 | The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Buy new: $8.63 / Used from: $0.89 Rocket fuel for resistant writers. There are no "tips" here, no practical suggestions. Just a brilliant, obsessive, zealous writer writing about her long, odd hours, her dependence on caffeine, and other brilliant, zealous writers. But really it's her prose that wakes me up, puts me to work.
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 | The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life by Twyla Tharp
Buy new: $11.52 / Used from: $8.43 rocket fuel part 2. a genius book.
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 | The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield
Buy new: $9.32 / Used from: $6.44 rocket fuel, part 3. cannot but change your approach to your day. pressfield is an ex-marine and his approach to the discipline of writing is inspiring.
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 | A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Buy new: $10.80 / Used from: $0.67 a powerful glimpse into hemingway's writing process. his best advice to jump start the day's work? "just write the truest sentence you know."
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 | Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (Shambhala Pocket Classics) by Natalie Goldberg
Buy used from: $4.56 a classic. better for fiction writers than non-fiction writers, but still a great place to start for any kind of writer.
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 | Chapter After Chapter: Discover the Dedication and Focus You Need to Write the Book of Your Dreams by Heather Sellers
Buy new: $13.59 / Used from: $0.01 a book that teaches you how to make your writing life work in the midst of your busy life. invaluable for flagging spirits.
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 | The Faith of a Writer: Life, Craft, Art by Joyce Carol Oates
Buy new: $9.56 / Used from: $1.16 always good for the ego to hear how famous authors still find it tough to write!
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 | Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity by Ray Bradbury
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $4.65 Bradbury's advice? "stuff yourself full of poems, prose, recipes" - and let it explode out of you on the page every day.
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 | Walking on Alligators: A Book of Meditations for Writers by Susan Shaughnessy
Buy new: $11.69 / Used from: $0.01 filled to the brim with great micro-ideas.
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 | The Writer's Home Companion: An Anthology of the World's Best Writing Advice, From Keats to Kunitz by Joan Bolker Ed. D.
Buy used from: $2.35 a variety of approaches from a variety of perspectives-- writers, cognitive psychologists, writing teachers. gail godwin's essay is my favorite.
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 | Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $2.59 another classic, best loved for the phrase "Sh**ty first drafts."
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 | Making a Literary Life by Carolyn See
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $1.94 very pragmatic and helpful suggestions: eg, reach out to your favorite authors; write a letter of appreciation to a (living) author you admire every day.
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