What Books Should I Read To Improve My Writing?

All of them. Read a lot and read widely. Read "good" books, like classic literature from HS reading lists; and read pulp (if you enjoy that). Read within the genre in which you want to write and read outside it.

You might also consider reading books about writing. Like Stephen King's On Writing or Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott (there are many others).

GL

If we're talking 'how to' books, I'd also recommend Steven King's On Writing, as well as John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist, and Norman Mailer's The Spooky Art. If you mean fiction, I'd find authors whose styles are similar to yours, or what you would like yours to evolve into. Read, read, read, and write, write, write ... oh yeah, and live! Gotta have a lot to draw on.

NorthStar7 said:

What Books Should I Read To Improve My Writing?

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CaroGirl said:

All of them.

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Except this one:

Bebop said:

Steven King's On Writing

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Unless you can find one used.

Read in your genre so you know what is considered normal and/or cliche?

i.e. you don't have to go into great detail about how your FTL engine works in your SF story.

I went to amazon.com to look at On Writing since everyone gushes about it and read through the one star ratings, just to see. I am torn as to whether I want to read this or not. I really do not care about SK or his life growing up. I have never read his books. Hmm...

ccarver30 said:

I went to amazon.com to look at On Writing since everyone gushes about it and read through the one star ratings, just to see. I am torn as to whether I want to read this or not. I really do not care about SK or his life growing up. I have never read his books. Hmm...

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I've only read a few of his books and I'm not a huge fan of his writing. BUT I found On Writing a fascinating and insightful read. He knows what he's talking about and he does it in a way that I found useful and practical.

Like any how-to book, take what you can use and throw away the rest. It couldn't hurt to give it a try. I borrowed a copy from the library. No harm, no foul.

Read widely in your preferred genre, everything from classics to brain candy, but the thing is, don't read passively. Read actively, by which I mean you need to pay attention to the language, how they use it, and analyse how that use creates the effect it does. When you find something you think works especially well, open up a new word file on your PC and copy it out, because that forces your brain to analyse it on a deeper level.

I do this fairly regularly, especially with parts of writing I struggle with - I have a folder full of copied-out action scenes as I'm really focussing on learning those.

In terms of How To books I like On Writing and How Not to Write A Novel.

I donno, I got a lot out of the King book. Coincidentally, it might have been he who said one's likely to learn more about writing from reading a bad book than a good one- as in, what not to do.

When I read fiction, it's approach that I'm looking for. I'm a big fan of Larry McMurtry, and one thing I learned from him is to make your work reader friendly- especially at the outset of a story- it's like holding hands.

I think whether On Writing is useful to you depends on what kind of writer you are.

I found it pretty lean on useful information, but it's also clear from what Mr. King says that he's a "pantser", whereas I lean very heavily toward being a "plotter".

What works for him may not be what works for you.

I did find his thoughts on writing and addiction to be fascinating, however. He says every addict has a million-and-one bullshit excuses for why they can't give up their drug of choice yet, and if the addict happens to be an artist, then their art is just another excuse.

He also says he doesn't remember writing Cujo, and wishes he did, because he likes that book.

jjdebenedictis said:

I think whether On Writing is useful to you depends on what kind of writer you are.

I found it pretty lean on useful information, but it's also clear from what Mr. King says that he's a "pantser", whereas I lean very heavily toward being a "plotter".

What works for him may not be what works for you.

I did find his thoughts on writing and addiction to be fascinating, however. He says every addict has a million-and-one bullshit excuses for why they can't give up their drug of choice yet, and if the addict happens to be an artist, then their art is just another excuse.

He also says he doesn't remember writing Cujo, and wishes he did, because he likes that book.

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Slightly embarrassed to admit I didn't know what a panster was. But yeah, that's me. I haven't read a ton of King, but the thing that I like about him is his humor, even in the most horrifying situations.

http://www.samhainpublishing.com/2009/04/plotter-vs-panster/

ccarver30 said:

I went to amazon.com to look at On Writing since everyone gushes about it and read through the one star ratings, just to see. I am torn as to whether I want to read this or not. I really do not care about SK or his life growing up. I have never read his books. Hmm...

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We are in complete agreement here.

More to the OP's question, find the writer or writers in your field that you feel writes well and study them. Pull their sentences and paragraphs apart and look at how they make the words go together - and write. Write, write, write, and post pieces in our syw, and listen to the critters.

