Best Books for Writers

“All you need is a word,” write Jodi and Owen Egerton at the beginning of This Word Now, emphasizing the importance of getting the first word or idea down on the page. Chock-full of essays, anecdotes, lists, and exercises, the book is designed to help readers warm up and stay engaged through the various stages of the creative process, and to approach and access the imagination while both having fun and being challenged.

“I wrote this book because I want writers, including myself, to cheer up. I want us to swap out the all-too-common mindsets and practices that do not serve us for ones that feed our creativity, our productivity, and our souls.” Author and instructor Joni B. Cole guides readers through the steps of actively attending to the joyful aspects of creativity, while steering clear of unproductive attitudes, habits, and perceptions. With engaging honesty and humor, Cole shares anecdotes, examples, and exercises designed to jumpstart the discovery of happiness and inspiration throughout the entire writing process.

“Reflection can actually change, if not the outcome, then the attitude about particular heart-rending events. And it’s so often the case that brave writing begets brave living.” Author, instructor, and former rock and roll groupie Pamela Des Barres leads readers toward bravery in both writing and living in this book filled with creative prompts, lively exemplary anecdotes, and comparative references to music and literature. The book acts as a guide through the process of facing and reflecting on one’s own memories—whether heart-rending, dangerous, regretful, youthful, or transgressive—and how to write about these experiences with a new attitude of confidence and awareness.

​“I wanted to make the case for the value of imitation as a creative strategy,” writes David Lehman about this collection of poems in homage to over seventy poets who have left an impression, from Catullus and Li Po to Gwendolyn Brooks and Charles Bukowski, and various styles and forms that inspire, from jazz standards to astrology. A useful resource for creative writers, it may also influence readers to create their own set of “in the manner of” poems.

In The Emotional Craft of Fiction, veteran literary agent Donald Maass writes that “showing and telling are only part of the picture.” Instead, this book on craft illustrates how to use story to provoke a visceral and emotional experience in readers. Each chapter guides you through topics to help connect readers to your characters, which include emotional modes of writing, connecting characters’ inner and outer journeys, and using plot as a sequence of emotional milestones.

“Good essays essay interminably.... They keep thinking, keep sorting through their stimuli, keep uncovering and echoing meaning. An essay is thinking in action,” writes Ander Monson, founder of the website Essay Daily, who edited this collection with Craig Reinbold. The book combines many of the best essays from Essay Daily with original pieces, all of which serve as an inspirational showcase for the potential range and elasticity of the personal essay form.

This anthology compiles over thirty essays on the literary life by authors including Julia Alvarez, Walter Benjamin, Edwidge Danticat, Henry James, Ha Jin, Cynthia Ozick, Binyavanga Wainaina, and David Foster Wallace. Readers gain access and insight into the reflections of a diverse range of writers, all of whom share their approach to the craft and their perspectives on the writing life.

​“This book is by and for writers who are building careers that deftly encompass all we are: a little bit artist, a little bit hawker, and a whole lot of love…” Manjula Martin, founder of Scratch magazine, has compiled a collection of essays and interviews that reveal the ways different writers have managed the economics and finances of living the writing life. Authors such as Alexander Chee, Jonathan Franzen, Roxane Gay, Leslie Jamison, Porochista Khakpour, and Kiese Laymon share a variety of advice and strategies gleaned from their own experiences navigating the reality of making art while making a living.

In Finishing School, Cary Tennis and Danelle Morton identify and discuss the most common emotions (self-doubt, shame, arrogance) that keep writers from completing their work, and then share techniques on how to tackle the straightforward process of committing to a project from start to finish. Throughout the book, the authors emphasize the importance of setting and scheduling manageable goals, and being held accountable by others while offering helpful tips and insights gained from their own writing success stories.

“If you want to finish this novel of yours within a year, you have to get to work! There’s not a moment to lose. There’s no time to wait for inspiration.” In This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley leads readers through an active approach to writing a complete novel starting with how to establish a consistent writing routine, and the basics of story beginnings and research, through the final stages of revision and editing. Writers will be invigorated by Mosley’s engaging and straightforward insights in chapters such as “The Omniscient Narrator,” “Intuition Versus Structure,” and “The Devil and the Details.”