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)


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Published on March 31, 2012 18:01
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