So, I’m not as into writing culture as I am into art culture. In any art circle, there are some books that people always recommend (Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain) and some books that people always say you should avoid (Anything by Chris Hart). My question is are there any books on writing that are commonly recommended to engaged in or are so bad they’ll make you write worse?

Dear Writer, by Carmel Bird. I recently got to have my copy signed by Carmel herself at a writers festival, and we sat down and talked about my writing goals and how to achieve them. :D

I definitely do NOT recommend “Literary Theory: An Anthology” (edited by Julie Rivkin et al.), as it is a black hole of pretentious academia and affected elitist posing.

I second the recommendation for On Writing, and I would like to add The Writer’s Reader : A Guide To Writing Fiction & Poetry, ed. Brenda Walker. It’s basically a compilation of essays by various established authors on a large variety of writing-related topics, such as voice, narration, perspective, pacing, poetic techniques, and so on. Definitely worthwhile.

Also, A Passion For Narrative by Jack Hodges, a writer with a unique but very deep understanding of the craft of writing.

It’s more on the technical side, but I’ve always found Painless Writing to have some helpful tips about making prose sound good. I’m not sure how much value it’d be to this crowd, since you’re all pretty well-versed on that stuff, but I might as well throw it out there!

Er…I’d recommend How Not to Write a Novel or On Writing. Both are pretty good, and have some good insight.

Ditto. The first one’s quite funny, and really helps you learn what wrong things can look like. The second one is a good insight into King’s methods, and writing in general, in a no bullshit sort of way.
On a related note, I’d love to see Meyer write a book like King’s On Writing.

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

Reading Like A Writer and Writing Tools are wonderful. I took them with me to college because I love them so much.

Thank you very much for the recommendations. I’d rather take recommendations from people over taking a blind guess, learning the wrong technique and having to untrain some of the bad advice.

I can vouch for Reading Like a Writer. ;)

Er…I’d recommend How Not to Write a Novel or On Writing. Both are pretty good, and have some good insight.

YESYESYES to both of these.

Diana Wynne Jones is a brilliant genius, and I love her more than ever now. The Tough Guide to Fantasyland is brilliant and hilarious. I get the feeling she and Limyaael would’ve gotten along well.

Currently reading a fantastic book on writing and the artistic process:

The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield

^ The author sounds familiar. Is he the one who wrote ‘Gates of Fire’? That was a good book.

Pretty sure he is. Also wrote “Turning Pro” which is pretty good, and relates to other artistic endeavors like The War of Art .

Too many people present writing as something mystical that cannot be learned like any other subject.

Speaking of, I recently read a book written sometime in the 30s(?) on that very subject—John Gardner even wrote the forward—called Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande. It’s just really practical advice for how to get over all the mental hangups that are common among amateur writers: basically a refute to all the writing teachers who insist it has to be a gift. I remember one line about how no one tells wanna be painters or engineers they can’t be taught. The advice to own two typewriters may be a little outdated (although you could just switch that to laptops), and she mentions observing your streetcar conductor or motorman, but otherwise it holds up well.

Because a laptop is somehow not a computer? Now, in writing, it’s probably best to be specific, because strictly speaking iPads are also computers, and so it’s not a specific sort of word. But I bought a laptop for that very reason, even though my aunt scolded me for not getting an iPad—she’s an Apple junkie without any clear reason…there’s no reason I’m getting a tablet when I only want a portable device for writing and I’m definitely not getting any of the MacBooks for just typing. /off topic

For any fellow fantasy writers out there, I just finished reading The Wand in the Word: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy. It’s got interviews with Madeline L’Engle, Phillip Pullman, Garth Nix, Ursula LeGuin, and many more. While I wouldn’t consider myself a personal fan of all of the writers represented, their advice is excellent.

I found Language in Action by S.I. Hayakawa to be an extremely useful book. It not only improved my writing, but also my thinking.

@Thea, that sounds fantastic. As a consummate lover of anything Zen I will definitely check that out.