My Favorite Books About Writing

I hope you're ready to write down those bones.

Along with most people on the internet right now¹, I am currently reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. This is nothing new—I’ve read it before, because I will read pretty much any book on creativity or writing. I’m doing my morning pages (iykyk, and if you’re a certain kind of person you definitely know) and, honestly, seeing some benefits. This book is pretty bonkers, but I love reading it even when I’m like, Okay Julia. And this got me thinking about the writing books that have actually made an impact on me as a person/writer.

I know not everyone loves books about writing, but I’m a self-help reader through and through (this is presumably why I read He’s Just Not That Into You in high school, when I was not even dating)². I’m always curious about other writers and their processes, and yeah, part of me does wonder if I’ll stumble across some sort of wisdom that will change the way I write forever.

I think there are two ways to look at writing books:

1. As a guide from someone who made it, full of actionable steps you can take to have their talent, books, and career. OR

2. As a look into someone else’s process and experiences, full of ideas that may or may not apply to you.

Perhaps it’s obvious, but I recommend looking at writing books with the second point in mind. As a younger person, though, I probably looked to them as infallible guides (I can’t really remember because I’m old/seven books into my career and now have a better understanding of what works for me). I believe that most people who publish writing books do so in good faith, because they have something to share or advice they think can help people. But that doesn’t mean their advice will work for you. Reading so many writing books has led me to realize that they sometimes contradict each other, just like how reading so many pie books showed me that there are VERY different ways to make a pie crust and each pie maker insists that their way is the only way that works³.

So here’s what I’m saying: these are my personal favorites. I think all writing books are worth reading, because even if you think a book is totally worthless or totally wrong, it will give you an idea of what you don’t want to do. Some of the books I’m about to share with you have helped me in concrete ways with my own work. Some of them are just fun. Please do let me know your personal favorites, especially if they’ve helped you in some actionable way. I’m always curious to know what others actually get out of writing books, aside from just “everyone said to read this, so I did.”

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

This is, hands down, the writing book that has had the biggest influence on me and changed the way I think about books and publishing. Does that sound dramatic? I will say that the first time I read it, right after I published my first YA book to very little fanfare, it almost gave me a panic attack (literally, unfortunately) because I became convinced that my career was over and that I was going to have to switch to a pen name (not even the worst thing, in retrospect). But I read it later in a better frame of mind and found it really illuminating.

I think I found this book about one million years ago because of Stephanie Perkins. I’m almost positive that she mentioned it somewhere as one of her favorite writing books, and I was like, “If it’s good enough for Stephanie Perkins, it’s certainly good enough for me.” (Stephanie, I am so sorry if you have no clue what I’m talking about…maybe it was some OTHER author I love! Who knows!)

The title makes it sound like this is going to be some sort of prescriptive, blueprint book, like, “do x and y and you, too, will make millions!” But it’s not like that. What it does is break down what makes people connect with writing…or, more accurately, what makes a lot of people connect with a book, from the characters to the plot to the emotional stakes. It sounds like a basic idea, and maybe it is, but it’s something that I’m not sure everyone considers when they’re writing. Like…why would someone want to read your book? You have to think about that!

I wouldn’t say the book has helped me write a breakout novel (although I did read it around the time I wrote Waiting for Tom Hanks), but it did change the way I look at publishing and other writers’ careers. One thing I love is looking at a writer who wrote many books that weren’t mega-successful and THEN had a big hit (like, say, Jojo Moyes or Taylor Jenkins Reid). It’s actually very easy to look at their breakout book and pinpoint what made it hit in a way that the others didn’t.

Maybe this information will help me sell millions of copies someday. Ha. But it is VERY interesting to think about, and I highly recommend the book! Some of it is out of date (in my edition, anyway, he talks a lot about how e-books are never gonna catch on) but the writing advice itself is good.

On Writing by Stephen King

I’m sorry, what are you going to do, not read this one? I honestly don’t know why you’d skip it. It’s a lot of fun, and there’s one past where he’s describing bad writing and then says, “Who farted?” Always makes me laugh. I also love when he says “Art is a support system for life, not the other way around.” I think about that A LOT as someone who has had, in the past, a tendency to get hyper-focused on work.

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

I need to tell you that I haven’t read this book in years. However, it looms large in my memory. In my senior year of college, I took this class called The Literary Marketplace that was all about how to submit stories to magazines and make a career as a writer…you know, the business side that usually no one tells you about because they’re so focused on the craft side. It culminated in a group project where we had to run a pretend literary magazine, but I didn’t want to do that because I didn’t think it would be helpful for me, so instead I asked if I could do a solo project where I’d read a bunch of writing books and apply their advice to my own writing life (also known as Giving Myself Homework: The Kerry Winfrey Story). I don’t remember much about some of the books my teacher assigned me: The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp, One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty, The Art of Fiction by John Gardner. But the one that really stood out to me was Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, mostly because it was so dang weird. Also I think the other books might’ve just been a bit too advanced for me. I wasn’t one of those 22 year olds who was writing a novel and ready to take the world by storm. I had no clue what I was doing and frankly, I needed Natalie Goldberg’s beginner’s instructions. It’s not actual writing instruction so much as it is creativity prompts and encouragement—perhaps a good companion to The Artist’s Way. I’m not sure I would get much out of this at this stage of my career, but I can’t imagine not having read it and it set me off on a big Natalie Goldberg phase. I read her other writing books and even one of her novels. And to this day, whenever someone mentions Taos I have to fight back the urge to be like, “Natalie Goldberg loves Taos.” She loves Taos. I’m not sure if it’s in Writing Down the Bones or another one of her books, but she has a chapter that just says, “Write a memory of mashed potatoes.” That’s it, just write about mashed potatoes.

