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© 2006-2008 by Sarah Beach. All Rights Reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced without permission. ScribblerWorks and the ScribblerWorks logo are trademarks (TM) of Sarah L. Beach 2007.
TRUE
BLUE, THE TOPS 
RECOMMENDED 
NOT RECOMMENDED
A
BOMB, BUT YOU MIGHT ENJOY IT 
ABSOLUTELY DEADLY, FORGET IT
BOOKS
NONFICTION
On Writing
There's nothing like a good title to catch your attention. In fact, that's one of the first points Blake Snyder makes in Save the Cat. If you're a writer who thinks "The right title will come to me eventually," you need to at least read what Snyder has to say. Trust me, I've been right there with you. But the insights that Snyder unfolds as he goes along will help you focus in on the essentials of your story. What he conveys certainly works for screenwriting, but it also applies to other forms of storytelling.
His prose is direct and engaging. It's like sitting down with an upbeat, cheer-leading mentor. The delight Snyder takes in doing his own storytelling gets transmitted to any reader of this book. Beyond all the helpful pointers he presents, this book reminds us all that storytelling is supposed to be fun for the storyteller.
Even though I have plenty of practice in writing, I've found that what Snyder has to say has been helpful to me when I've been a little stuck on a problem in a particular project. The enthusiasm that underlies his advice encourages me to believe that there is a solution to whatever problem I'm dealing with.
I've recommended this book to writers who need some guidence in getting their stories organized, or who are trying to figure out how to pitch their stories.
GOOD
SCRIPTS, BAD SCRIPTS, by Tom Pope
Pope makes the point early in his book that you can learn as much from a bad film as from a good one. If you know what to look for, that is. This book proves the point: the chapters are worth re-reading from time to time.
The strength of the book is that Pope pin-points why a film does or does not work, particularly in the realm of structure. One of my favorite chapters is the analysis of Singing in the Rain, giving the history of how a story was built around a list of songs. But the analyses of the failures of Cutthroat Island and Falling in Love also serve as warnings against running into storytelling with too little preparation and insight.
The book is a very useful refresher on important aspects of storytelling, from the necessity of keeping a focused story spine (the failure of The Abyss) to the need for interesting characters to connect to (the problem with Falling in Love). Although the analytic skills Pope brings to the task are sharp, he also has a very accessible prose style that engages the reader in his discussions
UNDERSTANDING COMICS, by Scott McCloud
Whenever I encounter someone who says they want to get into writing for comics, the first thing I ask is whether or not they've read Understanding Comics. Because if they have not, there isn't much point in directing them toward the few books about comic book scripting. They need to read this book to get a grasp of the possibilities of graphic storytelling.
In this book, McCloud unfolds the nature of graphic storytelling. The history of it, from painting pictures on cave walls up to the modern technologies of image capture. But beyond that, he explores the ways this medium can play with time and space, internal and external worlds, the combinations of words and images that neither prose nor film can successfully replicate. It is a medium of great power, and is, unfortunately, greatly misunderstood (mostly by being dismissed as "kid stuff").
McCloud explores the way readers encounter the information (visual and verbal) in panels and on the page. He describes how the comic book page and the reader interact (for this medium also provokes an active engagement from the reader). And all this deep and meaty material is presented in the medium being described: definitely a case where the medium is the message. It might seem like a novelty or a gimmick, but the reality is that there is no other way he could accurately inform his reader of the significance of his subject. Until you see his explanation of how time functions within a comic book panel, you will not grasp it.
No matter how much you read comic books, "just" reading them will not give you the knowledge you would need to be an effective creator of them. Many talented writers have worked their way to knowing the elements McCloud teaches on these pages. But no one has presented that knowledge as effectively as this. So, if you want to try your hand at writing in this medium, the matter of sequential graphic storytelling, study this book first.
MAKING
COMICS, by Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud, creator of Zot!, produced an important groud-breaking book some years ago, entitled Understanding Comics. That book could serve as the textbook for the first semester in a course on creating comics (be it daily strips, monthly books, or graphic novels). This book would be the textbook for the second semester - where you are taken into greater detail the crucial matters for creating an effective piece of sequential art/storytelling.
Although McCloud is himself primarily an artist, and much of Making Comics focuses on the visual aspect of the medium, this book should be studied by writers as well. The more the comic book writer understands the considerations an artist brings to the collaboration, the better the writer will construct the story to serve those considerations. Writers often focus on the story in their head, seeing it rather like a movie, where the scenes are in constant motion.
But artists have to capture a specific moment. Or capture an image that looks like a specific moment, but really implies the forward motion of time within its frame. (For a better understanding of that subtlety, do read Understanding Comics.) The size of the panel frame, the placement of that frame, whether or not to have the contents of the panel break out of the frame - these are all considerations the artist might be dealing with, but which might never cross the brainpan of the writer. And yet, if writers were much more conscious of the considerations of the artist, and the problems the artist has to address, they would probably deliver scripts that are tighter, and more inspiring to the artist who has to render them.
Certainly this book is a must for the aspiring comic book artist. But I also think it is necessary for the comic book writer.
THE
HOLLYWOOD STANDARD by Chris Riley
There are plenty of books available that tell you about the importance of sticking to the standard formatting of screenplays. The screenwriting programs available will automatically format your script to proper margins and placement of dialogue. So, what do you need this book for?
Well, there are some things that the computer programs won't tell you. They won't tell you why a certain order of elements in a slugline is preferable. They won't tell you why it is not a good idea to think you can fool Studio Readers by changing font size. But Chris Riley does. Element by element, he explains why the Hollywood Standard format for scripts developed. Beginning with the use of Courier 12. By fortuitous chance, filmmakers discovered that using that font made for a very helpful equivalence of one page to approximately one minute of screen time. Perhaps the most useful discovery for the filmmaking process ever. But Riley explains the production value of ordering bits of information in the script. And when you think about it, it even makes good sense for the reading of a script. Unlike prose, where you might want to hold back pieces of information about the environment for dramatic effect in the storytelling, when we're talking about visual images, it doesn't work that way.
