books on How To Write Fiction
Discover the best books on how to write fiction! Explore expert guides, creative techniques, and essential tips to master storytelling, plot development, and character creation for aspiring novelists.
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How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
by Orson Scott Card
Defines both genres, tells how to write a successful story, and where to find markets to get published.
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The Writer's Book of Wisdom
by Steven Goldsberry
The Perfect Source for Instruction and Inspiration! &break;&break;Part writing coach and part personal muse, The Writer's Book of Wisdom shows you how to hone your skills and liberate your creativity. Novelist and poet Steven Goldsberry offers 101 thoughtful, concise, and proven techniques to help you with everything from first-draft outlines and plot development to precise word choice and correct sentence structure. &break;&break;Whether you're writing fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, The Writer's Book of Wisdom shows you how to overcome mental roadblocks, infuse your language with energy, and master the essential elements of the craft. With technical guidance and heart-felt motivation, this book is a must-have resource guaranteed to teach and inspire.
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The Little, Brown Handbook
by Henry Ramsey Fowler
The most trusted and authoritative name in handbooks, The Little, Brown Handbook,11/e is an easy-to-use reference that will answer any question you may have in grammar, writing, or research. It also includes exercises so you can practice skills. This edition offers the latest information on writing with computers, writing online, analyzing visuals, and researching effectively on the Internet. With clear explanations, a wealth of examples, and quick reference checklists and boxes, The Little, Brown Handbook will makes it easy to find what you need and use the information you find.
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The Elements of Style
by William Strunk
Presents a concise style manual that provides the basic elementary principles of English usage and composition, with tips on commonly misused words and expressions, style, and spelling.
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Techniques of the Selling Writer
by Dwight V. Swain
Techniques of the Selling Writer provides solid instruction for people who want to write and sell fiction, not just to talk and study about it. It gives the background, insights, and specific procedures needed by all beginning writers. Here one can learn how to group words into copy that moves, movement into scenes, and scenes into stories; how to develop characters, how to revise and polish, and finally, how to sell the product. No one can teach talent, but the practical skills of the professional writer's craft can certainly be taught. The correct and imaginative use of these kills can shorten any beginner's apprenticeship by years. This is the book for writers who want to turn rejection slips into cashable checks.
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Elements of Fiction Writing - Characters & Viewpoint
by Orson Scott Card
Vivid and memorable characters aren't born: they have to be made. &break;&break;This book is a set of tools: literary crowbars, chisels, mallets, pliers and tongs. Use them to pry, chip, yank and sift good characters out of the place where they live in your memory, your imagination and your soul. &break;&break;Award-winning author Orson Scott Card explains in depth the techniques of inventing, developing and presenting characters, plus handling viewpoint in novels and short stories. With specific examples, he spells out your narrative options–the choices you'll make in creating fictional people so "real" that readers will feel they know them like members of their own families. &break;&break;You'll learn how to: &break; draw the characters from a variety of sources, including a story's basic idea, real life–even a character's social circumstances&break; make characters show who they are by the things they do and say, and by their individual "style"&break; develop characters readers will love–or love to hate&break; distinguish among major characters, minor characters and walk-ons, and develop each one appropriately&break; choose the most effective viewpoint to reveal the characters and move the storytelling&break; decide how deeply you should explore your characters' thoughts, emotions and attitudes
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Elements of Fiction Writing - Plot
by Ansen Dibell
"There are ways to create, fix, steer and discover plots—ways which, over a writing life, you'd eventually puzzle out for yourself," writes Ansen Dibell. "They aren't laws. They're an array of choices, things to try, once you've put a name to the particular problem you're facing now." That's what this book is about: identifying those choices (whose viewpoint? stop and explain now, or wait? how can this lead to that?), then learning what narrative problems they are apt to create and how to choose an effective strategy for solving them. The result? Strong, solid stories and novels that move. Inside you'll discover how to: test a story idea (using four simple questions) to see if it works convince your reader that not only is something happening, but that something's going to happen and it all matters intensely handle viewpoint shifts, flashbacks, and other radical jumps in your storyline weave plots with subplots get ready for and write your Big Scenes balance scene and summary narration to produce good pacing handle the extremes of melodrama by "faking out" your readers—making them watch your right hand while your left hand is doing something sneaky form subtle patterns with mirror characters and echoing incidents choose the best type of ending—linear or circular, happy or downbeat, or (with caution!) a trick ending Whether your fiction is short or long, subtle or direct, you'll learn to build strong plots that drive compelling, unforgettable stories your readers will love.
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Elements of Fiction Writing - Beginnings, Middles & Ends
by Nancy Kress
Get your stories off to a roaring start. Keep them tight and crisp throughout. Conclude them with a wallop. Is the story or novel you've been carrying around in your head the same one you see on the page? Or does the dialogue suddenly sound flat and predictable? Do the events seem to ramble? Translating a flash of inspiration into a compelling story requires careful crafting. The words you choose, how you describe characters, and the way you orchestrate conflict all make the difference—the difference between a story that is slow to begin, flounders midway, or trails off at the end—and one that holds the interest of readers and editors to the final page. By demonstrating effective solutions for potential problems at each stage of your story, Nancy Kress will help you... hook the editor on the first three paragraphs make—and keep—your story's "implicit promise" build drama and credibility by controlling your prose Dozens of exercises help you strengthen your short story or novel. Plus, you'll sharpen skills and gain new insight into... the price a writer pays for flashbacks six ways characters should "reveal" themselves techniques for writing—and rewriting Let this working resource be your guide to successful stories—from beginning to end.