Ok forum members - your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go to the library, locate one book on writing theory, read it over holiday break, and tell us all what it said. Who dares to accept the challenge?!?

i accept it if u make me moderator for a day

let chaos reign supreme ^^

reccomend any good books?

"Those who serve no purpose, have no purpose"

Well, I just can''t seem to find the time to do anything. The only books I will be reading are on physics, social studies, math, and english (for school of course).

Actually I don''t have the ability to make you moderator for a day. I can certainly recommend a book though. What subjects are you interested in? Logic, semiotics, memes, narratology, classical poetics and catharthis theory ala Aristotle, reader-response criticism, myth analysis, fiction and the unconscious ala Freud and Jung, metafiction and self-referentialism, ...?

Do those books have pictures in them...

Seriously though, I wouldn''t have the patience to go through one of those books, unless I was purely interested in learning the theory.

Anyway, not to contradict what I said above, I would be interested in Myth and creative writing books that are "readable", so any recommendations?

*********-.o-**********

I''ve just finished "Writing for interactive media" by Samsel and Wimberley which was a good introduction. They say its a complete guide - which it isn''t. But as a starter in this area I found it had some useful ideas and it certainly taught me a lot.

quote: Original post by sunandshadow
Actually I don''t have the ability to make you moderator for a day. I can certainly recommend a book though. What subjects are you interested in? Logic, semiotics, memes, narratology, classical poetics and catharthis theory ala Aristotle, reader-response criticism, myth analysis, fiction and the unconscious ala Freud and Jung, metafiction and self-referentialism, ...?

This is actually all literary theory...not writing theory. They also have almost nothing to do with writing for interactive media, well except for maybe ''myth analysis'' and metafiction. Unless you''re asking for a headache, I wouldn''t recommend any of this reading to anyone. Well, unless you plan on pursuing graduate work in some aspect of literary studies.

If I may, I would highly recommend reading anything by Chris Crawford, anything by Joseph Campbell, and explore some of the reseach being undertaken by members of the MIT Media Lab and by Raymond Kurzweil. The latter two are more interesting if you''re interested in media communications theory, and while you''re at it you should pick up some McLuhan.

R.

I''ve been feeling under the weather lately. Feeling for what, you ask? Oh, I''m sorry. I thought you asked that. As I was saying, or rather, as I was about to say, I''ve been feeling odd. I would be inclined to see a doctor, except I''m not sure whether I''m really sick or not. Can anyone suggest a good metaphysician? :O

Jonathon

quote: "Mathematics are one of the fundamentaries of educationalizing our youths." -George W. Bush

"When a nation is filled with strife, then do patriots flourish." - Lao Tzu

Writting is not a problem to me, or something that I feel I should read about, instead I read books that would help sustain a plot like conspiracy theory books, scientific books on topics like Hyperspace (Michio Kaku''s Hyperspace is great), time travel (currently reading Clifford A. Pickover''s Time, a traveler''s guide), lately I have been also atracted to Tesla''s patents like Death rays, and others.

With the "Practical" knowledge of how some things are posible, and the reasons why some "forces" or "entities" dont want to give the world free unlimited power supply, you just need a character to uncover the plot as your story advances

Most of the responses on this thread read like entries to a comedy sketch.

"You Might be a Real Amateur if..."

* ...you think that learning a skill isn''t necessary for using that skill.

* ...you think "theory" never meets "practice".

* ...you think you know all there is to know.


Take the challenge sunandshadow presented. Broaden your horizons and your view on the world.

A good place to start is any of the "Writers Digest" books. Pick one up at your local library or bookstore (they''re cheap).

This is, after all, a forum about writing. Let''s try and treat it with a bit of respect and not assume we no longer have anything to learn.


DavidRM
Samu Games