Is this the quintessential book on how to write? Three chapters

>Three chapters in and i already feel miles ahead of most /lit/ posters.
>and i already
>i

>>9920884
>fanfics
This board has ONE rule and you're breaking it.

>>9920867
Did Araki really write a book about how to create manga?
Are their copies online?

>>9920891
omg i'm so sorry anon.
Still though I still would like to know if that books good or only for manga?

>>9920887
is thair a mistake?

>>9920900
Ja, nine.

>>9920892
1. No, it's just a meem.
2. Yes there are.

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>>9920867
IS THAT FUCKING BRAZIL'S "COAT OF ARMS"?!

>>9920912
plz provide link

>>9921007
Go scrounge through the /ic/ archives. Thats how i found it.

>>9920972
Do decent books on how to write actually exist?

>>9921678
Don't know why i replied to that anon.

No it isn't, but a lot of writers can learn a lot from Araki and manga in general, especially novelists.

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>>9921678

Not really - or at least, not beyond a beginner's level. Maybe "On Writing" can cover a bit, maybe books about story and dramatization. But it's much like music composition and drawing and any other art: they can teach some guidelines, but it only takes you so far. You have to get intuition and taste, and the easiest way is to read and write a lot, which negates the need for a "how to." Might as well read your favorite book and think about the best/worst parts of it.

Books like "Manga In Theory And Practice" are actually more interesting to me because they're not about pure writing. Same with books about how musicians and painters work. It gives you a different angle.

>>9922369
I would disagree with this, a book that explains how to desonstruct an image will shaves years off your art journey.

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>>9922369

Sure. But I'm assuming the anon's question is about craft and style more than critique and deconstruction. And I haven't found a book yet that can do it in the general. In the particular, e.g. deconstructing images/symbolism, or about "how to read" like Mortimer Adler, sure. We have entire philosophies around that.

There's plenty of art books about perspective and form. There's good music theory books on topics like counterpoint. But writing on writing? What's a generally regarded book that's not named "Elements of Style?"

>>9922546

Meant to quote >>9922438

>>9922369
>>9922546
Then what are some adequate ones on 'the basics'? I'm not really a writer myself, but i am curious.

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>>9922599

>Elements of Style - Strunk
>On Writing - Stein
>On Writing - King
>Zen in the Art of Writing - Bradbury
>The Writing Life - Dillard
>The Situation and the Story - Gornick

And maybe others more craft-centric like McKee's "Story" or maybe "Save the Cat" if you want to do genre writing. Maybe something like "The Rhetoric of Fiction." Maybe Gardner's "On Becoming A Novelist." Jim Butcher, John Scalzi, and Orson Scott Card have a bunch of notes on how to write. DFW had syllabi and class notes. Nabokov talks about style, in an idiosyncratic way. James Bloom talks about a narrow definition of great novels in two separate books.

Art of fiction is well regarded here

Araki is genuinely one of the great creative geniuses of our time, at least of comics and manga. His distinct mannerism and philosophy of "forgetting" what he writes is refreshingly unique, even if his writing has its warts because of it.

>>9922661
>On Writing - King
That's awful though.

that cover is almost lovecraftian wtf

>>9921678
donald maass

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>>9922599
Suggested for short stories:
>"Notes on Writing Weird Fiction" by H. P. Lovecraft

For constructing a solid basic novel and avoiding shitty pitfalls:
>"How Not to write a novel" by Mittelmark & Newman
>"How to write a damn good novel" by James N. Frey
>"How to write a damn good novel II" by James N. Frey
>"Self-editing for fiction writers" by Browne & King

For writing poetry:
>"The ode less travelled" by Stephen Fry

"Motivational" whatever:
>"Zen in the art of writing" by Raymond Bradbury
>"On writing" by Stephen King

Academic procrastination:
>"The hero with 1000 faces" by Joseph Campbell
>"The golden bough" by George Frazer
>"The morphology of the folktale" by Vladimir Propp
>"The art of fiction" by J. Gardner
>"The book of legendary lands" by Umberto Eco
>""The elements of style" Strunk & White

Autismal worldbuilding procrastination:
>"The language construction kit" by M. Rosenfelder
>"The planet construction kit" by M. Rosenfelder

Actively avoid:
>"The writer's journey" by C. Vogler
>"How to books" anything with a logo that looks like pic related.

