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Discovery
is what drives all writing.
—Betsy
Warland, Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing
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Recommended
Books on Writing and Editing
There are thousands
of books out there for writers in all genres and fields. Here is
my short list of some of the more inspirational,
informative, and useful ones that I have used for years. If you have
read a good book on writing or editing lately,
email me
and I may
recommend it.
Inspiration
Getting started, keeping going
Self-editing
Style, punctuation, and usage
Getting Published
Online
For your enjoyment
Inspiration
Natalie Goldberg, Old Friend From Far Away: The Practice of
Writing Memoir, New York: Free Press, 2007.
Natalie Goldberg,
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer
Within. Boston: Shambhala, 1986.
Francine Prose,
Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People
Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. New
York: Harper Perennial, 2006.
Betsy Warland, Breathing the Page: Reading the Act of Writing.
Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2010.
Getting started, keeping going
Jane Friedman blog
Jack
Hodgins, A Passion for Narrative: A Guide to Writing
Fiction. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1993.
Anne
Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and
Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1995.
Elizabeth Lyon, A Writer's Guide to Fiction. New York:
Perigree, 2004.
Elizabeth Lyon, A Writer's Guide to Nonfiction. New York:
Perigree, 2003.
Donald
Maass, Writing the Breakout Novel. Cincinnati:
Writer's Digest Books, 2001.
Brenda Miller
and Suzanne Paola, Tell It Slant: Creating, Refining, and Publishing Creative Nonfiction, 3rd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2019.
Lois J. Peterson, 101 and More Writing Exercises to Get You
Started and Keep You Going. Surrey: Metta Publications,
2006.
Christoper Vogler, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for
Writers,
3rd ed. Studio City, CA: Michael Wiese Productions,
2007.
Self-editing
Susan Bell, The Artful Edit: On the Practice of Editing
Yourself. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
Renni Browne and Dave King, Self-Editing for Fiction
Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print, 2nd ed.
New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
Stanley Fish, How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One. New York: HarperCollins, 2011.
Constance Hale, Sin and Syntax: How to Craft Wickedly
Effective Prose. New York: Broadway Books, 2001.
Constance Hale, Vex, Hex, Smash, Smooch: Let Verbs Power Your Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2012.
Elizabeth Lyon, Manuscript Makeover: Revision Techniques No
Fiction Writer Can Afford to Ignore. New York: Perigree, 2008.
William Zinsser, On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to
Writing Nonfiction, 30th Anniversary Edition. New
York: Collins, 2006.
Style, punctuation, and usage
Chicago Manual of Style,
17th ed. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 2017.
Martin Cutts, Oxford Guide to
Plain English. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style. New York: Random House, 2019.
Bryan A. Garner, Garner's Modern English Usage, 4th ed. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Patricia T. O'Conner, Woe Is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English, 4th ed. New York: Riverhead Books, 2019. From Woe Is I: "A good writer is one you can read without breaking a sweat."
Frances Peck, Peck's English Pointers, 2nd ed. Government of Canada Translation Bureau. Available here.
Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. New York: Penguin, 2014.
Joseph M. Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace.
With two chapters coauthored by Gregory G. Colomb. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990. (If you're serious, really serious, about improving your style, read this book.)
Getting Published
Julie Ferguson, Book Magic: Turning Writers into Published
Authors. Port Moody: Beacon Publishing, 2008.
Elizabeth Lyon, Nonfiction Book Proposals Anybody Can Write:
How to Get a Contract and Advance Before Writing Your Book.
New York: Perigree, 2000.
Elizabeth Lyon, The Sell Your Novel Tool Kit: Everything You
Need to Know About Queries, Synopses, Marketing, and Breaking In.
New York: Perigree, 1997.
Essential reference
Canadian Oxford
Dictionary,
2nd ed. Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.
Springfield: Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, 2008.
Online
Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
The Chicago Manual of
Style Online
Jane Friedman blog
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Peck's English Pointers
For your enjoyment
Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue: The English Language. New
York: HarperCollins, 2001.
Don Watson, Death Sentences: How Clichés, Weasel Words, and
Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language. Toronto:
Viking Canada, 2003.
Simon Winchester, The Meaning of Everything: The Story of
the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2003. |
