My favorite writing books

Over the years, I've read tons of writing how-to books. Four books left a real impression, either for their usefulness, their inspiration, or both.

For the nuts & bolts of getting your novel to work, there are two written by Donald Maass, literary agent extraordinaire: The Career Novelist, and Writing the Breakout Novel. The Career Novelist is a thin, quick read but packed with insight on the dream versus the reality of being a published author. Writing the Breakout Novel is Don's insider advice for taking your fiction to the next level. He gives seminars based on this book around the country. If he's offering one near you, go. It's worth it. This is the most useful and helpful writing book I've ever read for how to get the job done. The lightbulb went off in my head while reading this one -- I wrote MLTF after soaking up this book. I could see so clearly what I wasn't doing and what I needed to do to get my words and story to jump off the page. He covers things such as: finding the premise of your book, raising the stakes, forging advanced character relationships, digging for the depth in your characters, building a compelling and page-turing plot, and the importance of putting tension on every page.

For writerly inspiration, and for just making you feel that being a writer doesn't mean that you're a freak of nature -- or if we are freaks of nature, that we're not alone ; ) there is On Writing by Stephen King, and Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks. Stephen King's book is an inside look at the creative process of a master. An utterly fabulous book. He starts from his childhood, the beginnings of his journey as a writer, and how those experiences shaped him and his work. He continues through his career with life altering events (and his near death experience) that would have stopped most writers. It's a testament to his perserverance, his awe-inspiring talent, and his love of the craft.

Terry Brooks goes more with his experiences as a writer starting at the beginning of his career up until the present. Great and fun reading for those of us just now dipping our toes in the publishing industry pool. Some of my favorites: Terry's first book signing (let's just say he didn't have a happy experience), and some tough love from his editor. Terry thought that he was just having problems with the ending of his second Shannara novel. Lester del Rey was there to inform him that the entire book was a mess and he needed to ditch it and start from scratch. If things like this happened to a fantasy master, kinda makes me either feel good about my own experiences, or completely identify with his pain and suffering. ; )

I'm sure there are more great writing books out there, but these are my four favorites -- great for reading again and again for fresh inspiration.

Coming up: Doing rewrites; how to push through and complete a novel; why I love "gray" characters; writing my first novel way back when, complete with photos of my first notebook -- a handwritten mess. ; )

Lisa