Books on Writing Part 1

Since I had so much fun writing the previous post series, I decided to tackle another. This time around, I'll be sharing my favorite books that instruct about writing.

To start, I'll share a common one you have probably heard of, thought of reading, or already have read.

Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Part autobiography spanning King's life, part writing bible, King's book is one of my favorite writing books of all time. Probably because I'm a fan of his novels, I found his memoir enticing. It moved at a snappy pace, never bogging down like many memoirs can. Then, when he's imparting his wisdom on the craft, he feels much like a personal mentor sitting you down in a private room and telling you all he knows before he retires to Boca and leaves you to write alone.

Some fantastic snippets:

"I believe the first draft of a book - even a long one - should take no more than three months...Any longer and - for me, at least - the story begins to take on an odd foreign feel, like a dispatch from the Romanian Department of Public Affairs, or something broadcast on high-band shortwave during a period of severe sunspot activity."

"I've found that any day's routine interruptions and distractions don't much hurt a work in progress and may actually help it in some ways. It is, after all, the dab of grit that seeps into an oyster's shell that makes the pearl, not pearl-making seminars with other oysters."

You'll enjoy this book if: you're serious about writing for publication, you're a fan of King, you like to feel a personal connection to the author giving you advice, and/or you need a knowledgeable mentor to help your tools for the craft move up a level.

The book pictured (my personal copy) is the 10th Anniversary Edition, which features (though the original may also, I have no idea) a section at the back of the book where King revises (by hand!) a segment of 1408 so you can see that the pros rework too, and gives you his list of must-reads.