The Argh Writing Craft Reading List
And here it is, the suggested reading on writing in alphabetical order by author, culled from the comments of the previous post. My faves are Seger, Burroway, McKee, and Mernit if you're writing romantic comedy. And when I go to supernatural/fairy tale stuff, I hit Vogler again. I also remember loving Block's Telling Lies for Fun and Profit and reading Bickham over and over. The Browne/King book is a great editing book. Michael Hauge's seminars taught me so much, so I know his book is good. Don Maass and Deb Dixon, too. But many of these are new to me (and some aren't but I didn't like them, so I'm just keeping my mouth shut on those), so I have some new research to do. In the meantime, here's your list, Argh.
Bell, James Scott, The Art of War for Writers
—, Conflict and Suspense
—, Plot and Structure
Bell, Susan, The Artful Edit
Bickham, Jack. The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)
—, Scene and Structure
—, Writing and Selling Your Novel
Block, Lawrence, On Character
—, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit
Bradbury, Ray, Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity
Bright, Susie, How to Tell a Dirty Story
Brooks, Terry, Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life
Browne, Renni, and Dave King, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
Burroway, Janet, Writing Fiction
Card, Orson Scott, Characters and Viewpoint
Dixon, Deb, Goal, Motivation, Conflict
Evanovich, Janet, How I Write
Frey, James H., How to Write a Damn Good Novel
Gardner, John, The Art of Fiction
George, Elizabeth, Write Away
Goldberg, Natalie, Writing Down the Bones
Hauge, Michael, Selling Your Story in Sixty Seconds
—,Writing Screenplays That Sell
Hayden, G. Miki, Writing the Mystery
Hood, Ann, Creating Character Emotions
Horton, Andrew, Writing the Character Centered Screenplay
King, Stephen, On Writing
Klein, Cheryl B., Second Sight
Knost, Michael, ed, Writer's Workshop of Horror
LeGuin, Ursula, Steering the Craft
Lukeman, Noah, The First Five Pages
Lyon, Elizabeth, Manuscript Makeover
Maass, Donald, Writing the Breakout Novel
Masello, Robert, Robert's Rules of Writing
Mayer, Bob, The Novel Writer's Toolkit
McClanahan, Rebecca, Word Painting
McKee, Robert, Story
Mernit, Billy, Writing the Romantic Comedy
Peck, Robert Newton, Fiction is Folks
Pressfield, Stephen, The War of Art
Rasley, Alicia, The Power of Point of View
—. The Story Within Plot Guide for Novelists
Linda Seger, Making a Good Script Great
Snyder, Blake, Save the Cat
—, Save the Cat Goes to the Movies
—, Save the Cat Strikes Back
Sokoloff, Alexandra, Screenwriting Tricks for Authors
—, Writing Love: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors II
Stein, Sol, How to Grow a Novel
—, Solutions for Writers
—, Stein on Writing
Swain, Dwight, Techniques of the Selling Writer
Truby, John, Elements of Story
Ueland, Brenda, If You Want To Write
Vogler, Chris, The Writer's Journey
Watts, Nigel, Write a Novel and Get It Published
Weiland, K. M., Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success
Wheat, Carolyn, How to Write Killer Fiction
Whitcomb, Laura, Novel Shortcuts
Williams, Joseph, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace
Williams, Stanley D, The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue and Vice for Box Office Success
Wood, Monica, Pocket Muse
The Weekend Novelist, Story Structure Architect, Emotional Structure (look up author)
