My Favorite Writing Books

Apropos of absolutely nothing (except to help other writers), here are the writing-related books that I will always have on my shelf. They are in no particular order.

Fiction Writer's Brainstormer by James V. Smith, Jr. A book chock-full of exercises that will help you brainstorm/get you "unstuck" in a story.

Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card. Perhaps my favorite book on characterization.

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card. I don't write SF/F, but Card has fantastic tips for world-building. Every story must build a world, or there is no setting, so the book is valuable regardless of the genre you write.

Bryson's Dictionary of Troublesome Words: A Writer's Guide to Getting the Words Right by Bill Bryson. Bryson is one of my favorite authors--he's funny as hell--but I mention this book because it's a great resource when it comes to distinctions among similar words, such as imply/infer and practical/practicable. If this sort of thing matters to you (and, if you're a writer, it should!), it's a must-read.

A good paperback thesaurus--I use Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus. You don't use a thesaurus to find synonyms just because you want to pepper your writing with "different" words you think will make you look smart or erudite! You do use a thesaurus when you can't think of exactly the right word, so you look up synonyms. The older and more forgetful I become, the more valuable this book is to me.

Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies by Leslie Wainger. Ms. Wainger is a huge muckety-muck at Harlequin/Silhouette, and knows her stuff--she's spent her entire career as an editor of romance. If you need help constructing your first romance novel, or just need a refresher, this book will do it. My favorite "how to write romance" book.

Well, these should get you started.

Barrie