Because I'm a writer, I love books. Borders cannot point to me and say I am the reason their bricks and mortar stores are having problems. I cannot keep my house stocked with enough bookshelves to house all the books I own. And I have passed this love on to at least one of my children as well.
One category of books where I own more than my fair share is that of How-to writing books. It goes with the territory, I suppose. These are the books I can write off on my taxes as a business expense, right? But I can tell you unequivocally, there are some very good books in this category, and some books that I probably shouldn't have wasted my money on.
In keeping with my "no criticism" mantra, I will not go into the books it's not worth buying. Instead, I here present my list of ten books I think every writer would want to own. They are in no particular order in this listing. But I think they're worth every penny of your hard-earned cash:
1) WRITING DOWN THE BONES, by Natalie Goldberg. I bought this book shortly after I graduated from college and settled down into marriage, during a writer's block time for me. By the time I finished reading the preface, I'd put the book down and picked up a pen. I use it with my writing classes.
2) THE ARTIST'S WAY, by Julia Cameron. I've mentioned this book several times in my blog. Every writer should go through this program at least once in their careers.
3) A WRITER'S TIME, by Kenneth Atchity. An organizing book for writers. This book is another one of my oldy-moldies, but I still go back to it from time to time. Most valuable for me is the section about balancing more than one writing project at a time.
4) THE WELL-FED WRITER, by Peter Bowerman. Mark Terry mentioned this one in his blog recently, which made me go back and reread it. It's an empowering book about making a go of things freelance, but his methods are not for the faint of heart.
5) PLOT, a Writer's Digest book, and sadly, I don't remember the author's name. This is a great book outlining how to create story arcs. It's indispensable, not just for those who are new to the craft.
6) SAVE THE CAT! by Blake Snyder. This is actually a screenwriting book, but his plot devices can be modified to create gripping, winning plots for novels, too.
7) THE THIRTY MINUTE WRITER. Again, I can't remember the author's name, but she explains how to make money writing during little periods of time you can carve out during your day. This is another empowering book, a little like Bowerman's book for people who just want to get their feet wet.
8) HOW TO WRITE A BOOK PROPOSAL, by Michael Larson. This book has a step-by-step plan for creating non-fiction book proposals, and includes a good section on how to write query letters.
9) WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL, by Donald Maass. This book I hesitated to put on the list. It's a great book that outlines what goes into making breakout fiction that will sell. The biggest problem is that I feel overwhelmed when I try to put all his ideas into implementation.
10) Actually, I lied. I'm just going to give nine books today, because, frankly, I'm running out of time before I post. But this opens up a slot in case anyone wants to get in on the conversation. Is your favorite BIRD BY BIRD? Or A WRITER'S BOOK OF HOPE? Or John Gardner's THE ART OF WRITING FICTION? You tell me...
Thanks for including my oldy-moldy A Writer's Time on your list.Love to post your list on my blog.
Posted by: Ken Atchity | 01/31/2009 at 06:43 AM
Please do! I'd be honored.
It really is a great book. I am a book carnivore (I don't exactly eat my books, but ones I particularly love get dog-eared and marked up and and underlined and highlighted). My copy of your book is rainbow-colored...My favorite part was where you explained creativity and time. I love the idea that we need to build in vacation time from our book so that the ideas can percolate.
Your ideas for query letters are also great. Thank for writing this book.
Posted by: Christine Cook | 02/01/2009 at 02:26 PM
Hi- I'm Ken's blog maintenance person and I'll be updating his blog with your 10 fav books post sometime in Feb. Thanks. http://kenatchity.blogspot.com/
Posted by: Nadine Saubers | 02/02/2009 at 01:13 PM
Thanks. I tried his vox.com blog and there was nothing public on it. Thanks for adding his blogspot address. I'll add it to my links.
Posted by: Christine Cook | 02/02/2009 at 01:53 PM
Great thanks Christine. We've added your post, you can see it here:
http://kenatchity.blogspot.com/2009/02/guest-post-ten-books-id-recommend.html
Posted by: Nadine Saubers | 02/09/2009 at 07:51 AM
Thanks so much. I've been reading Ken's blog with interest over the last week or so. Can't wait to get some of his newer books.
Posted by: Christine Cook | 02/09/2009 at 11:25 AM
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