Talebones Weekly
The Three Books That Changed My (Writing) Life
Dear Reader…
In this inaugural post, I would love to welcome you again to Talebones! Thank you for being among the first to join our little fiction-loving community here, and I’m so excited to share my work with you!
Here on the Talebones homepage you’ll find missives like this one, along with musings on the creative journey, writerly updates, and maybe even some flash fiction or occasional exercises based on prompts from across the Substack landscape. These posts are always FREE to read and will not be Archived, so you can come back to them anytime without a paid subscription.
I am your humble hostess, S.E. Reid. I’ve been writing ever since I was old enough to gnaw on a pencil, and telling stories is my passion. Those who follow me over on The Wildroot Parables (my nonfiction/poetry newsletter) already know a bit about me, my faith, and my lifestyle, but I don’t talk much over there about my thoughts on storytelling and my general ethos as a fiction writer, so I thought this would be the perfect place to do so.
Over time, I plan to go deeper into detail in these posts about some of the things I believe about writing fiction, including the benefits of exploring darker themes (yes, even as a Christian), and I may even use books and movies that I’ve read or seen recently to talk about storytelling mechanics. If you ever have a certain topic you would like to hear my thoughts on, feel free to drop it in the comments! I love to “talk shop” about stories and storytelling, and I feel that these kinds of conversations are good for the creative brain.
But for this introductory post, I’m going to share Three Books That Changed My Life as a writer. These are the books that I return to again and again, always finding new things to learn within their pages…
On Writing by Stephen King. It’s a classic for a reason! King uses bits and pieces of memoir to explain his journey as a successful writer, along with simple and practical tips for improving your craft. Before reading this book I had never read a “how to write” book by a writer I had actually heard of. This book should be on every writer’s reading list, whether you’re a King fan or not!
Mystery & Manners by Flannery O’Connor. In this collection of essays published after her death, O’Connor explains her philosophy of writing, her disdain for the way the craft of storytelling is often taught (especially in schools), and how her deep Catholic faith informs her writing, especially in her more “grotesque” fiction. And her incisive wit and bluntness add serious humor to the whole. If I could tattoo the contents of this book all over my arms, I would. I come back to it again and again and again.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. It often surprises people to hear this, but this is my favorite novel of all time. In contrast to its reputation as a violent and distasteful story (thanks in large part to the Kubrick movie adaptation, which cuts out important chunks of the book), Burgess’s novel is about free will, the true nature of good and evil, and—surprisingly—redemption, no matter how impossible it seems. It’s not an easy read, but it’s a very good one.
So, those are my Three Books that Changed My (Writing) Life, but now I want to hear from YOU!
What books changed YOUR life, either as a reader or a writer?
Let us know in the comments below!
Yeh! I'm excited for this Substack. My Christian faith informs a lot of my media choices and how I view the world, but I find what forces me to understand the whole context of humanity from someone else's viewpoint is reading books that are not expressly faith based. I guess the ones I gravitate toward involve characters thrown into extreme duress when faced with their end. I Am Legend, The Day of the Triffids, The Mist (novella), Phantoms... in some sense all apocalyptic, although I'm not necessarily looking for that. Oddly enough I don't have a favorite book that changed my life 🤔
The books of Carlos Castaneda sent me on a path that I both continue on and diverge from to this day. I haven't read all his works, but I did devour his early books when I was in my twenties.
Books that affected my writing life are probably too numerous to mention, but For Whom The Bell Tolls, Heart of Darkness, and The Grapes of Wrath stand out.