Author Memoir Reading List
Want to be in a book club with me? A book club about the lives of authors?
I love reading craft technique books, but I am getting to that point where they don't go as far as they used to. I follow several writers, authors, and creative thinkers who all have a habit of reading creator or author memoirs. What the method does is teach you how to think like a novelist and incorporate practices and habits that go beyond simple techniques to tell a good story.
The way authors create and think is a technique in itself. When I explain a story idea's life and creation to another writer and vice versa, there's always small amazement how the connections happen.
When most people talk about author memoirs or craft memoirs, they always talk about On Writing by Stephen King. It’s a short book that talks about the rise of the King of Horror and what he’s learned along the way. The problem is, King thinks like a basic white guy. There aren’t many “revelations” or knockout moments in the book.
That isn’t to say the book isn’t a thrill to read, like all accounts of a writer making it big—it’s inspiring, but it’s not helpful. A part of me thinks it’s because he tried to make it helpful without thinking about the people he was and would be helping.
But what do I know?
Well, I know what I liked and what helped me:
The craft memoir that helped me the way On Writing is portrayed as helping others was Charles Johnston's Way of the Writer. That taught me how to LIVE as a writer. There were craft techniques embedded, but more than anything it talked about how to be a decent person and writer while making your life in a creative world.
The Writing Skins Author Memoir Book Club
Have you wanted a low pressure book club that exposes you to new authors and thinkers? Is there any part of you that’s always wanted to know how Murakami wound up those birds? Or how Bradbury illustrated a man while crafting a whole country for October??
Let’s explore these writers and more and how they crafted their careers, novels, and characters. Us together, reading through the lives of authors we love, hate, and admire. Then talking about what fascinated us, what changed us.
My hope is that together we can learn and discuss some fun and interesting things about authors who have written stories we love or hated. And maybe it’ll help me and some people see the world in a new way.
The list of memoirs so far:
A Writer's Diary by Virginia WoolfConsider This by Chuck PalahniukWhat I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
My personal plan is to read all 30 of these books between 2024 and 2025, but I figured I’d keep things manageable by us only reading 12 of those together. One book a month for the year of 2024. One book to show us something new.
So, before we start, I want to hear from the people interested in joining. How does this reading list sound? Are there authors or books you're especially interested in reading?
Is there a writer's memoir you want to include?
Let me know in the comments or by responding to this email!
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