The best way to improve as a writer is simply to read. A lot.
That said, RP has particular demands in that you're writing *quickly* with little to no ability to edit what you write. I've found a few things in particular that have helped me improve my writing in RP:
Michael Moorcock was an extremely prolific writer who made very conscious use of story structures in order to churn out books quickly. He wrote a book about it (ha-ha), which is hard to come by these days, but there's a distillation of the book here.
I've made use of a number of writing books to help, too. Amusingly, most of the books that I really take advice from for RP are screenwriting books. Something about the format just translates better. The best books for me are:
That said, RP has particular demands in that you're writing *quickly* with little to no ability to edit what you write. I've found a few things in particular that have helped me improve my writing in RP:
Michael Moorcock was an extremely prolific writer who made very conscious use of story structures in order to churn out books quickly. He wrote a book about it (ha-ha), which is hard to come by these days, but there's a distillation of the book here.
I've made use of a number of writing books to help, too. Amusingly, most of the books that I really take advice from for RP are screenwriting books. Something about the format just translates better. The best books for me are:
- Save the Cat - A very practical book which includes a bunch of tools to help you manage plot and make entertaining stories.
- Sid Field's Screenwriter's Workbook - a classic!
- The Emotional Thesaurus - A great resource for breaking out of the "I always write the same thing when my character is feeling X" trap.
