My Favorite Books on How to Write Fiction

I taught myself to write fiction by reading about a million books. I also took three workshops.

The workshops were really fun and I enjoyed them very much. The books . . . I'd have a question in my mind about how to do something and I'd go to the bookstore and find a book; there was always a book that talked about what I wanted to know.

I'd read that book then I'd have another question and back to the bookstore I went, found a book that answered that question. Then I'd have another question . . . and so it went until I was pretty sure about how to write a novel.

Once I started writing, I discovered certain things just didn't read write and neither had the idea what the problem was and obviously no idea how to solve it. Sometimes it took a long time to figure that out, so back in the bookstore I was looking for that solution.

It was that way through the entire process. And then came the revising. In the bookstore, again, trying to figure out how to revise. And more books.

Here is a list of the books I found really helpful.

You Can Write a Novel, James V. Smith, Jr. -- This was the book that broke the sound barrier, so to speak. Things clicked. The only thing he recommends that I would never ever do again is wait to correct anything. He says, just keep on writing, don't go back and correct. Really, really bad idea! If you do that, as I did, you end up with a big mess. So, if your character changes color hair, or something happens that changes what's happened before, I suggest making that change immediately. With a big book you forget what needed to be changed and why. But worse, it messes things up in your mind and becomes difficult to keep writing.

The Craft of Novel-Writing, Dianne Doubtfire -- This book is only about 90 pages, but it's the only book I read that gives you a simple method to discover your plot. You may have an idea for your novel and some pictures in your mind as to what happens in it, but what about the rest of the novel? Doubtfire says, get a notepad. On the first line, write down a one-sentence description about that scene, basically what happens. Then ask yourself, "what happens next?" And you keep going that way until you come to the end. This is a fantastic method to uncover your plot. I used it for my novel. What I also found is things change as you write, but as long as you have a basic framework, everything comes together.

Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy - David Gerrold. I can't remember what I learned from this book, but do remember it was excellent and I learned a lot from it and wrote to thank the author.

Writing Romance, Vanessa Grant -- I had no plans to write romance, but it's the only book I could find that addressed how to plan passage of time in a novel.

Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, Syd Field -- This is one of the first books I read. It was extremely useful to get the idea of scenes and writing in scenes. If you think about a movie, there are scenes. A novel is the same way, except it's not visual; you have to write in the visuals. Also, when I watched movies on a DVD, I'd watch the special features. They always had deleted scenes. That was a big learning to see what scenes they kept and what scenes they deleted. Same goes for scenes in a novel.

The Weekend Novelist, Robert J. Ray -- This was another really, really important book. It talks about giving your characters a wardrobe. Who knew that might be important, but it is. Also, it's the ONLY book where a certain method is talked about. Let's say a character is looking at the menu (this is an example he used). Well, the character is looking at the menu and then what? Then you have to tell the reader what is on the menu. It's a two-part thing, the character looks or see or comments on, and then you tell the reader what the character sees. Critical in writing fiction.

All books by Jack M. Bickham: Writing and Selling Your Novel; Scene & Structure; The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes. Bickham was a writing professor. He really knows the proces sof writing a novel and knows how to teach it. Outstanding books, all of them.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Renni Browne & Dave King -- An excellent book that is specific to editing fiction writing, which is very different from writing non-fiction. I learned a lot about the conventions of writing fiction by reading about how to edit fiction.

I read other books that weren't very helpful that I still have, but the ones I've listed are the ones that taught me how to write.

I also read popular and highly recommended books like On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner and found them completely useless. They offered nothing and they just confused the whole idea of how to write fiction. I got nothing out of them except frustration.

I think each one of us who wants to write fiction finds the best way for them. I tend to learn alone and from books, so that's mostly how I did it. I was also fortunate that the three workshops I attended were taught by a great professor and had some great people in it.

Given all these books and all the degrees, classes and workshops about writing fiction, one wonders how Austin and Dickens did it. That's always a humbling thought.