Writing about writing about writing: The index

suttopeApril 16, 2021August 26, 2025General, Uncategorized, WritingWriting

I’ve been doing this review process for almost a year. The first post was back in June 2020. In that time I’ve reviewed just less than 100 books and mentioned a further 30 on the shelves. A friendly reader asked me to include an index so here we go:

Book	Rating	Type	WAWAW
Elements of Style	keep	How to English	1
The Transitive Vampire	keep	How to English	1
The well-tempered sentence	keep	How to English	1
Complete Plain words	discard	How to English	2
Sin and Syntax	keep	How to English	2
Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch	keep	How to English	2
Exercises in Style	keep	How to English	3
Contemporary Essays in Style	discard	How to English	3
The Anatomy of Prose	discard	How to English	3
On Writing Well	discard	How to English	3
The Strategy of Style	keep	How to English	3
Style	keep	How to English	3
How to write a sentence	keep	How to English	4
Several Short Sentences about Writing	keep	How to English	4
Building Great Sentences	keep	How to English	4
Eloquence	keep	How to English	4
Metaphors we live by	discard	How to English	5
Introducing Metaphor	discard	How to English	5
Poetic Diction	discard	How to English	5
History in English Words	discard	How to English	5
Poetry in the Making	keep	Poetry	6
How to be a Poet	keep	Poetry	6
The Poet’s Handbook	discard	Poetry	6
The Ode less travelled	keep	Poetry	6
Reading Like a Writer	discard	Nuts & Bolts	7
Understanding Novels	discard	Nuts & Bolts	7
The Bestseller Code	keep	Nuts & Bolts	8
Understanding Ficton	keep	Nuts & Bolts	8
The Making of a Story	keep	Nuts & Bolts	9
Aspects of the Novel	discard	Nuts & Bolts	9
Classical Literary Criticism	discard	Nuts & Bolts	9
Writing in the Dark	keep	Nuts & Bolts	a slight detour
Writing Horror Fiction	discard	Nuts & Bolts	a slight detour
How to write a CYOA book	discard	Nuts & Bolts	a slight detour
The Art of Editing	keep	Nuts & Bolts	a slight detour
Techniques of the Selling Writer	keep	Nuts & Bolts	10
Writing 21st Century Fiction	discard	Nuts & Bolts	10
The Organised Writer	keep	Golden Parachutes	10
Writing Interactive Fiction	discard	Nuts & Bolts	10
The Emotional Craft of Fiction	discard	Nuts & Bolts	11
Save the Cat writes a novel	keep	Nuts & Bolts	11
release the bats	discard	Nuts & Bolts	11
Monkeys with Typewriters	discard	Nuts & Bolts	12
Consider this	keep	Nuts & Bolts	13
The art of subtext	discard	Nuts & Bolts	13
The art of description	discard	Nuts & Bolts	13
The art of character	discard	Nuts & Bolts	13
Creating characters	keep	Nuts & Bolts	13
Dialogue	keep	Nuts & Bolts	15
The Writer’s Journey	discard	Nuts & Bolts	14
Story	keep	Nuts & Bolts	14
Damn Fine Story	keep	Nuts & Bolts	14
Narrative Design	keep	Nuts & Bolts	14
Meander, Spiral, Explode	keep	Nuts & Bolts	15
Story Trumps Structure	keep	Nuts & Bolts	15
Becoming a Writer	discard	On Mount Olympus	15
If you want to write	keep	On Mount Olympus	15
The writing Life	keep	On Mount Olympus	15
How to be your own literary agent	keep	Golden Parachutes	15
Editors on Editing	keep	Nuts & Bolts	15
Out on the wire	keep	Nuts & Bolts	15
Creating Short Fiction	keep	Nuts & Bolts	16
Writing Down the Bones	discard	On Mount Olympus	16
Bird by Bird	discard	On Mount Olympus	16
On Becoming a Novelist	discard	On Mount Olympus	16
The Art of Fiction	discard	Nuts & Bolts	16
Word Work	keep	On Mount Olympus	17
The writers book of doubt	keep	On Mount Olympus	17
How to write SF&F	discard	Nuts & Bolts	18
How to write tales of horror, F &SF	discard	Nuts & Bolts	18
Writers workshop of horror	keep	Nuts & Bolts	18
Where Nightmares come from	keep	Nuts & Bolts	18
Environmental & Nature writing	keep	Nuts & Bolts	18
Pocket Workshop	keep	Nuts & Bolts	19
The 38 most common mistakes	keep	Nuts & Bolts	19
The last draft	keep	Nuts & Bolts	19
Fiction first aid	keep	Nuts & Bolts	19
Revising fiction	keep	Nuts & Bolts	19
Self-editing for fiction writers	keep	Nuts & Bolts	19
What editors do	keep	Nuts & Bolts	19
Graphic Storytelliing and visual narrative	keep	Nuts & Bolts	20
comics and sequential art	keep	Nuts & Bolts	20
Understanding comics	keep	Nuts & Bolts	20
making comics	keep	Nuts & Bolts	20
Drawing Words & Writing Pictures	keep	Nuts & Bolts	20
Mastering comics	keep	Nuts & Bolts	21
Words for pictures	discard	Nuts & Bolts	21
the art of comic book writing	keep	Nuts & Bolts	21

