/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>6685011
This has happened to all of us. The whole world worships and reveres artists, but nobody realizes that we're all actually a bunch of stinky losers who can't talk to people.

Give me your favorite book on storytelling. I'll list the ones I've studied deeply, and rank them according to how much they've helped me. If you want a detailed review, I'll write one for you.

S-Tier
>Araki's "Manga in Theory and Practice"
>Robert McKee's "Story"
>Kenneth Thorpe Rowe's "Write that play"
>David Mamet's "On Directing Film"

A-Tier
>Dwight Swain's "Technique of Fiction"
>Walter S Campbell's "Writing Magazine Fiction"
>Thomas Uzzell's "Narrative Technique"

B-Tier
>Northrop Frye's "Anatomy of Criticism"
>Mako Itsuki's "Shoujo Manga Techniques: Writing Stories"

Trash
>John Truby's "Anatomy of Story"
>Christopher Booker's "7 basic plots"

Currently studying
>George Pierce Baker's "Dramatic Technique"
>Percival Wilde's "Craftsmanship of the One Act Play"
>William Archer's "Play-making"
>John Howard Lawson's "Technique of Playwriting"

Frankly, all of these books are redundant. Araki's book is the best, I think. Just create great characters, throw unexpected obstacles at them, and build to a crisis, and end your story satisfactorily. Everything else is just different ways of rehashing that. After that, you just practice and study other stories. Robert McKee is a semi-failed screenwriter, but all his information is just a repetition of Araki's information, so I found it useful. Kenneth Rowe taught Arthur Miller and Lawrence Kasdan, and I found his book also very useful, yet also a repetition of Araki's teachings. David Mamet's book is great too, same as McKee and Rowe.

The books in the trash tier are actually horrible. They actively point you in the wrong direction. Stay away from them. The books in the A and B tier have great gems, but they also have wrong information from time to time. "Wrong", in that if you compare their theories to actual popular stories, it doesn't work.

Tell me what you guys think. What books have helped you the most?

>>6193798
>>6193800
this board is retarded