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Writing is a funny old occupation and creative writing is even stranger. As I pointed out in a previous post there is no money in it - well there is - if you manage to connect with enough people who then actually buy your what you’ve written. But still thousands of people spend hours and hours writing. . We just can’t help being creative even if we’re not creating for a guaranteed audience (that’s if you want an audience).

What did I learn from taking Creative Writing as a degree? Writing isn’t therapy, it isn’t really self-expression, it’s more about conveying something to a reader in the best way you can. And if that means that you have to cut all the bits you like from your writing or you have to rewrite what you’ve been working on for days, so be it.

It’s not about you. Readers don’t care if you’ve spend 20 years working on your novel. They only care if you engage them with what you’ve written.

And if that hasn’t put you off, not that it should, to help start your writing career I thought I’d make some book recommendations some spiritual and some technical. Spiritual books are the ones that I think help inspire you and the technical ones will help stop you annoying the grammar police as well as offer more writerly advice.

It’s hard to recommend just one book as no book is going to teach you how to write but they might keep you going once you have.

The most practical and inspirational book for me would be A Writer’s Book of Days. It’s packed full of daily prompts so you’re never stuck for something to write about. It’s got loads of tips, mini-articles, and thoughts from other writers on the writing life and gives you everything you need in a companion book. It’s not a technical book. It does not deal with plotting, or character development nor does it go over grammar or spelling but it does get words on paper.

The next source of spiritual inspiration is the writer Natalie Goldberg. She is famous for a volume of essays called Writing Down the Bones. It’s a guide for living the writing life. It’s not a practical guide like the one above but non the less inspiring. Goldberg has written a way of thinking about writing by sharing her thoughts and experiences. She’s also written two other books on writing, Wild Mind and Thunder and Lightening, in which she explains that writing has never made anyone she knows happy. As I said before writing isn’t therapy though it might be therapeutic. Wild Mind contains lots of exercises to limber up your writing mind. Thunder and Lightening is more depressing but still worth reading if you’ve read the others.

Another inspirational teaching of writing is Julia Cameron who believes whole heatedly in laying track, which is another way of saying just worry about putting the words down and not the words themselves. And if you’ve ever sat there for hours pondering about what to put next this is a book for you. I agree with this especially if you have deadlines there is nothing like them for keeping you writing. She’s the author of The Right to Write and The Sound of Paper. I’d choose The Right to Write first and again if she agrees with you read The Sound of Paper.

If you’re looking for a book which is a little more grounded and less airy we have On Writing by Stephen King - half memoir and half writing guide. This is a no nonsense guide packed with common sense advice on what you tools to have in your writing toolbox. He does play down though how much talent he has - writing isn’t just about the technicalities there has to be some spark there too and his is blazing. You might not like what he writes but what he does write is a class in itself. This book is a wonderful insight into the mind of a master.

One final mind that’s worth looking into is the mind of Lawrence Block. In Telling Lies for Fun and Profit and Spider, Spin Me a Web he collects together a series of columns on all aspects on the writing life. He deals with why you shouldn’t walk in Jane Austen’s footsteps, why you shouldn’t always say yes when to editors suggestions, plus a myriad of other topics. And seeing as the guy has written in excess of fifty novels he does know a few things.

Apart from that there are couple of technical books that I’d recommend for your shelves. The first being Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. She might be a little acidic when it comes to style but she makes up for it in helping you understand the rules of grammar and if you don’t fancy that there is always Getting the Point by J. Haddon & E. Hawksey.

And to help tell the story and figure out the mechanics of it well you can’t go wrong with Story by Robert Mckee. It’s not strictly speaking about novels but readers are so ingrained by filmic shorthand that it might help you set everything up in the right way.

Oh and if you’re wondering if I’m currently writing a novel - well no, not yet. I still haven’t found right story to tell but when I do I’ll let you all know as soon as I’ve signed on the dotted line.

Tags: reading lists, writing