Writing may be a solitary activity, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little bit of help. The world’s best writers go to workshops and buy and read books on writing all the time.
As a writer, you’re constantly honing your craft, so it’s good to have books, magazines, and other guides to help you with exercises and tips to make your writing better. Not to mention, sometimes the well of inspiration runs dry, and you need a little boost to get you started writing again. These books and magazines are the best writing guides you’ll find.
- John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction – John Gardner is known for such successful works as Grendel, Mickelsson’s Ghosts, and Jason and Medeia. His incredibly approachable and enjoyable book on writing has a lot of great advice, as well as quite a few interesting tips and exercises.
- Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – How has one of the world’s most successful and prolific writers done it? King’s On Writing is both a writing guide and a memoir. It’s an enjoyable read with a lot of great advice, including how to “kill your darlings” when you need to edit out text that you love but that doesn’t move the book along well.
- Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within – Veteran writer and workshop leader Natalie Goldberg likens writing to Zen meditation and practices in this guide. You can read it cover to cover, or you can pick and choose from chapters and exercises.
These are by no means the only great books you’ll find on writing. In fact, there are dozens of magazines you can find online and in print that will give you periodical advice and tips. Among these, one of the very best is Writer’s Digest. You may find that these are all you need for years of inspiration. They’re definitely a great start for any writer.