Lupina had a great idea for a You Tell Me: What are your favorite books on writing?
I’ll kick it off with a nod to Robert McKee’s STORY. Yes, it’s about screenplays, but I haven’t seen a better breakdown of how to create a great plot.
What’s your favorite?
Need help with your book? Iām available for manuscript edits, query critiques, and coaching!
For my best advice, check out my online classes, my guide to writing a novel, and my guide to publishing a book.
And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter!
I recommend Inside Story by Dara Marks,The Power of The Actor by Ivana Chubbuck, and anything that details the hero’s journey.
Techniques of Selling Writer by Dwight N Swain.
Simply irreplaceable. Can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned before.
David Mamet’s Three Uses of the Knife
My favorite are the writing related books by Holly Lisle (the “Clinics” and the “How To”, see https://shop.hollylisle.com/). They are affordable, fun to read and very structured. She is also giving an online course that is well worth the money it costs.
Bryan/Ink,
Don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a terrible person.
Maybe if I banged my head against the wall for an hour or two I’d feel better.
Mira,
I recommend drywall. Plaster and brick walls leave too many marks.
š
Bryan
THE ART OF FICTION by Ayn Rand
and
ZEN IN THE ART OF WRITING by Ray Bradbury
which may seem to give contradictory advice, but turns out I needed them both.
Bryan,
I always suspected that smile of yours was evil.
Now I know it is.
š
Mira
Mira,
I’m not evil, I’m morally degenerate. There’s a difference! I learned it form, uh, On Writing. By Stephen King.
Mwuahahahaha!
(maniacal laughter is always fun to type… try it, really. Very cathartic.)
Writing the Breakout Novel (Maass)
Self-editing for Fiction Writers (Browne)
Reading Like a Writer (Prose)
Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach (Gulino) A great book on structure and sequences!
Tools of Screenwriting (Mabley)
Rewrite: A Step-by-Step Guide to Strengthen Structure, Characters, and Drama in your Screenplay (Chitlik)
I am a visitor to you blog from the Netherlands and my favorite book on writing is by a fellow countryman of yours: The Novelist's Essential Guide to Creating Plot by J. Madison Davis. It is great. I read Gardner and many others. Ray Bradbury's Zen & the Art of Writing is good, too. I read Chandler's The Simple Art of Murder and Highsmith's Plotting and Writing Suspens Fiction, and they have written great books (I am a crime fiction writer) but none of them can hold a candle to J. Madison Davis. He really does explain how to build a story.
See Jane Write by Sarah Mlynowski AND Story by Robert McKee (it’s geared towards screenwriters but the basic principles still apply).
Here's a couple of my favs.
The Romance Writer's Heandbook by Rebecca Vinyard. This has the BEST two chapters on writing a synopsis I've ever seen.
Writing & Selling Your Mystery Novel by Hallie Ephron. Excellent!!!
WriteTight by William Brohaugh
Lastly, I'm just starting this one but am enjoying it. Bullies, Bastards & Bitches by Jessica Morrell. How to write the bad guys of fiction. (Saw the title and just had to have it.)
wrd. ver. coledit Maybe I need to bleep that last title;-)
Favorite book on writing: The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
Question: I’ve always had the impression that screenplays were easier to write than novels. Am I wrong? Are they harder, or easier, or about the same level of difficulty? A screenplay is usually less words than a novel, right? Or am I wrong?
I write poetry, I think poetry is easier than fiction, because you are dealing with a smaller volume of words. A screenplay is more like poetry than fiction, I think – and therefore easier than fiction – anyone have an informed opinion as opposed to my ill-informed one?
No flaming, please, really I’d like to know your opinion!
This link to an old Guardian article written by Zadie Smith is my favourite piece of writing on writing. I feel that most books serve as inspirational tomes with a bit of structure and plot and character info thrown in. Zadie’s article is one I re-read over and over, because that’s precisely what she’s NOT doing – telling us there is only one way to do this or that. Hopefully we will all learn to fail better: https://faculty.sunydutchess.edu/oneill/failbetter.htm
Wow! I think the bibliography in this comments string is right on the money. I scrolled through that list and all my faves are there.
My absolute favorite, though, is another screenwriting book – Richard Walter’s “Screenwriting: the Art, Craft and Business of Film and Television Writing”. This is just a great book of writing tools for anyone. Walter is a well-known writing teacher and is Faculty Chair at UCLA. You can get it in softcover on Amazon for about $10.
J.F.
I always tend to go back to King’s ON WRITING. He has taught me to be disciplined, to simplify — ‘simple’ id not easy, it is hard.
Writing Down the Bones
Natalie Goldberg
So good!
Also, How To Become A Famous Writer Before You’re Dead
By Ariel Gore
I love Kim Stafford's 2003 book published by The University of Georgia Press called _The Muses Among Us: Eloquent Listening and Other Pleasures of the Writer's Craft_. A friend gave it to me & I rarely see it recommended, but it's been one of the most encouraging writing books I've ever read. I've turned to it many times in recent years.
Thanks Anon and Vancouver Dame!
Nothing better than SELF EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS by Renni Browne & Dave King. That book solves a lot of your problems as your writing gets better.
13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE NOVEL by Jane Smiley. Fantastic!
I like “The Art of Dramatic Writing” by Lajos Egri. EVen though he wrote it for playwrights it is applicable for all who wish to improve.
Daniel McNeet
I haven't seen any mention of Arthur Plotnik's "Spunk & Bite" or Nancy Kress's other character book, "Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint."