The book is completely thorough, element by element, punctuation, ordering of information. Everything you need to know to make your script the cleanest, most shootable thing from the first time you print it out.
Other Non-Fiction
WHAT WILL HARRY DO? by Janet Scott Batchler
As readers wait on J.K. Rowling to deliver the last book of her Harry Potter series, it's fun to speculate about what will be revealed, what twists the story may take. It speaks to the power of Rowling's storytelling skills that the audience is engaged enough to pursue the speculations.
But what Janet Batchler does goes beyond "mere" speculation.
Batchler, a screenwriter, applies her practical knowledge of storytelling to what we have already been given in the series. Set-ups and pay-offs are very important in writing for film. So Janet takes her skills from that arena and shows how well Rowling has been preparing things from the very beginning of the series. Janet examines those things in the story that have all the appearance of being set-ups, but which, as yet, have not been paid off.
We'll only learn how well Janet has succeeded in her speculations when Book 7 is published. But even after that, I think Janet's analysis of how Rowling laid her set-ups into the story will be useful as instruction on "how to do it"
THE
SOCIOPATH NEXT DOOR,
by Martha Stout
Most material available to the general public which deals with sociopaths tends to cover killers. Stout's book does not. And by doing that, she opens up a whole landscape that most of us avoid looking at. Far more people dwell amongst us who are sociopaths and yet are not murderers (serial or otherwise). They are people we try to excuse for various reasons, because we dislike acknowledging that some people have no conscience, who take pleasure in doing harm to others.
Stout leads the reader through examples of sociopathic behavior that stays below the level of homicide. But reading this book can open your eyes to the reality that can lie behind certain personalities. When you find yourself saying of someone's bad behavior, "I can't believe he did that! Again! Won't he ever learn?" you might consider the factors Stout illuminates in this book.
FICTION
THE
IRON GHOST – written by Chuck Dixon, art by Sergio Cariello &
Flint Henry
In this graphic novel, we're plunged into a mystery during the fall of Nazi Germany. It's Berlin in 1945, as the city crumbles under air assaults & the Nazi regime collapses. Two German police detectives try to solve a string of murders.
Dixon pulls out an unusual setting for his story, and challenges the usual practice of making all WW II Germans "evil." The detectives are not invested in the survival of the Nazi party; they are just trying to do their job, like good cops the world over. Cariello & Henry deliver the goods in showing us the war-torn Berlin - crumbling, with the occasional spurts of explosions. Nazi officers scrambling to save their hides from the advancing Allies, a vengeful figure stalking those he has judged worthy of destruction, and a rumpled detective doggedly pursuing evidence of murders in the worst of circumstances.
It's a fine, unusual read, with engaging and striking artwork. Check it out.
BIRDS
OF PREY: OLD FRIENDS, NEW ENEMIES, by Chuck Dixon, Greg Land, Drew Geraci
This volume contains the stories (the original one-shot and a mini-series, with some additional stories) that launched the monthly title that recently passed its 100 issues mark.
Black Canary, crimefighter, was at loose ends, without direction, when Oracle (Barbara Gordon, former Batgirl) contacted her with an offer of activity. The partnership and friendship that grows between the two women can be found in subsequent volumes of the series. But this volume gives you their beginnings as a team.
Chuck Dixon writes women with the different voices and attitudes that real women have. These two women do not exist to gratify male expectations: they are forces in their own right. A refreshing change in a field where many female characters seem to exist only for a cheesecake factor.
(Also check out the volumes written by Gail Simone. She expands the team, bringing additional variety to the adventures. Her stories continue the great storytelling tradition Dixon began.)
CORDELIA'S
HONOR, by Lois McMaster Bujold
This compilation volume contains the "beginning" of the Miles Volkosigan Saga. The qualifications comes from the fact that the various stories of the Saga were not written in chronological order. But the contents here deal with how the parents of Miles met and established their relationship.
Cordelia meets Aral at a time when they are on opposite sides of an interplanetary conflict. But in spite of that political context, the pair achieve a meeting of minds and respect that was more powerful than the elements which tried to separate them. And yes, there was also a sexual attraction.
Cordelia takes her fate into her own hands and strikes out to reach what she desires: to be with Aral. Her matter-of-fact, no-nonsense character makes her very appealing to read about. She doesn't care for convention and isn't particularly concerned about the opinions of others. She works at being just and fair to all, but has a ruthlessness about matters that alarms those who love social rules and rituals.
I like her.
Bujold seems to have an affection for writing about intrigues and manouverings. But she keeps the reader engaged in the whole activity.
LIONS,
TIGERS AND BEARS, by Mike Bullock & Jack Lawrence
Bullock launches into a series for the young and the young at heart with Volume 1: "Fear and Pride". Perhaps there is nothing new in the concept of children drawn into the fantasy world of their toys. Yet Bullock makes it fresh and engaging.
From the beginning, when young Joey is given a set of special stuffed toys by his grandmother, any reader can understand his feelings. Everyone has felt those insecurities that cause us to cling to the special toy, if only for a moment. Bullock accesses that immediacy easily,and Lawrence's art captures the situations and characters with a delightful and unthreatening grace.
This first volume brings Joey (and the Reader) the lessons of dealing with fear and learning to work with others. You will love the Pride and be charmed by at least one of the quartet - Minerva, Venus, Pallo and Ares. There may be monsters and demons under the bed, coming to get you. But the Pride is watching and guarding.