It would be useless to read a how-to book from someone in a field you have no interest in reading or writing. This is why I have a negative interest in SK. The two of us are too far apart for his work or opinions to have any relevance to what I'm doing.

I personally found King's On Writing helpful and interesting. I think he's written enough books to give a bit of advice on the subject.

I try to read the books I'm interested in also writing. I've come across some other types of writing styles that way, that I had never really considered before. It's changed my style a bit over time.

NorthStar7 said:

What Books Should I Read To Improve My Writing?

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Comic books, the Bible, roadmaps...anything you wanna read.

The thing about On Writing is that it's really not a "how to" book. King talks a lot about his own way of writing, and he does give a lot of advice to writers, but it's not really written as a how-to book, like, say, Ben Bova's The Craft of Writing Science Fiction that Sells, or any number of books explicitly written for writers trying to get published. It's more of a memoir peppered with writing advice, some of which is specific to King's style (e.g., writing without an outline or even a specific plot in mind) and some of which is applicable to anyone (like the notorious advice to cut adverbs which seems to have some people thinking that King has literally forbidden them, even though he's just saying the same thing that pretty much every other writing book does).

Obviously, it will be of less interest to you if you're not a Stephen King fan, but even if you are, I would not suggest it as your go-to book for writing advice, just a supplement.

It's comparable to John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist. I'm not particularly a John Gardner fan (I've only read one of his books), but his advice was generally interesting if not specific and nitty-gritty. What was more interesting was his talk about the process, both of writing and being a writer. Which is pretty much what King talks about.

Sappy advice

This is going to sound ridiculous, but I would recommend just about any book written by someone you like or admire.

But, as a note less offered, look at work poorly written, too. This can highlight the bad habits and poor editing, giving a writer something to avoid after it's been spotlighted.

On second thought...

Now that I have thought it through, looking at some bad writing just might be a good way to go. Places like smashwords offers more good and decent writing than the reputation highlights, but there's plenty of poorly written and edited work.

When someone is good at something, they make it look so easy. Picture a black belt in martial arts. See how they make those kicks and moves seem so simple?

Then try it yourself. Then apply a liberal amount of Ben Gay.

See people beat the hell out of themselves with those Nunchaku as well as see pros do it well. Seeing a moron do it demonstrates what the talented make easy.

The point is that by reading poor work, one can see in a brighter light what should NOT be done and what should be improved. This just might prompt some introspection on your work and offer avenues to improvement.

I learned a great deal about writing characters from the first two thirds of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

I'd recommend reading a lot of whatever genre you want to write, plus other genres. You may not want to write thrillers but a well-written thriller can tell you a lot about plot and pacing, for example. Books on writing I'd recommend include Swaine's Techniques of the Selling Writer (old but good, and very, very practical, though with some wince-making moments of gender and race reference due to when it was written) and Vogler's The Writer's Journey. Jim Butcher's old Livejournal blog http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/ also has some really excellent advice.
But in the main, I would say read widely inside and outside your chosen genre, and personally, I'd say read the good stuff. I think, especially when you're still finding your own voice, that bad writing can be catching. (Also from my point of view there are too many good books I want to read. Life's too short to wade through a pile of pooh to see why it stinks...)

Yep - read anything and everything, inside and outside your genre. The same mechanics of good writing go into the engine of any book - genre labels are just the paint job and aesthetics. Even the worst book ever written has something to teach you. (Such as the fact that you should never let the notion that you've written the worst book ever keep you from trying... besides, you couldn't possibly write worse than that.)

Also, if you're afraid to commit money to a book, you might consider your local library. It's more or less free - as in, you're already paying for it with your taxes, so you might as well get some use out of the place. If they don't have what you want, ask about Interlibrary Loan.

My off-the-top-of-my-head favorite books on writing:
No Plot? No Problem! (Chris Baty - Not a technical how-to manual, but a celebration of the just-write-it spirit of NaNoWriMo)
The Art of War for Writers (James Scott Bell)
Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly (Gail Carson Levine - YA title, but still inspiring)
Writing the Breakout Novel (Donald Maass)
The Arvon Book of Crime and Thriller Writing (Michelle Spring and Laurie R. King - I'm a fantasy writer, and I still got plenty out of this book)
Your First Novel (Ann Rittenberg and Laurie Whitcomb)

I liked On Writing. I am not a King fan by any stretch of the imagination, nor did I find the writing tips any better than what you can find in a different "how to" book.

Instead, I really enjoyed the biographical part. I am always interested to read about how writers started out and how they became successful.