Venetia & Other Recommendations

Right. Friday. Back at work this morning, teaching a two-hour tutorial on Georgette Heyer’s Venetia and writing craft.

It’s interesting teaching the same books two years in a row, because I can see the impact current craft interests have on the way I read. For instance, reading John Truby’s The Anatomy of Story over the last year kept me looking for the ways Venetia’s subplots serve as echoes of the central conflict, and gave me a new appreciation for the way she’s surrounded by people who are perceived but not really seen by others.

Similarly, after reading Damon Suede’s Verbalize while sitting by Dad’s hospital bed, I kept paying attention to transitive verbs and the way they build the narrative (If you’ve not heard Suede talking Pride and Prejudice on a podcast, google his name and track down one of his interviews with Joanna Penn or Kobo Writing Life about the book).

And because I’ve been immersed in Kenneth Quinn’s How Literature Works for a good stretch, I’ve been thinking about the ways that my own experiences as a reader keep bringing these things into the field of significant associations that impact on the way I’m reading. How each new book affects what’s read next, how opportunities to think give me the space to approach a text with a different mindset that may change the meanings perceived.

All four books are worth a read, although the Quinn is difficult to track down these days courtesy of being out of print.