An Idiot's Guide to Writing for Young Adults is a great book for writing, including dialogue, plot, and publishing. Althoughit sounds a little demeaning, it is really a great book for budding authors!
"Look out! He's got a daisy!" - Making Money by Terry Pratchett
Chuck Norris- worshiping gnomes, undead pandas, pet chupacabras and undead Keanu Reeves-what could possibly go wrong?
Hmm. Favorite writing books: The First Five Pages, Writing Fiction for Dummies (because you must), On Writing by Stephen King, Danse Macabre by Stephen King for fans of horror, and Writing Down the Bones.
101 Writing Tips by Travis Thrasher is amazing!!! Many useful tips on writing, revising and even a few on publishing. He most certainly knows what he is talking about and I go to his book whenever I'm lacking inspiration or stuck on my writing!!!
Have anybody read or saw in the store the book called "Robert's Rules for Writing?" I haven't bought one yet, but I already took some sneak peeks and found that his 101 tips are written creatively and wittily. I believe that I won't only be able to learn with it, but have fun with it, too.
I'm not sure if anyone's already suggested them, but Writer's Digest released this AMAZING series called "Write Great Fiction". It's five life-changing books: "Plot & Structure" by James Scott Bell (who is an awesome writer and teacher), "Dialogue" by Gloria Kempton, "Description & Setting" by Ron Rozelle, "Characters, Emotions & Viewpoint" by Nancy Kress, and lastly "Revision & Self-Editing", again, by James Scott Bell. They'e soooooo amazing! I suggest them to anyone, whether newbie writer or long-time, published novelist ^-^ Also, Jerry Clever has an OUTSTANDING book called "Immediate Fiction", that I consider a MUST HAVE :p Catnip~
Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. – Anatole France
My absolute favorite is "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White.
They have lots of helpful tips, but don't clog it up with useless details.
"u and rina are systematically watering down the grammar of yws" - Atticus "From the fish mother to the fish death god." - lehmanf "A fish stole my identity. I blame shady" - Omni [they/he]
How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card, as well as Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter were both very enlightening to me.
I know The First Five Pages (Noah Lukeman) was already mentioned, but I just wanted to expand on it. Noah Lukeman used to be in publishing, like an editor or something, so this book is his list of "things NOT to do in the first five pages of your book or else the editor skimming it will put it right in the rejection pile." The list covers everything from super-basic things like presentation and mechanics to more complex things like characterization, dialogue, and style. The sections include bad examples (YOU HAVE TO READ THE MELODRAMATIC DIALOGUE, IT IS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER) and how to fix them, plus exercises to try with your book. It's a short but useful book, and it's a fun read (unlike a lot of the stuffier books that sound basically like textbooks).
