As writing coaches, we come across many great books on all aspects of writing craft. If you are looking to boost your knowledge, we suggest starting with these.
How to Make a Living as a Writer provides everything you need to know to turn your writing dreams into an income-producing reality, by someone who’s done it for 25 years. (James Scott Bell)
Structuring Your Novel tackles the question, Why do some stories work and others don’t? The answer is structure. In this award-winning guide, you will discover the universal underpinnings that guarantee powerful plot and character arcs. (K.M. Weiland)
Shoot Your Novel: Cinematic Techniques to Supercharge Your Writing is an essential writing craft guide that will teach you the art of “show don’t tell” using time-tested cinematic technique. By utilizing film technique and adapting the various camera shots into your fiction, your writing will undergo a stunning transformation from “telling” to “showing.” (C. S. Lakin)
Writing Plots With Drama, Depth and Heart (Nail Your Novel 3) helps you diagnose your story's strengths and weaknesses, find where your plot ideas are hiding, and keep readers riveted. (Roz Morris)
Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling encourages writers to add greater depth to their characters and stories, enthralling readers. (Donald Maass)
Writing Screenplays That Sell, New Twentieth Anniversary Edition teaches all writers to think deeply about their characters’ motivations, story structure and the art of selling. (Michael Hauge)
And if you are not familiar with the other bestselling books in our Writers Helping Writers® descriptive thesaurus series, please feel free to check them out:
The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression is a writer’s best friend when it comes to conveying your character’s emotions to readers. Armed with a list of the body language, thoughts, and visceral sensations for 75 core emotions, you’ll never struggle with the “how do I show this feeling?” problem again.
The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes is one half of the character-building puzzle to help you create layered and complex characters that transcend all others. With an arsenal of positive traits and their defining characteristics, you will be able to create authentic, rich characters that fascinate.
The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws looks at your character’s dark side and the realistic flaws that hold him or her back while complicating your plot. Believable characters have both positive and negative qualities, and understanding their disagreeable aspects means also knowing what motivates them.
The Rural Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Personal and Natural Places partners with this urban setting book and provides 100 more settings to explore, as well as offering more elevated description techniques to add emotion, create conflict, and enhance each story on multiple levels for a one-of-a-kind reading experience.