Books to Help You Write Better: A Writer’s Reading List

Want to learn to write fiction? Want to learn to write better fiction? You’re in the right place. The Writer’s Reading List: Books to Help You Write Better will point you to the very best books about the craft of writing (well, the best in my not-so-humble opinion). The books on this list focus on practical skills so you can make the most of your limited learning time.

And speaking of learning: Writing is a talent, yes, but also a craft, and crafts can be learned (I wrote a whole blog post about that once). You wouldn’t expect to build a perfect cabinet the first time you picked up a saw, right? You’d take a class or read some books or train with a carpenter.

Well, writing works the same way.

I’m a librarian as well as an author, and in this post, I’m going to do what librarians do: give you a list of books (and the occasional website or blog post), also known as an annotated bibliography. This list of books to help you write better will grow over time, but for now I’m going to start by sharing the books I found most helpful when I was a brand new fiction writer. The focus here will be on writing commercial fiction, since that’s what I do, but some books may apply to literary fiction and creative nonfiction as well.

(Note: all links are Amazon affiliate links. If you click and buy, I get a few pennies to help pay for my next pizza.)

Want to suggest a book for the Books to Help You Write Better list? Contact me with the author and title and a sentence or two about why you found the book helpful, and I’ll consider it for the list.

Table of Contents

• Best Books to Help Beginning Novelists Write Better
• Write Short Stories
• The Craft of Writing
• Publishing, Selling, and Marketing Your Work
• Reference Books to Help You Write Better
• Read These for Wisdom, Inspiration and Joy

Best Books to Help Beginning Novelists Write Better

Brand new to novel writing? Start with these.

How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method – Randy Ingermanson

I literally started my writing career by Googling, “how to write a novel.” The first useful site I found was Randy Ingermanson’s The Snowflake Method. The site will get you started, but the book has tons more information and will walk you through the process of planning a novel from a 1-sentence concept to a full scene outline. If you’re brand new to novel writing, start here.

Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story – K.M. Weiland.

Stories have structure. Without structure, a story will sound like your drunk uncle talking about his childhood at Thanksgiving dinner, and no one wants to read that. Weiland’s book will help you avoid Drunk Uncle Syndrome and structure your story so you engage the reader all the way through. And she uses famous examples from film and literature to illustrate story structure, which I found really helpful.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print – Renni Browne and Dave King

This was one of the first books on fiction writing I ever read, and I’ve read it through at least 3 times over the years. This book will help you avoid a lot of beginner mistakes so you can create publishable work sooner.

Write Your Novel from the Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between – James Scott Bell

Another book on plotting and structure with a unique approach–writing from the middle (hey, it’s right there in the title). Everyone takes a different approach to plotting, planning, and structuring a story, so it’s a good idea to try out a few to see which ones work best for you. Bell gives clear, practical advice that can help you wrangle your wild idea for a novel into, well, a novel.

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Write Short Stories

Short stories provide a wonderful way to learn various techniques and experiment with genre, point of view, setting, and voice. They also teach you to make every word count, and it’s much easier to get a short story published than a novel.

How to Write Short Stories and Use Them to Further Your Writing Career – James Scott Bell.

Another treasure trove of practical advice from Bell plus several outstanding short stories that illustrate the concepts he teaches.

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The Craft of Writing

Read these to level up your writing after you’ve written a draft of something and read the books in the beginners section above.

Five Editors Tackle the 12 Fatal Flaws of Fiction Writing – C. S. Lakin.

Learn how to avoid common errors in fiction writing, with before and after examples to illustrate points made.

Thanks, But This Isn’t for Us: A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing is Being Rejected – Jessica Morrell

Excellent advice from a developmental editor on avoiding mistakes that lead to rejection. She focuses on novels but much of her advice applies to short stories too.

The Rock Your Writing Series – Cathy Yardley

A compendium of 4 excellent books filled with practical advice: Rock Your Plot, Rock Your Revisions, Rock Your Query, and Write Every Day. I zipped through these and found them all helpful.

Revision & Self-Editing: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft Into a Finished Novel – James Scott Bell

Can you tell I really like writing books by James Scott Bell? I struggle with revision, so I especially appreciate his practical advice here.

Understanding Show, Don’t Tell: And Really Getting It – Janice Hardy

This is a book I refer to again and again. “Show, don’t tell” is clichéd writing advice, but it’s also really good writing advice that’s often misunderstood. Hardy uses examples to literally show rather than tell so you can learn to make your writing more vivid and engaging.

Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot: How to Write Gripping Stories That Keep Readers on the Edge of Their Seats – Jane Cleland

The focus here is on crime fiction but the book will be useful for anyone who writes stories that focus on suspense.

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Publishing, Selling, and Marketing Your Work

Now that you’re writing better, get your work out there!

Mastering Book Hooks for Authors: How to Capture Reader Attention and Book Sales in 30 Words or Less – Rob Eagar.

I read this book to learn how to craft a 1-sentence pitch for Twitter pitch parties and agent queries (b/c some agents require them). It’s short, to the point, and oh, so helpful. As of this writing, the Kindle edition is free on Amazon.

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Reference Books to Help You Write Better

Keep these within arm’s reach while you’re writing.

The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression – Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi.

Conveying character emotion is essential to engaging readers. To get it right, turn to The Emotion Thesaurus. It provides an alphabetical list of emotions from Adoration to Worry; each entry includes a definition, physical signals, internal sensations, mental responses, and cues of acute and suppressed emotion.

Emotion Amplifiers: A Companion to the Emotion Thesaurus – Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi.

Emotion Amplifiers includes a list of physical and mental states like addiction, attraction, cold, heat, hunger, pain, and stress, with entries similar to the Emotion Thesaurus listed above. Find new, creative ways to make your characters even more miserable 🙂

The Writer’s Lexicon: Descriptions, Overused Words, and Taboos and The Writer’s Lexicon Volume II: More Descriptions, Overused Words, and Taboos – Kathy Steinemann

I refer to both of these books all the time when I’m revising because so many overused words end up in my drafts–laughed, smiled, nodded, look like, shrug… sigh (oh, wait–“sigh” is also an overused word. Sigh.) Her practical advice and before-and-after examples always help me write better.

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Read These for Wisdom, Inspiration and Joy

Writing is always hard and often frustrating. Turn to good mentors–in real life or on the page–to help pull you through.

On Writing – Stephen King

Probably the most popular writing memoir ever. You’ll get some writing advice, sure, but you’ll get so much wit and wisdom too. King is a no-BS straight shooter, but he also conveys the sheer joy of making up stories and writing them down. I read On Writing every year or two and take away something new each time. The audiobook is read by Uncle Stevie himself.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott

Probably the second most popular writing memoir ever. Bird by Bird was one of the books that inspired me to try writing fiction. Witty, warm, and wonderful.