“The 10 Best Books About Writing”
From PasteMagazine:
Writing is hard. Not for everyone, mind you, but there are some people that land triple axels or swallow swords, and we don’t consider this the norm. Thankfully, these gifted writers have shared their secrets — often the same secret, that their best words weren’t a gift at all, but the fruits of frustrating, wearisome work. We treasure these following tomes, not because they necessarily reveal the tricks to making writing easier, but because they assure us that just because it’s difficult doesn’t mean we should give up. If you write, we’re assuming you’re already armed with style guides like the enduring Strunk & White classic, The Elements of Style, along with your AP Stylebook or Chicago Manual of Style. And that you have examples of great writing like Life Stories: Profiles from The New Yorker. We also skipped books that were specific to a certain genre, like Mary Oliver’s excellent Poetry Handbook. Instead, the following are 10 books about the craft of writing. We polled Paste writers, editors and interns to share their favorites and received scores of suggestions from Twitter and Facebook. We even asked Neil Gaiman about his “favorite book on writing and why?”
Gaiman’s response? “Stephen King’s On Writing. Because of the title.” Oh, writers.
Their list:
10. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
9. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson
8. Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury
7. On Writing Well by William Zinsser
6. Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark
5. On Writing by Stephen King
4. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
3. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
2. On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
1. Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on the Writing Life by Anne Lamott
I’ve read four of these: “The Artist’s Way,” “On Writing,” “The Writing Life,” and “Bird by Bird.” They’re all excellent. Clearly I have to get “The War of Art” as that is a killer title.
Which of these books have you read and found helpful? Are there others not on the list that have inspired you?
HT to @CanadianNick from Tweeting the link.
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