writing comics	keep	Nuts & Bolts	21
The Art of Dramatic Writing	discard	Nuts & Bolts	22
The Dramatist’s Toolbox	discard	Nuts & Bolts	22
Solving your Script	discard	Nuts & Bolts	22
Screenplay	keep	Nuts & Bolts	22
The Screenwriter’s Workbook	keep	Nuts & Bolts	22
The Art of Plotting	keep	Nuts & Bolts	Pause
What If?	discard	Prompts and Exercises	23
How to write your first novel	discard	Nuts & Bolts	24
Points of View	keep	Nuts & Bolts	24
Improve your punctuation and grammar	discard	How to English	24
Before we get started	keep	On Mount Olympus	24
On Writing Fiction	keep	On Mount Olympus	24
Burning down the house	keep?	On Mount Olympus	24
The complete book of scriptwriting	keep?	Nuts & Bolts	24
Your story matters	keep	Nuts & Bolts	24
Writers Block and how to use it	keep	On Mount Olympus	24
The Writer as Artist	keep	Prompts and Exercises	24
How to write readable English	keep	Nuts & Bolts	25
The Writers mentor	keep	Nuts & Bolts	25
Deep writing	discard	Nuts & Bolts	25
Master Class	discard	Nuts & Bolts	25
Between the Lines	discard	Nuts & Bolts	25
The craft of the novel	discard	Mount Olympus	25
The Clockwork Muse	keep	Nuts & Bolts	26
Punk Publishing	keep	Golden Parachutes	26
The 9 Modern Day Muses	keep	Mount Olympus	26
Writing for Story	keep	Nuts & Bolts	26
On Connection	keep	Mount Olympus	27
Do I make myself clear	discard	How to English	27
Plot	discard	Nuts & Bolts	27
Negotiating with the dead	keep	Mount Olympus	27
By Cunning and Craft	discard	Nuts & Bolts	27
Making an Elephant	keep	Mount Olympus	27
Unstuck	keep	Mount Olympus	28
On Creativity and the Unconscious	keep	Mount Olympus	30
The Writer’s Crucible	keep	Mount Olympus	30
Art & Fear	keep	Mount Olympus	30
Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers	keep	Mount Olympus	30
Wen Fu	keep	Nuts & Bolts	30
From Where You Dream	keep	Nuts & Bolts	30
Cybertext	keep	Mount Olympus?	31
Still Writing	keep	Mount Olympus	31
The Creative Process	keep	Mount Olympus	32
Creators on Creating	keep	Mount Olympus	32
Hamlet on the Holodeck	keep	Mount Olympus	32
Electronic Literature	keep	Mount Olympus	32
Story Machines	keep	Mount Olympus	32
Tone	Discard	Nuts & Bolts	32
On Writing (Higgins)	Discard	Nuts & Bolts	33
Creative Demons	‘Discard’	Mount Olympus	33
Blueprints	Keep	Mount Olympus	34
The Gift	Keep	Mount Olympus	34
The Key to Creativity	Keep	Mount Olympus	34
Creativity and Taoism	Keep	Mount Olympus	34
Catching the Big Fish	Keep	Mount Olympus	34

Published by suttope

Pete W Sutton is a writer and editor. His two short story collections – A Tiding of Magpies and The Museum for Forgetting – were shortlisted for Best Collection in the British Fantasy Awards in 2017 & 2022 respectively. His novel – Seven Deadly Swords – was published by Grimbold Books. He has edited several short story anthologies and is the editor for the British Fantasy Society Horizons fiction magazine. View more posts

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