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