarian (2022, Zach Creeger)
Elvis (2022, Baz Luhrmann)
Vengeance (2022, BJ Novak)
Crimes of the Future (2022, David Cronenberg)
Don’t Worry Darling (2022, Olivia Wilde)
Band of Outsiders (1964, Jean-Luc Godard)
The Slumber Party Massacre (1982, Amy Holden Jones)
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022, Halina Reijn)
Dead and Buried (1981, Gary Sherman)
Blonde (2022, Andrew Dominik)
Phantasm II (1988, Don Coscarelli)
Hellraiser (2022, David Bruckner)
The Keep (1983, Michael Mann)
Next of Kin (1982, Tony Williams)
The Funhouse (1981, Tobe Hooper)
Dream Demon (1988, Harley Cokeliss)
The Hidden (1987, Jack Sholder)
Prince of Darkness (1987, John Carpenter)
White of the Eye (1987, Donald Cammell)
Halloween (2018, David Gordon Green)
Halloween Kills (2021, David Gordon Green)
Halloween Ends (2022, David Gordon Green)
Terror Train (1980, Roger Spottiswoode)
The House by the Cemetery (1981, Lucino Fulci)
Strange Behavior (1981, Michael Laughlin)
Road Games (1981, Richard Franklin)
Final Destination (2000, James Wong)
Daughters of Darkness (1971, Harry Kümel)
Matango (1963, Ishiro Honda)
Thirst (2009, Park Chan-Wook)
Wolfen (1981, Michael Wadleigh)
The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014, Alfonso Gomez-Rejon)
Hud (1963, Martin Ritt)
The Dark Corner (1946, Henry Hathaway)
Encino Man (1992, Les Mayfield)
The Good Nurse (2022, Tobias Lindholm)
Son in Law (1993, Steve Rash)
Madame X: An Absolute Ruler (1978, Ulrike Ottinger)
Henri-Georges Cluzot’s “Inferno” (2009, Serge Bromberg & Ruxandra Medrea)
The Blue Dahlia (1946, George Marshall)
Pearl (2022, Ti West)
Amsterdam (2022, David O. Russell)
Memories of Murder (2003, Bong Joon-ho)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022, Rian Johnson)
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022, Martin McDonagh)
Song of the Thin Man (1947, Edward Buzzell)
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941, W.S. Van Dyke)
RRR (2022, S.S. Rajamouli)
Another Thin Man (1939, W.S. Van Dyke)
Saaho (2019, Sujeeth)
Triangle of Sadness (2022, Ruben Östlund)
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