I wanted to highlight some of the main reasons for books I placed on my favorites list. You will see why by the end of this post.

First we have the entire Harry Potter series. J. K. Rowling makes excellent use of description in her books, loading on elaborate details while not becoming overbearing. Rowling describes what she must rather than aiming for a false feeling of spectacular. Many other children’s books try to create the feel of grand immensity instead, and so their imagery comes across as lacking and weak. Rowling never overdoes herself, and she manages to hide until necessary how significant her little details have always been. Even many of the other books on my list only describe specifically those things and objects that will be relevant to the story; they’re too predictable in that sense. But not Harry Potter! No, Harry Potter is just as much a game of sleuthing as anything else that it is. Genius creation from J. K. Rowling. I aspire to write that type of description.

Next we have The Body of Christopher Creed. Carol Plum-ucci doesn’t use description half as much as Rowling; but then again, the two are different stories. I love how Plum-ucci convinced me from the get-go that Torey Adams is a really good guy suffering emotional collapse because his actions did nothing to keep a classmate from committing suicide (wow, if you grasped that whole sentence, congratulations!). She brought me into Torey’s world through his eyes and made me feel as he did, made me want to be his friend so that I could help sustain him while his eyes opened to the reality of people for the first time. She didn’t assume that first person narrative creates emotional attachment to characters but recognized it as a mere tool to that end. Plum-ucci convinced me the story could have happened to any ordinary person. My aim is to recognize how she created emotional attachment and learn how to do similar in my writing.

Next we have Stephen King’s The Eyes of the Dragon. King’s goal is to write a story his daughter can read. What he created is pure awesomeness. The reader finds him or herself an actual viewer of the story rather than adopting the role of the main character. Most authors who try this fail. In those stories, we the reader feel like outsiders, whereas Stephen King recognizes us as outsiders and invites us in. He may tell us to remember something for later, but rather than distancing us from the story, he makes us want to know why we must remember napkins and manners.

Yep, you may have to read the books I’ve listed in order to see what I see. If you haven’t read them, do so. The writing techniques and styles of these authors make the stories stand out way over the rest of the crowd.

If you want to be a master at anything, study what has produced other masters in that field. Watch those masters at work or look at what they’ve created. Then, don’t aim for their level. Hold yourself to an even higher standard.