In this bonus episode with Doug Fraser of the "Cozy Critters" podcast, we get Doug’s essential book recommendations for writers. Doug shares a collection of essays designed to inspire creativity, a guide to developing a bold and contemporary writing style, and one of his go-to resources on effective self-editing. We even get a "wild card" book that reveals the unexpected history of a familiar bird.
In this bonus episode with Doug Fraser of the "Cozy Critters" podcast, we get Doug’s essential book recommendations for writers. Doug shares a collection of essays designed to inspire creativity, a guide to developing a bold and contemporary writing style, and one of his go-to resources on effective self-editing. We even get a "wild card" book that reveals the unexpected history of a familiar bird.
Doug Fraser - https://www.facebook.com/doug.fraser.733
Doug's podcast - "Cozy Critters"
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[Computer-generated transcript]
Mignon:. Greetings, Grammarpaloozians. We are here with Doug Fraser, better known as Dougie Pickles from the Cozy Critters Podcast. And we did the main episode where we heard all sorts of interesting things about what sorts of storytelling are great for kids to keep them engaged, and because it's a sleep podcast to help ease them into sleep. But now we've got my favorite part of the show, which is the book recommendations. Doug, thanks so much for being here.
Doug: Thanks so much for having me.
Mignon: So what would you tell your best friends that are the books you just have to read?
Doug: Okay, this is a tough question. It's very tough. I have, I don't know how many thousands of books at the house, but I picked out a few that I think your audience will appreciate, and then I picked out a wild card. So
Mignon: Okay.
Doug: Number one is “Zen in the Art of Writing,” and these are essays on creativity by Ray Bradbury himself. Author of “Fahrenheit 451.”
Mignon: Nice.
Doug: It's an incredible collection of essays that if you're a writer, sometimes what happens is you get resistance to sitting down and actually doing the work of writing, right? We like to romanticize the idea of being a writer, and it becomes this, "I'll do it tomorrow, oh, I'll do it tomorrow."
This is the kind of book that you pick up and read, and immediately you want to go write. So for any writers out there, aspiring writers, or just anyone who loves writing in general or grammar, pick this book up for sure.
Mignon: Wonderful. I love Ray Bradbury. I didn't know he had a writing book, actually.
Doug: I didn't either. That came as a recommendation from another friend who's a big reader and a massive Ray Bradbury fan. And I hadn't read his work since I was probably in elementary school, but I read this, and his writing's incredible.
Mignon: Oh, I'm looking forward to that one.
Doug: That's a great one. So number two is “Spunk and Bite.” This is an amazing book by Arthur Plotnik. He has multiple books about the topic of writing, but this is a writer's guide to bold, contemporary style. And if you're watching this in video form, you can see I've got all of these tabs on the pages for everything that I've marked in the book. There are incredible things here about writing, but not just like getting the words out, but getting them out in a way that resonates with the audience, that makes them feel a little bit more poetic at times or sharper, or whatever you're looking for. Some of the contents that you can find in the book are about flexibility, freshness, texture, which is a great one, force, form, clarity, and, sorry, aerobatic and incandescent word choice.
Mignon: Oh my goodness. Well, yeah, I can tell by all those post-its that it is a much-loved book.
Doug: It's so good. You know, you have those books when you're writing, where sometimes you're like, "This word choice isn't doing it for me." Because I think it was, I forget who the author was who said this, but he said, "Word choice is the difference between lightning and lightning bug."
Mignon: Oh, that was Mark Twain.
Doug: Twain. That's it. So word choice is such an incredible thing because once you get structure down, then you can really start playing. Book three. This came as a mandatory reading when I was working at a publishing house, and I headed up the kids' book department for a little while. And this book is “Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.”
Mignon: Oh.
Doug: You know, sometimes it's hyperbolic to say, "Oh, this book changed my life," or "this did anything." I think this book really steered me in a brand new direction in a way that did change my life in terms of writing. And what happened is it made me realize that I could do it professionally because I was given all these incredible tools that improved my writing so quickly that it's like, "Wow, I could do this for a living."
So I highly recommend this. This is the second edition. I don't know if there's newer editions. When I bought this, it was almost 15 years ago, so it still stands. I have a special book selection next to my desk that are my go-to books for reference books, and this is one of them.
Mignon: Oh, that sounds great too. Yeah. Really timeless, thinking about self-editing.
Doug: Yes. And that's such an important thing too because you're oftentimes not going to have someone who either is able to read it or wants to read it, right? Because a lot of times when you're an early writer, it's like, "Hey, will you read my thing? Hey, will you do this thing?" You're probably asking your friends and your family, and what are they going to tell you?
They're going to be nice, number one. So it may not give you the feedback you want, but number two, they probably, or they may not have the professional level of feedback that you need to get better with everything you write. So being able to do self-editing is a huge tool for anyone, whether you're a professional writer or you just want to get better at texting.
Mignon: Yeah. Yeah. And as you said, you do with your scripts. Setting something aside for a little while, if you can, is just incredibly helpful when you're trying to edit yourself.
Doug: So important. The more that you are lost in the woods of the writing, the harder it is to see where all the issues are.
Mignon: Yeah.
Doug: And then I have a fourth wild card.
Mignon: We're so lucky. A fourth bonus book.
Doug: That is not writing-based. This is just a fun story. It's called “Pigeons.”
Mignon: “Pigeons.”
Doug: The fascinating saga of the world's most revered and reviled bird.
Mignon: Oh my gosh. So I heard once that pigeons are essentially doves with better marketing. Or no, doves are pigeons with better marketing.
Doug: Exactly. Exactly. So this book dives into the history of pigeons and tells these fascinating stories about how they went from this like revered bird, like it says, to this reviled bird. And I actually got to become friends with the author of this book, Andrew Blackman, and hear some behind-the-scenes stories of how the book was written and some things that I'm not allowed to repeat, but it was a fascinating tale.
The cool thing about this book is you think, "Oh, it's a book about pigeons; that's boring. Why would I ever pick that up?" But it's one of those books that by the first page, you're like, "Oh, this is fun." For me, it feels like a beach read. It goes fast. It's funny. It's super charming.
So I highly recommend that one as well.
Mignon: It sounds like it would make a really good gift, maybe for someone who lives in a city.
Doug: Yeah. Yeah. Or anytime you're going off on vacation and you're like, "Oh, I'm in the airport. I'm going to go to the book place," and you don't really see a book you like, well, before you go, just pick up “Pigeons” on Amazon. I think it's like five bucks or something, so...
Mignon: Oh my.
Doug: It's a steal.
Mignon: That sounds like a lot of fun. Doug Fraser from the Cozy Critters Podcast, remind us again what the URL is for that.
Doug: Yeah, sure. It's cozycritterspodcast.com. There you can find everything you need.
Mignon: Wonderful, thanks so much for being here.
Doug: Yeah. Thanks for having me.