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Books on the subject of writing
I guess we’ve all gone about learning our craft in different ways. I thought I’d share a list of the books I’ve read on the subject of writing. Some are better than others but in general, I’ve got something out of all of them. I hope you find the list useful.
It would be great to see your own lists and hopefully, we can build this into a nice resource for anyone looking for suggestions. Here goes and in no particular order.
Title Author The Writer’s Journey Christopher Vogler Stein on Writing Sol Stein How to grow a novel Sol Stein Into the woods John Yorke How to write dazzling dialogue James Scott Bell F**king Apostrophes (don’t read if the f-word offends) Simon Griffin How fiction works James Wood Bird by bird Anne Lamott Write to be published Nicola Morgan Dear Agent Nicola Morgan Write a great synopsis Nicola Morgan Eats shoots and leaves Lynne Truss How to Write Harry Bingham The joy of writing sex Elizabeth Benedict The art of fiction David Lodge Reading like a writer Francine Prose The emotional thesaurus Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi The emotional wound thesaurus (excellent!) Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi The positive trait thesaurus Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi The negative trait thesaurus Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi The rural setting thesaurus Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi The urban setting thesaurus Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi -
8 Replies
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‘Writing down the bones’ by Natalie Goldberg. When I first saw the title I thought it was something to do with scrimshaw duh! 😂
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“Take off your pants” by Libbie Hawker.
I have read the Nicola Morgan books and they are great.
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Can I add:
How Novels Work by John Mullan – a pretty exhaustive and very readable work on all the essential ingredients.
The Art of Fiction by David Lodge – Very digestible chapters on a range of topics drawing on the works of the greats for illustration.
And … for any member of pedants anonymous:
Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson – although much of the content is a delight for the pedant, it’s actually a useful resource for getting the grammar right. For me grammar was taught a bit like quadratic equations in school; dull and terrifying. This is a shame as it’s kind of important.
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As Bella says, ‘Take Off Your Pants” is very good, as are Nicola Morgan’s books.
I also like ‘The Art of Writing Fiction’ by Andrew Cowan, and have just read and enjoyed ‘Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style’ by Benjamin Dreyer. There are British and US editions available.
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I also really like ‘Read This if You Want to be a Great Author’ by Ross Raisin. The title is rubbish – I’ve seen it described as ‘brilliantly awful’ – but the book includes excerpts from marvellous published authors, and gives Raisin’s opinions on these passages. Reading this book reminds me of why I wanted to write in the first place – the hope that a tiny bit of magic might rub off on to my own prose once in a while.
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HI Chris
That’s an impressive list! Stephen King’s book on writing is pretty good – part instruction book part autobiography – they were different days when he got published but useful pointers all the same.
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Good shout. How could I forget to include that on my list? It is an excellent book. Thanks for the nudge.
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I read a book a few years back called “How not to write a novel” which was really funny and wise, but I can’t remember who wrote it, and googling suggests there are quite a few with that or a similar title, and I can’t find it now.
Heh. That was useful, wasn’t it?
