I have been a teacher of writing (and science) for many years now. I am a writer today in large part thanks to generous writing teachers I’ve had along the way. I did not start writing fiction until college and by then I already felt behind. Craft wise, I had to learn it all from scratch. I had to become a whole different reader, on the sentence level. Textbooks and practice were how I learned science. These were the same tools I used to learn how to write. The ten selections below are books on writing, on fiction, on craft, on the life of a writer, on writers, and on the English language itself. I find myself turning to these books on days I don’t want to write. Writing is a solitary venture that can get very lonely. I like having the presence of other writers around and just thinking about writing can generate a spark.
My new book Rental House is a novel in two parts. Both parts follow a couple, Nate and Keru, through two different family vacations. The first part of the book came together quickly. I wrote it in weeks because the idea fell out of my head more or less, fully formed. The second part took much longer. I wrote, deleted, wrote, draft after draft. When I was at my most discouraged (circling the drain, dark night of the soul!), I began reading Dillard’s The Writing Life and it was very instructional. It helped me reset and get back to the task because as much as writing is about creation, it is also about solving problems. Solve enough problems and the story gets a pulse. Then, with that heartbeat, that rhythm, you can see the book through to the end.
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Naming the World: And Other exercises for The Creative Writer edited by Bret Anthony Johnston
The title says it all. This was my first “writing exercise” book and it introduced me to a slew of contemporary writers (each has a dedicated chapter, with a mini-essay and exercise). The book is very clear and walks a beginning writer through how to start, character development, POV/tone, plot, dialogue, voice, and revisions.
How Fiction Works by James Wood
If you ever wanted to take a literature course with James Wood, reading this book might be a close second. He pulls so many specific and in-depth examples from the Western canon to illustrate how fiction works and the different techniques a writer might use. Section 46 is a short paragraph. I read this to my students on the first day. It starts with “Writers can be like those twenty-year-olds, too–stuck at different floors of visual talent.”
The Art of Revision by Peter Ho Davies
A slim book about the importance, the necessity of revision. Amateur writers never want to revise—that’s how you can tell they are amateurs. Davies goes through how different writers approach revision and how he revises his stories and novels. Here is a sentence I love from this book: “We revise–which is to say we write–to understand our intent, to understand our own stories, to understand ourselves.”
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
An even slimmer book, about not just the written word, but the mind of a writer and what an enormous task it is to write! The seven chapters follow a meandering, collage-like structure and read like an ongoing conversation with a maestro. I read this book when I was feeling discouraged about Rental House and writing as a whole. It and Dillard’s wisdom kept me company.
Several Short Sentences about Writing by Verlyn Klinkenborg
A fun book guided by short sentences, that teaches you to notice and to write better. What I found most instructional were the practice problems near the end. In this section, Klinkenborg pulls “aberrant” sentences written by “excellent college students who went on to be very good writers” and diagrams what is wrong with each sentence. Brutal sometimes, but to err is to learn and I learn best from examples.
The Writer’s Chapbook published by the Paris Review
I believe this book is sold out, but if you can find an old copy get it! This is a compendium of advice from many, many writers, selected from the Paris Review Interviews. The chapters each follow a question, like “why do you write,” “how do you write humor,” “What does it mean to be a writer of color,” etc. Lots of voices here, lots of opinions (sometimes clashing), that makes for a vibrant conversation on every page.
Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer
I place this fun book on proper usage of the English language in the same company as Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style, which I was given in high school by my English teacher. What’s fun is that Dreyer, the copy chief of Random House, really gets into weeds and being in the mind of a fastidious copy editor helps me, a writer who is not as fastidious with grammar, pay attention to word choice and get back to form.
Field Guide to Writing Flash Fiction edited by Tara L Masih
I teach a flash fiction class every semester. I pull a lot of examples and exercises from this book. Similar to Naming the World, each chapter also has a mini-instructional essay from a different writer about how they approach flash, the tips and tricks. There is also a nice introduction to “the short short story” at the beginning. What I love about flash is how concentrated the story-telling becomes. Every word is important. Every choice the writer makes is laid bare.
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Woolfe is very clear here. In order to write, a woman must have both “money and a room of one’s own.” Woolfe came from privilege but that does not make her words less true. I read this book when I first moved to New York. Life was (is) so expensive, and I took on many other jobs to be able to write. Nothing has really changed. I have money work that pays for my writing work. I am very open to my students about the realities of being a writer. Writing, and Woolfe knew this, is a luxury that not many people can afford, but if you can, then be serious about it, don’t dally, don’t waste it.
The Diaries of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka
There are many entries about not writing and how tortuous that can be, especially from the year 1915. These can be fun to read, if you’re stuck too, since misery likes company, but equally fun are all of Kafka’s random tangents and daily obsessions. Tangents and obsessions are where stories start. I like seeing how the mind of a writer works. I like being in that headspace, however messy it might be.
