Useful Writing Resources

I’m currently in the outlining stage of my next novel. During my writing career, I’ve amassed quite a few resources that I use. Some I use every time I start a new project and others that have taught me lessons that I continue to apply to my writing. We live in an amazing age of information and there are some great tools out there.

To me, writing is about problem-solving. Every technique you learn is another tool to solve problems. I’ll start off with a few books that I’ve read that have given me some tools that I’ve used over the years.

Books
Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk
I’m a huge Chuck Palahniuk fan. So, this was basically a must-read for me. Chuck Palahniuk has a very specific style. You know a Palahniuk book when you’re reading it, without looking at the cover.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
You can love or hate Stephen King all you want. The fact is, he’s an insanely successful author and even if you’re not a fan of his writing, you will get something out of this, I promise.

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder
I use Save the Cat for my outline structure. This book is about screenwriting, but I’ve found that it works for my novels as well. I reference this pretty much every time I sit down to write an outline.

Gotham Writers Workshop by Peter Selgin & Alexander Steele
This one starts from the very beginning and works its way through. All I can say about it is that it’s very thorough.

Podcasts
Onto the Page
I come from a screenwriting background, so this is a podcast on screenwriting. But holy hell does Pillar Alverez get some amazing writers on her podcast. Endless insights from some great writers.

My Dad Wrote a Porno
It’s hilarious and it’s got six seasons. I find that it’s been a fun way to learn about writing. It’s sort of a lesson on what not to do.

Snap Judgement
They say that truth is stranger than fiction and this podcast keeps proving it. It’s real-life stories that are great for inspiration.

The Moth
These are more of a lesson on storytelling in general. No notes. Just 10-minute stories told up on a stage.

The Truth
These stories are so strange and fun. I love this podcast so much.

Web Resources
https://savethecat.com/
This website is filled with information on the Save the Cat. They have a section where they do beat sheets for popular movies, so you can see it in practice. They even have a section for novels. 
https://savethecat.com/novel-writing

https://www.jessicabrody.com/2020/12/save-the-cat-novel-calculator/
This is a save the cat calculator that shows where the different beats of your novel should land. As I change my outline, I use this quite a bit.

https://avfilmschool.com/save-the-cat-beat-sheet-the-15-beats-explained/
If you’re not in the mood to read an entire book on Save the Cat, this is a great rundown of the main beats of the format.

https://www.servicescape.com/writing-prompt-generator
This is a writing prompt generator. If you’re looking for something fun to play around with, this is a cool little tool. It’s great for writing short stories just to get the brain going.

Misc
Neil Gaiman’s Masterclass
https://www.masterclass.com/classes/neil-gaiman-teaches-the-art-of-storytelling
I wasn’t really sure where to put this. Masterclass has a deal that starts every black Friday where you can buy a 1-year subscription as a gift for someone else and get another subscription free of charge. If you have the money or if you can get this gifted to you, I highly recommend it. It’s been my favorite masterclass thus far.

Helpful Advice I’ve Gotten
They were having a writers club meeting literally right down the street from my house. I went and didn’t realize that there was a cover charge. So, when the nice woman at the front asked for $25 I was caught off guard. I just sort of stared at her. She stared back. Then she told me to just go in. So I did. They served food. I felt bad. However, I did get some great advice on how to beat writer’s block from a speaker. I’m paraphrasing here, so bear with me.
When you have writer’s block it’s like having a cramped muscle. If you keep exercising a cramped muscle, it gets more cramped. With writer’s block, you’re not writing, and you’re thinking about not writing, and that makes you more nervous about it which exacerbates the problem. The way you get rid of a cramped muscle is to massage it out and it’s not much different with writer’s block. When you’re stuck, stop. Stop and decide that you are not going to write right now. What you are going to do is go back and read what you’ve written so far and gather information about how your story got to where it is now. Start from the beginning and work your way through the story and gather information. During this process, you’ll find that you’ll massage out that stuck muscle and you’ll start writing again. This has worked for me every single time I’ve been stuck.

“It’s about these astronauts that save the world.” I’m told that was the line that sold the script Armageddon to a major studio. Some people call them log lines or elevator pitches.
If you can’t sum up your story in one sentence, it’s not going to work. This is my first step to writing. I write a one-sentence pitch of my story. It doesn’t have to outline the entire plot, but it should get the idea across. When you tell people you’ve written a novel, 99.9% of the time their first question is “What is it about?” The Countdown is about an AI that starts a countdown. Connecting is about the remnants of a destroyed AI’s automated commands connecting the main character with a mysterious stranger. Parity Files is about a group of heroes banding together to destroy a psychotic AI that wiped out half the human population.
If you have to go into a 5+ minute discussion about what your book is about, you’re going to get a lot of blank stares and zero interest. If you get that log line out and someone wants to know more, congrats, you’ve done it right and by all means, go into a much more detailed description of the story. I learned this the hard way when I was first getting into filmmaking. I came up with these complicated plots for scripts that I would try explaining to anyone that asked. They would stare at me, half-smiling, half wondering when I was going to stop so they could politely move on. Trust me, one sentence, maybe two.

What is your story about? This is not the logline. This is more about what the heartbeat of your story is. What are you trying to say here? Why are you telling this story to people? What is the point? Again, in the early days of screenwriting I was totally guilty of this. My answer was “because it’s funny.” That wasn’t enough. A poodle riding a unicycle is funny, but it’s not really about anything.

Conclusion
These are just some of the tools that I use. I’m sure there are tons more out there. Some of these may not work for you and that’s OK. Writing is hard. You kind of just have to figure it out.