When I teach writing classes or give interviews, I often mention books that have been helpful to me in my writing life. Many of them are older but they transition well into this 21st Century. I’ve asterisked a couple that I keep coming back to, manuscript after manuscript. Check out these works by other authors about how to do that thing we writers love – write!
A Writer’s Guide to Fiction, by Elizabeth Lyon, Perigee, 2004
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamont, Penguin Books, 1995
Expressive Writing Words that Heal, by James W. Pennebaker, Ph.D and John F. Evans, Ed.D., Idyll Arbor, Enumclaw, WA., 2014
Manuscript Makeover, by Elizabeth Lyon, Perigee, 2008
On Writing, by Stephen King, Scribner, 2000
*Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting, by Robert McKee, Harper Collins, 1997
Ron Carlson Writes a Story – From the First Glimmer of an Idea to the Final Sentence, by Ron Carlson, Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, MN,2007
*Self-editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print, by Rennie Brown and Dave King, Harper-Perennial, New York, New York, 1993
Structuring your Novel: From Basic Idea to Finished Manuscript, by Robert C. Meredith and John Fitzgerald, HarperPerennial, Publishers
The Emotional Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression, by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi, http://writershelpingwriters.net, 2012
Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, by Madeleine L’Engle, Commemorative Edition, Shaw Publications, 2000
Writing Fiction for Dummies, by Randy Ingermanson and Peter Economy, Wiley Publishing, 2010
Your Life is a Book: How to Craft and Publish your Memoir, by Brenda Peterson and Sarah Jane Freyman, Sasquatch Book, 2014
