Top 10 Books about Writing: My Personal List
Most writers read books about writing. Those about craft contain tips, advice and insight into the writing process. Memoirs dispel the feeling that you are the only person in the world staring at that blank sheet of paper and provide vicarious companionship. These are the ones I keep in reach, ranging from the basics of grammar and construction to the writing life.
Roughly from the granular to the high level, but otherwise in no particular order:
1. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White—“Strunk and White,” as everyone calls it, is on almost everyone’s list. This thin volume is true to its own advice that, “A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences.”
2. Eats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne Truss—I happen to have the American edition of the British text. Eats, Shoots & Leaves covers essential punctuation with inestimable British wit, so it’s hard to believe you’re reading about those commas, dashes and apostrophies which were so boring in grade school. In the preface, Lynne Truss discusses the subtle differences between British and American English, which only enhance the wry tone. The title displays the awesome power of a comma with the difference between a panda having dinner when it “eats shoots and leaves,” and one that dines then commits murder when it “eats, shoots and leaves.”
3. The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman—An agent finding problems in the first five pages will imagine the same faults in the whole work. No one wants to read 300 pages of overblown adjectives, stilted dialog and cringe-worthy description. Noah Lukeman is a literary agent and writes with the experience of someone on the acquisition and publishing side, so his practical advice boils down to writing well from the start and creating that good first impression. The First Five Pages discusses fundamental matters of craft: use and overuse of adjectives and adverbs; issues of sound, style, dialog and characterization; as well as higher level topics about story telling.
4. The First Fifty Pages by Jeff Gerke—Similar to The First Five Pages, this book has a greater emphasis on the characters and narrative drive that engage a reader.
5. By Cunning and Craft by Peter Selgin—This is a well organized, comprehensive—yet very readable—book about the craft of writing. Subjects encompass all the fundamentals, from people and point of view to persistence and publication.
6. 179 Ways to Save a Novel by Peter Selgin—Exceptionally broad and yet exceptionally specific, this book is packed with concise, accessible advice. Some of the 179 topics:
47} “I am but mad north by northwest: Good plots, foolish choices,”
83} “Symbolic colors and tea leaves: Goofing around with symbols,”
111} “Pen in cheek: Satire.”
Although grouped in a number of basic categories, the topics are self-contained. Sometimes I flip through the pages and revisit a random section just for something to think about.
7. The Artful Edit by Susan Bell—It is a truism that writing is rewriting, and this is an excellent book about self-editing. Among many other examples, so readers can see the thinking involved, Susan Bell weaves a major thread showing how F. Scott Fitzgerald revised drafts of The Great Gatsby.
8. The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner—From the viewpoint of an editor turned agent, this book deals with the writing in its many aspects, among them: the urge to write, writer’s block, writing programs, anxiety, rejection and publication. Her amusing stories, drawn from long experience, make The Forest for the Trees enjoyable to read while at the same time providing perspective and comfort about the writing life.
9. On Writing by Stephen King—I’ve never read his fiction because horror stories give me nightmares, but this is an entertaining memoir about how he grew to be a best selling writer. I take the contrarian view by noting this book is thin on concrete advice, although Steven King gives an instructive example of how he edited his own work. Worth it for the message that a successful writer must persist against great odds, and that any writer must write for him or her self.
10. bird by bird by Anne Lamott—One of my favorites. I reread it every so often for Anne Lamott’s voice and her stories about the many struggles a writer faces. Her understated humor shines when she discusses practical matters, such as how to avoid libel by disguising a character based on a real person: “give him a teenie little penis so he will be less likely to come forth.”
Honorable mention: Hemingway on Writing—Edited by Larry W. Phillips. This book is a compilation of Ernest Hemingway’s comments and beliefs about writing. The blustery, old uncle of American literature (who, by the way, won a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize—so he’s worth listening to), Hemingway often wrote directly from his life and interjected his opinions whenever possible. Passages about writing come from his published works and many letters, including those to editor Maxwell Perkins.
Of course these selections are personal and subjective and I’m always interested in reading something new. What’s on your list of best or most useful books about writing?
