20-WRITING-GUIDES

20+ Recommended Writing Guides

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Earlier today I put out a call on Twitter asking for some recommendations for writing guides that went beyond the basics and toolkit-talk. I was looking for something that went deeper into the craft to help inspire and motivate.

There was a fantastic response with with a large number of brilliant suggestions – it seemed like a good thing to share!

With thanks to the many writers who helped build this list.

Enjoy!

 

Big Book List on the Craft of Writing

  • Into the Woods – John Yorke
  • The Art of Fiction – David Lodge
  • Art of the Novel – Ed., Nicholas Royle
  • Science of Storytelling – Will Storr
  • The Weekend Novelist – Robert J. Ray
  • Steering the Craft – Ursula Le Guin
  • Writing Fiction – Janet Burroway
  • Making Comics & Syllabus – Lynda Barry
  • Writing a First Novel – Karen Stevens
  • On Writing Fiction – David Jauss
  • Becoming a Writer – Dorothea Brande
  • Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative – Jane Alison
  • Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction – Highsmith
  • Nail Your Novel – Roz Morris
  • Story Genius – Lisa Cron
  • The Preparation of the Novel – Barthes
  • 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel – Jane Smiley
  • Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg
  • The Writing Of the Novel – Irving Wallace
  • Save the Cat! – Jessica Brody
  • Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott
  • The Writing of Fiction – Edith Wharton
  • The Writing Book – Kate Grenville
  • Emma Darwin’s blog
  • Toby Litt’s Blog
  • The Paris Review Anthologies
  • Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nobel Prize lecture