I much prefer this Kress book to Orson Scott Card's book about characters, which I barely got through. I won't get rid of Card's book because it's worth having, but I'd rate it no better than 4th among books I have on characterization.
"Spunk & Bite" is excellent, but I wouldn't recommend it to beginning writers, who are likely to pick up bad habits from it if they don't understand WHY he is encouraging rule breaking.
"Unstuck" by Jane Anne Staw helps to understand the psychology behind writer's block.
Of the others already mentioned, parts of "Stein On Writing" have really stuck in mind. And count me among the not-a-fan-of-King's-On-Writing crowd.
Off the subject, I'm going to find a creative way to use my word verification word. "Norch" is too good to leave alone.
STORY by McKee, absolutely. And WRITING FOR EMOTIONAL IMPACT by Karl Iglesias. Interesting that both books are for screenwriters and I’m not.
Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.
Roy Peter Clark’s Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer, which was available online (and still is, as podcasts) and then compiled into a book.
Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury is good. It always makes me want to get up off my ass and do what he does: write.
I was going to say, How to Write Science Fiction by Orson Scott Card, but the very first post, by GuyStewart/DISCOVERCHURCH beat me to it.
That book is great, even if it made me discard my 40,000 word work-in-progress and start over.
But he was right.
Betty Lerner “The Forest for the Trees” this book is 100% excellent outstanding. the last page alone is worth the price of the book. She takes every step of the publishing industry and enlightens you. This book should be mandatory reading for all college or workshop writing courses. Fantastic Terrific outstanding.
Jo Ann Hernandez
https://bronzeword.wordpress.com
The best from the three is Barron’s Creative Writing,How to Write Short Stories by Sharon Sorenson, and the last is Random House Guide to Good Writing by Mitchell Ivers.
Those three books are really effective for me and it had helped me a lot in improving and learning what I need to know with writing. It’s great. š
I am a mechanical engineer. When I was writing my dissertation, I decided not to go with the usual boring style, but write it as a mathematical mystery book. Searching the stacks for learning how to write a mystery, I came upon an interesting book. To my amazement, the writer actually instructed his readers to use engineering articles as a model! In any event, his book was quite helpful. I didnāt write a mathematical mystery, but my thesis turned out to be a lot less boring than most of its counterparts. It was a long time ago, but I think that book was āHow to write a mysteryā by Larry Beinhart.
The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman. Seriously. Best. Book. Ever. Do the exercises and watch your writing improve like there’s no tomorrow!
It’s affordable too!
(Oh and the guy is an agent. He knows what he is talking about.)
Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury, Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, Spunk and Bite by Arthur Plotnick and Inspired Creative Writing by Alexander Gordon Smith. The last book is not a big name writer, by any means, but the guy is a successful young writing living in England. I picked up the book from the discount bin at Border’s and fell in love with it. It is 230 pages of fascinating revelations and comments on creative writing. Very thorough, indeed.
Truly,
Henri
Dean Koontz wrote two books on writing, “Writing Popular Fiction” circa 1973 and “How To Write Best-Selling Fiction” circa 1981, both published by Writer’s Digest, and of course long out of print. A used copy of either title is in the $50 and up range. The first concentrates on fiction in various genres. While the second repeats some of that materal, he added much new text, recommending writing mainstream fiction with the argument that if you’re going to go through the trouble of writing a novel you might as well aim it for the largest market you can.
He has ‘compelling’ arguments for putting your MC through the crucible, but I can’t honestly say how good his books are, having yet to complete a novel, much less been published. But I found these interesting for Koontz’ dry wit as well as the writing advice.
If you want a copy, they’re out there, you just have to pay (or regularly go to thrift stores and library book sales for a decade or two, that’s how I found my copies). See my blog entry on how I find books (easy to find, I have very few blog entries).
Great suggestions. I’ll get reading. The book Alan Orloff wanted to recommend on April 1, 2009 at 9:32 A.M. is Writing Popular Fiction by Dean Koontz, published 1972 by Writer’s Digest Books. It is widely available for about $25. Go to your local used bookstore.
Finding Your Writer’s Voice, Thaisa Frank and Dorothy Wall. Inspirational, beautifully written, useful exercises.
On Writing, by Stephen King
The Art of Dramatic Writing, by Lajos Egri
Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters, by Michael Tierno
Noah Lukeman's free (yes, free!) e-book HOW TO WRITE A GREAT QUERY LETTER (on Amazon).
And of course, Stephen King's ON WRITING.
On Writing By Steven King if for nothing else than these two gems:
1. The story is everything.
2. The road to hell is paved with adverbs.
Eats, Shoots and Leaves> by Lynn Truss and Woe is I by Patricia T. O'Conner get honorable mentions. (Including The Elements Of Style should be so obvious it does not need to be said, right?)
On Writing, Stephen King. This is one of the few I reread regularly.
Character and Viewpoint, Orson Scott Card.
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, also by Orson Scott Card.
The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White.
These are the ones I've kept.
I've read quite a few of the books mentioned above and can't wait to get to some of those that are new to me. I didn't see anyone mention Heather Sellers' two smart and encouraging (and funny) books on writing: Page After Page and Chapter After Chapter.
When I'm struggling with my mystery novel, I most frequently find myself turning to Hallie Ephron's "Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel" and to Elizabeth George's "Write Away."
For timeless common sense & priceless inspiration, Lawrence Block's Telling Lies for Fun and Profit. For specific step-by-step guidance on suspense, Hallie Ephron's Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel.