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orsuros's review
4.0
This was a fun book and made me think about some things in writing and stories in new ways.
krgreen's review against another edition
5.0
Resonance within writing isn't a new thing; but actively thinking about it, labelling it and directly including it in your writing might be.
This book uses well-known examples to explain how resonance can help your work connect with readers; I particularly found it interesting how Tolkien used his languages to create resonance, evoking other people/things through use of similar name patterns. Even though I couldn't get through LOTR, I read the Hobbit and am a Fantasy reader, which made enough of the content accessible to me, despite not knowing every example. Although he focuses a lot on Tolkien, Farland even points to more modern books, explaining how they have resonance with Tolkien's books; showing how the comments can apply to other works.
Although resonance is something we understand subconsciously, and I certainly found I already use some of these techniques instinctively. And that's what makes this book so unique - it puts that instinct into a formula, into something that can be studied and understood.
If you're looking for something beyond the "how to plot" writing book, I'd recommend this: Five stars.
This book uses well-known examples to explain how resonance can help your work connect with readers; I particularly found it interesting how Tolkien used his languages to create resonance, evoking other people/things through use of similar name patterns. Even though I couldn't get through LOTR, I read the Hobbit and am a Fantasy reader, which made enough of the content accessible to me, despite not knowing every example. Although he focuses a lot on Tolkien, Farland even points to more modern books, explaining how they have resonance with Tolkien's books; showing how the comments can apply to other works.
Although resonance is something we understand subconsciously, and I certainly found I already use some of these techniques instinctively. And that's what makes this book so unique - it puts that instinct into a formula, into something that can be studied and understood.
If you're looking for something beyond the "how to plot" writing book, I'd recommend this: Five stars.
ssp_amax's review against another edition
4.0
This was a wonderful short read about what Farland calls 'resonance' in literature. From what Farland explains, I gather that this idea of resonance in writing can be simplified to literary inspiration. Farland makes a great case of proving that by using Tolkien as an example and showing how other works influenced or inspired him to create his masterpiece [b:The Lord of the Rings|33|The Lord of the Rings|J.R.R. Tolkien|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1566425108l/33._SX50_.jpg|3462456]. As for 'internal resonance,' Farland explains how themes and plotlines can echo one another within the same piece of writing, creating an effect of familiarity for the reader. All in all, this little book held a lot of information that might seem to be common sense at first, but is nevertheless important to put down on paper and to explore. This idea is worth thinking about when starting out as an aspiring writer.
publius's review against another edition
4.0
Writing about a book on writing is perhaps an odd challenge. On the one hand, I read the book because I wanted to become a better writer. On the other hand, I'm reviewing the book, telling where the author (of a book on writing, if you recall) has succeeded or failed at their attempt.
Fortunately, I face no such problems with [a:David Farland|83308|David Farland|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1363272708p2/83308.jpg]'s [b:Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing|17192946|Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing|David Farland|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1370455567s/17192946.jpg|23653321]. Indeed, there is little I can say to criticize the bite-sized book. In a short time, it has become one of my favorite selections on the writing, one to which I expect I will return again and again in coming years.
A book on writing by a famous writer seems almost cliché. A few pull it off with great success (think [b:On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft|10569|On Writing A Memoir of the Craft|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388192403s/10569.jpg|150292] by [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg]), for a more obvious example), while others (which, perhaps, need no mention at all) fail miserably to be little more than regurgitation of typical advice mixed with anecdotes from the writers own career.
Farland's books on writing (I'm reading another of his, also, albeit slower as I try to apply it) are spot on, and this one is fast, to the point, and full of relevant examples. Farland's thesis is that by writing using what resonates with readers--what's already out there in their in the ether, so to speak--writers can pull readers in faster and with more success than by inventing something from scratch. While he cites many examples, the one that he draws on most liberally is that of [a:J.R.R. Tolkein|8086189|J.R.R. Tolkein|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-a7c55399ea455530473b9f9e4da94c40.png]. Tolkein's use of imagery, language, setting, and plot delved deep into readers' subconsciousness and resonated with them in ways they may not have explicitly noticed.
In turn, nearly every successful fantasy since has built on the foundation that Tolkein built, and it is to him that most look for the template. Even [a:Robert Jordan|6252|Robert Jordan|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1175475715p2/6252.jpg]'s fourteen volume Wheel of Time series, opening with [b:The Eye of the World|228665|The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1)|Robert Jordan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337818095s/228665.jpg|2008238], draws on scenes, characters, and even creature names (to say nothing of maps and place names) that are more than reminiscent of Tolkein.