For anything of genuine worth:
>Be a naturally good writer, work hard at it and read widely.

That last one is the most important. Read and write a lot and actually think about how the text you're looking at is constructed as you do - you'll notice that the billion-word ridiculous fanfiction shit that gets written never really improves and this is because they're not reading other things and they're not really thinking about the text itself.

>>9920867
Yes

You thought this would be an insightful post... but it was I, Dio!

>>9922438
I'll be honest with you, I've both given and taken art history courses during the years and those books create a very limited spectator, I'd rather teach someone from the ground up than some dolt who read The Taschen Book of Art or some shit.

>>9925760
Sounds comfy. Can I get a recommended reading list on art and aesthetics?

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The reason why Jojo works and is so popular is because Araki is good at writing puzzles.
Everything from part 3 onward is a puzzle situation

>this guy has a stand
>stand has X, Y, Z powers, it must respect this set of rules
>try to beat the stand user within these limitations

It's a puzzle, a riddle, it's a "here's a problem, try to solve it" type of situation presented to you in quick sequence.
Everyone, including me, loves this approach when writing an action focused manga, because it shifts the focus from just punching shit, to slowing down, figuring shit down, and -then- punching it.

Another manga that uses this approach is Hunter x Hunter (actually HxH is way more pratician in terms of narrative, structure, and how the author develops it for reasons that are too long to explain here, all you need to know is that the author has infinite money and time so he basically does whatever the fuck he wants with it with no deadlines or pressure whatsoever).

The only real problem with Araki is that he writes himself in a corner and has to use some deus ex machina bullshit to unfuck some situations.
He doesn't do this ALL the time, regardless of what some of his detractors might tell you, but he does it quite a bit, enough for it to clearly be a problem and a big limitation in how he develops his situations.

A puzzle isn't fun to solve if your solution is just to grab a hammer and smash it.

>>9920867
It's a good start.

>>9922661
>>9924326
Cheers.

>>9927099
I'm sorry my dude, didn't see your reply, hope you're still here.
Intro stuff:
Herbert Read has a lot of good introductory material on art as a whole.
Gombrich's History of Art (or Story idk about the english name and can't be bothered to check right now, sorry)
Benedetto Croce - Aesthetic: As Science of Expression and General Linguistic
Heinrich Wolfflin - Principles of Art History (people tend to take these three books to the letter, but I suggest against it, specially Wolflin)
Eco - Open Work and Apocalypse Postponed
Has Belting - After the End of Art and Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image before the Era of Art (but anything by him, really)
I strongly suggest you get at least a anthology of german aesthetics (Baumgarten, Winckellman, Kant, Goethe, etc.) as well, though I don't know about any in english

my jam right now:
Georges Didi-Hubermann's book on Aby Warburg
Lionello Venturi - Storia della Critica d'Arte
Walter Benjamin's writings on art.

>>9920867
lmao I love jojo but araki is the worst writer I know, it's part of what makes jojo so quirky and good

>needing a how to guide for writing
>needing someone else to tell you how to do something you should be able to intuit on your own through prolific reading and writing ad nauseam until you find your own style naturally

You're gonna be like all those musicians who never bothered to jam or write terrible music with friends. You will have sound technique and an essential understanding of theory, but you will lack any kind of imagination, creativity, and forget completely originality or novelty.

There is no shortcut to do anything well. There are ways to practice more efficiently, and that is it.

Starting reading and writing more things. Continue doing that until what you produce isn't hot garbage. If you can't tell the difference between bad and good writing, keep reading things until you're disgusted by the opening paragraphs of most books because of how lazy, vapid, and derivative the writing itself is, and then right things that don't instantly disgust you. You'll probably be okay.

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>>9921678
Aristotle's Poetics

>>9922985
On Writing is actually the only good thing Stephen King ever wrote.

>>9920867
You tell me OP

>>9929636
>>9929636
>Implying he wrote anything good lol

>>9929531
delete this.

>>9929590
Anything else?