Writing Resources

Among the various resources on writing listed below, I particularly recommend:

  • Constance Hale’s Sin And Syntax: an accessible guide to the foundations of writing – parts of speech, sentences, and making music in your work (read my review here)
  • Ursula Le Guin’s Steering The Craft: covers the essential aspects of craft and technique with great clarity (read my review here) – a new edition was published in 2015
  • Janice Burroway, Writing Fiction – a classic creative writing textbook now out in an affordable edition

On writing, creativity, and the writer’s life

  • Lynda Barry, Syllabus, Picture This, What It Is (I cannot describe how brilliant I think these books are – but I shall try in a forthcoming review)
  • Ray Bradbury, Zen In The Art Of Writing
  • Po Bronson, The Writing Life
  • Naropa University Art Therapy Concentration, Suggested Reading
  • Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down The Bones: Freeing The Writer Within
  • Kate Grenville, Searching For The Secret River (a memoir of the writing of her novel The Secret River)
  • Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft
  • Anne Lamott, ‘Shitty First Drafts’ (essential for many as it is so liberating – included in her book Bird By Bird)
  • Poets & Writers Magazine – so many things on this page in particular: Top Topics For Writers
  • Jeff Vandermeer, Booklife and Booklife blog

On studying writing

On craft and technique

  • Tell Me A Story (one of my own blog posts on storytelling: showing and telling and narrating)
  • A Book Is Not A Film (another blog post: on story structure and the importance of working within the parameters of your chosen medium)
  • Harry Bingham, How To Write and How to Write a Book (in 10 Steps)
  • Roy Peter Clark, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies For Every Writer (handy PDF of the 50 tips linked here)
  • Jack Collom and Sheryl Noethe, Poetry Everywhere
  • Emma Darwin, This Itch Of Writing (lots of good stuff, including really thoughtful essays on craft and technique, but also various matters on the writing life)
  • Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking The Poet Within
  • John Gardner, The Art Of Fiction
  • Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice Of Writing Memoir
  • Gotham Writers, Writer’s Toolbox
  • Alice LaPlante, The Making Of A Story
  • Ursula K. Le Guin, Steering The Craft: Exercises And Discussions On Story Writing
  • Elmore Leonard’s Ten Tips on Writing
  • Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman, How Not To Write A Novel: 200 Classic Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
  • Steve Moran, Common Faults In Short Stories Submitted
  • Michael Neff, ‘Why Do Passionate Writers Fail To Publish? Plus Hard Yet Reassuring Facts‘
  • Francine Prose, Reading Like A Writer
  • Scarlett Thomas, Monkeys With Typewriters
  • Ronald Tobias, 20 Master Plots (download a sample here or find them usefully summarised here, but do get the book – lots of inspiring details in its bright and brisk analyses – and then further summaries of story types come here too, which are helpful even if I prefer the idea of actively plotting your own story to the idea of a plot that you can buy off the shelf)
  • Jericho Writers, ’15 Common Mistakes Novelists Make’

On form and usage

On revising and editorial feedback

Reference

Curiosities 

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