And there's nothing wrong with it, says Farland. On the contrary, finding what resonates with your target audience, and writing it into your fiction is his recommendation.
It's a fascinating suggestion, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that while Farland may be laying it out in new terms, it's not unlike what any professor of literature might suggest in a survey course of fiction through the ages. [a:Thomas C. Foster|11550|Thomas C. Foster|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1249516675p2/11550.jpg]'s [b:How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines|39933|How to Read Literature Like a Professor A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines|Thomas C. Foster|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402455700s/39933.jpg|39635] is an example that comes to mind. It's the best writers that are able to use what we believe and see in the world, draw on common symbols and events, and weave them together into a new story, or in a new setting, or with new problems. It's not plagiarism, but something more: creation, using the fabric of our experience.
As [a:Oscar Wilde|3565|Oscar Wilde|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1357460488p2/3565.jpg]might summarize it, "Good writers borrow. Great writers steal." Resonance, says Farland, is just that. It's drawing on what's already there--whether you want to call that borrowing or outright theft--to create a story that readers feel deeper than the words on the page, rooted in experience and knowledge they bring to the story before they even open the book.
If you want your story to last, make it resonate.
Fortunately, I face no such problems with [a:David Farland|83308|David Farland|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1363272708p2/83308.jpg]'s [b:Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing|17192946|Drawing on the Power of Resonance in Writing|David Farland|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1370455567s/17192946.jpg|23653321]. Indeed, there is little I can say to criticize the bite-sized book. In a short time, it has become one of my favorite selections on the writing, one to which I expect I will return again and again in coming years.
A book on writing by a famous writer seems almost cliché. A few pull it off with great success (think [b:On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft|10569|On Writing A Memoir of the Craft|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388192403s/10569.jpg|150292] by [a:Stephen King|3389|Stephen King|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1362814142p2/3389.jpg]), for a more obvious example), while others (which, perhaps, need no mention at all) fail miserably to be little more than regurgitation of typical advice mixed with anecdotes from the writers own career.
Farland's books on writing (I'm reading another of his, also, albeit slower as I try to apply it) are spot on, and this one is fast, to the point, and full of relevant examples. Farland's thesis is that by writing using what resonates with readers--what's already out there in their in the ether, so to speak--writers can pull readers in faster and with more success than by inventing something from scratch. While he cites many examples, the one that he draws on most liberally is that of [a:J.R.R. Tolkein|8086189|J.R.R. Tolkein|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-a7c55399ea455530473b9f9e4da94c40.png]. Tolkein's use of imagery, language, setting, and plot delved deep into readers' subconsciousness and resonated with them in ways they may not have explicitly noticed.
In turn, nearly every successful fantasy since has built on the foundation that Tolkein built, and it is to him that most look for the template. Even [a:Robert Jordan|6252|Robert Jordan|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1175475715p2/6252.jpg]'s fourteen volume Wheel of Time series, opening with [b:The Eye of the World|228665|The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1)|Robert Jordan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337818095s/228665.jpg|2008238], draws on scenes, characters, and even creature names (to say nothing of maps and place names) that are more than reminiscent of Tolkein.
And there's nothing wrong with it, says Farland. On the contrary, finding what resonates with your target audience, and writing it into your fiction is his recommendation.
It's a fascinating suggestion, and the more I think about it, the more I realize that while Farland may be laying it out in new terms, it's not unlike what any professor of literature might suggest in a survey course of fiction through the ages. [a:Thomas C. Foster|11550|Thomas C. Foster|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1249516675p2/11550.jpg]'s [b:How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines|39933|How to Read Literature Like a Professor A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines|Thomas C. Foster|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1402455700s/39933.jpg|39635] is an example that comes to mind. It's the best writers that are able to use what we believe and see in the world, draw on common symbols and events, and weave them together into a new story, or in a new setting, or with new problems. It's not plagiarism, but something more: creation, using the fabric of our experience.
As [a:Oscar Wilde|3565|Oscar Wilde|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1357460488p2/3565.jpg]might summarize it, "Good writers borrow. Great writers steal." Resonance, says Farland, is just that. It's drawing on what's already there--whether you want to call that borrowing or outright theft--to create a story that readers feel deeper than the words on the page, rooted in experience and knowledge they bring to the story before they even open the book.
