Books for writers

   To add to our small collection of posts aimed at anyone who writes, I thought a few books for writers might be worth a look. I haven't read (or even got) any of these, so I can't speak from experience, but having seen them warmly recommended in various trustworthy quarters, I thought I'd mention them and ask you to suggest any others you know to be good.

The Five-minute Writer: Exercise and Inspiration in Creative Writing in Five Minutes a Day by Margret Geraghty aims to tone and train the creative muscles in short, sharp bursts.

The 3 A.M. Epiphany: Uncommon Writing Exercises That Transform Your Fiction by Brian Kiteley offers "unusual" exercises to help make creative breakthroughs.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, part writing autobiography, part "tough love lessons for aspiring novelists"!

The Weekend Novelist: A Dynamic 52-week Programme to Help You Produce a Finished Novel ...One Weekend at a Time by Robert J. Ray and Bret Norris provides an action plan to take you through a complete first draft.

A Novel in a Year: A Novelist's Guide to Being a Novelist by Louise Doughty is the collection of her weekly columns which appeared in The Daily Telegraph a few years ago, and which took those who followed the exercises from initial ideas to body of raw material. Coincidentally, the latest addition to my TBR pile is The Coward's Tale by Vanessa Gebbie, an extract of which won the Telegraph's 'Novel in a Year' competition - the proof of the pudding?

Finally, if you fancy trying your hand at writing crime fiction, this picture might amuse you!

Comments

[adele geras]

The Stephen King is a cracking good read whether you want to write or not. And I read Louise Doughty while she did this book as columns in the paper. Lots of good sense there too! I LOVE WRITING MANUALS...

[Linda Gillard]

What Adele said re Stephen King. It's the only writing manual I recommend in workshops and it's a thoroughly entertaining read. ("The road to hell is paved with adverbs.")

[B R Wombat]

Another vote for the Stephen King (I've not read any of the others). I don't care for him as an author but On Writing was a wonderful read.

[Ros]

My favourite book for writers is Francine Prose's 'Reading Like a Writer'. She looks at different aspects of the craft, using examples from classic and contemporary literature. And she's absolutely right - all the best writers read, read and read more.

I also loved this blog post on how to become a writer, or how to encourage and help your child if they want to be one: http://mollybackes.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-to-be-writer.html

[Dark Puss]

Since I'm not a writer, at least not in the sense I think it is being used here, I cannot comment on any of these. However I have read my way through the forty page "How to Write Fiction" supplement that came with yesterday's Guardian Newspaper with some interest. Perhaps others could comment on it from a more informed perspective?

[Marianne Wheelaghan]

Oh dear, just lost my comment so will make this brief in case I lose it again! I love Stephen King's On Writing. I think it is one of the better creative writing text books out there. I'm not familiar with the others and that's the thing, there are hundreds of CW books out there and it can sometimes be hard to see the forest for the trees. I run an online creative writing school and my students are always asking for recommendations, which is why I have just started to review cw books on my blog. I'll add the others here to my to-do list! One of my favourite books is Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird: Some instructions on Writing and Life (I'm about to review it)/ Anyone read it? It's funny, clever, poignant and downright helpful and cleverly reveals what it is to be a writer.