Escaping Into the Open by Elizabeth Berg

Here’s a hidden gem! I don’t know why more people don’t talk about this one…although I guess I don’t know why more people don’t talk about Elizabeth Berg in general (she’s one of my mom’s favorite authors)⁴. This is mostly a book about her personal writing journey, although she includes some writing prompts as well. This is a fascinating, funny book and a few parts have stuck with me over the years:

-She writes about how she had a special phone just for calls from her agent and her daughter said she always hated that phone because it meant her mom wasn’t going to be available to talk to her. I think about this a lot because obviously my work is important to me, but the way my kid views me working is also so important and I never want him to think that work comes before him. It reminds me of the Stephen King quote I mentioned above (not the farting one). If I’m misrepresenting this story, I’m sorry, but I’m trying to write this based on my genuine memories so you know that these anecdotes really stuck with me!

-She says she pretty quickly started making more money writing than she did as a nurse. Talk about a flex! I mean, sure, some years I make more writing than I did at my last full-time job, but I worked as a writer/researcher at a non-profit, so I’m not sure that’s necessarily impressive to anyone.

-She tells a story about how when she made the NYT bestseller list she printed the list onto a shirt and wore it over to a writer friend’s house, and later the friend was like, “I can’t believe you did that, it made me feel SO BAD!” A real lesson in being your own hype-woman but also maybe not displaying your accomplishments on a literal t-shirt around someone who is struggling, lol.

Clearly I got a lot out of this book. I really recommend it.

What About the Baby? by Alice McDermott

I believe that Alice McDermott is one of our greatest living writers. Also did you know I met her once? Maybe I should get that printed on a t-shirt. I was at a literary festival in an author capacity, but a little thing about me at a festival is that just because I’m there for work doesn’t mean I’m gonna forget I’m a fan. The second I didn’t have people at my table I ran over to meet Alice McDermott, and guess what, she was lovely. Just very normal and friendly and funny.

I love her thoughts on writing. She’s a master—of course I want to know what she says. She belongs to the Jonathan Franzen school of thought that there is such a thing as objectively bad and good writing. And, to be honest, a lot of her thoughts simply don’t apply to genre fiction. But it doesn’t really matter—not everything you read in a writing book has to apply to you, specifically (talking to myself here). This book, more than the others I shared, is essays on the meaning of and importance of fiction. I think this one in particular would be great to read as a non-writer.

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You may notice that I didn’t include any books that focus solely on structure, like Save the Cat. There’s nothing wrong with books like that and I think they’re very fun to read. Maybe they’ll even be useful for you—I would say once a week I think about how Ottessa Moshfegh read The 90 Day Novel when she wrote Eileen. Maybe a prescriptive, structure-based book will lead you to write a lot about vomit. I just don’t know! I don’t think about writing in a magical way (says the woman reading The Artist’s Way, but I will add that I’ve never made it through Big Magic because it’s a little too much for my own vibe), but I also don’t enjoy thinking of it with too much structure. I like a book that’s right in the middle. Not laying out a three act structure you have to follow, but not focusing too much on manifesting. Or maybe mixing those two things together. You know what I mean.

After all this, I have to say that I think the best writing book is actually just reading lots of novels (or whatever you want to write) and learning from them. Boring but true. Maybe in that vein, I should recommend Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose, which I also read in college although I don’t remember much.

Okay, that’s it…please do let me know which writing books have actually had an effect on your writing or your life, or the books you hated, or the ones that just have weird lines or pieces of advice that linger in your mind. I’d love to hear it. I’ve read SO many writing books that I couldn’t mention them all here, and also I’m sure you already know about Bird by Bird (although of course feel free to tell me any specific ways Bird by Bird has helped you). Please remember that I am a human being just like you, and any typos or errors are just part of the package.

See you next week. xo

1. Have you observed this? It really seems like everyone is reading it. Julia is having a moment!

2. An amazing example of a book where you ONLY have to read the title. That’s IT, that’s all there is to it.

3. Don’t even get into the “hands vs. food processor” debate, to say nothing of “metal pan vs. glass pan.” People have OPINIONS.

4. If you liked Catherine Newman’s We All Want Impossible Things, you should read Elizabeth Berg’s Talk Before Sleep.