If you want your story to last, make it resonate.
wandering_not_lost's review against another edition
1.0
Got this book through StoryBundle, and I'm glad I didn't pay more for it. The book's advice struck me as self-evident and the author's voice pretentious right from the start. The author describes how he flabbergasted a group of writers when he said that "resonance" is the most important thing in writing and they didn't know what he meant. The reason they didn't know what he meant is that no one else uses "resonance" the way he used it. If he'd said "you need to give your readers something familiar enough to hook them but novel enough to be interesting", they would have gone "well, of course."
That was my feeling through most of this book: well, of course. The author spends all of the book going through example after example of ways that you can make your writing familiar to the reader by calling back to famous works, to universal life experiences, and to genre-specific vocabulary that your readers will expect. The main point is that you want to have many points of similarity between your work and other works or events that your reader is likely to have experienced. The author goes on for many pages about how Tolkien does this in his work. The author states several times, "and authors often do this subconsciously!" Well,...of course they do! We live in a world where we ourselves are influenced by fiction, movies, art, and societal culture! ANYTHING WE DO NECESSARILY CALLS BACK TO OUR EXPERIENCES. It left me feeling like the author was telling everyone to do something they'd do anyway.
And my main beef with the book is that the author is telling people to do many things that it's very easy to do WRONG. In fact, I'd argue that most books DO NOT NEED more resonance than the authors would likely put in out of the box. If anything, they need LESS. It's easy to be SO SIMILAR to other things that your work does not offer anything new or original to drown out the hundred pages of Yet Another Hero arriving at (usually his) school and making Two Good Friends and One Horrible Enemy. I haven't read any of the author's work, so I don't know if he falls into the trap of writing things that I would label "more of the same, yawn", but he didn't give the reader any pointers about how to be original while still using familiar elements. I felt the book needed a "How Not to Sound Like Everyone Else" chapter rather desperately, and the fact that the author didn't think one necessary made me leery.
I get the feeling the author's view of a good story is different than mine. In fact, the dissonance between what I want to read and what he wanted people to write was so high that when he was giving examples of plots that he insisted would just NOT work, because they're too Out There...I actually thought those plots sounded pretty neat and interesting. Why? Because I'm tired of reading the same Hero's Journey with the same handful of archetypes in the Hero Seat over and over again. And that was what the author was telling the reader to emulate. Yawn.
That was my feeling through most of this book: well, of course. The author spends all of the book going through example after example of ways that you can make your writing familiar to the reader by calling back to famous works, to universal life experiences, and to genre-specific vocabulary that your readers will expect. The main point is that you want to have many points of similarity between your work and other works or events that your reader is likely to have experienced. The author goes on for many pages about how Tolkien does this in his work. The author states several times, "and authors often do this subconsciously!" Well,...of course they do! We live in a world where we ourselves are influenced by fiction, movies, art, and societal culture! ANYTHING WE DO NECESSARILY CALLS BACK TO OUR EXPERIENCES. It left me feeling like the author was telling everyone to do something they'd do anyway.
And my main beef with the book is that the author is telling people to do many things that it's very easy to do WRONG. In fact, I'd argue that most books DO NOT NEED more resonance than the authors would likely put in out of the box. If anything, they need LESS. It's easy to be SO SIMILAR to other things that your work does not offer anything new or original to drown out the hundred pages of Yet Another Hero arriving at (usually his) school and making Two Good Friends and One Horrible Enemy. I haven't read any of the author's work, so I don't know if he falls into the trap of writing things that I would label "more of the same, yawn", but he didn't give the reader any pointers about how to be original while still using familiar elements. I felt the book needed a "How Not to Sound Like Everyone Else" chapter rather desperately, and the fact that the author didn't think one necessary made me leery.
I get the feeling the author's view of a good story is different than mine. In fact, the dissonance between what I want to read and what he wanted people to write was so high that when he was giving examples of plots that he insisted would just NOT work, because they're too Out There...I actually thought those plots sounded pretty neat and interesting. Why? Because I'm tired of reading the same Hero's Journey with the same handful of archetypes in the Hero Seat over and over again. And that was what the author was telling the reader to emulate. Yawn.
londonmabel's review against another edition
3.0
The amount of material is more appropriate for a long article, I think, than a whole book. But it was still worth reading and thinking over.
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