 | Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $2.48 One of the best, and definitely the most fun.
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 | The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
Buy new: $8.63 / Used from: $1.12 One of the best for the more serious novice as well as for working writers.
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 | Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft by Janet Burroway
Buy used from: $0.01 This might be the best book for the serious beginner because it distills much of what the other books say, and often includes excerpts from them.
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 | Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster
Buy new: $9.36 / Used from: $0.90 Also for the serious writer. Classic stuff.
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 | Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (Shambhala Pocket Classics) by Natalie Goldberg
Buy used from: $6.58 Another good book for beginners. She explains both the art of writing, and the way to use it as a spiritual practice.
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 | The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers by John Gardner
Buy new: $9.86 / Used from: $1.98 Another heavyduty book by Gardner for the serious wannabe. The chapter "Common Errors" is great to help diagnose the problems that show up most often in amateur writers.
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| On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
Buy used from: $0.91 This is for the serious wouldbe novelist. Like walking into a seminar on writing in which everyone wants to be published by the end of the semester.
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 | On Moral Fiction (A Harper Torchbook- TB 5069) by John Gardner
Buy new: $16.65 / Used from: $3.30 Don't bother with this one unless you're very serious, and want to go deeply into Gardner's particular theory of fiction.
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| An American Rhetoric by William Watt
This is the book Gardner recommends if you have problems with the mechanics of writing. Unfortunately it's out of print and the used copies are really pricy!
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 | The Observation Deck: A Tool Kit for Writers (Past & Present) by Naomi Epel
Buy used from: $3.46 This is kind of fun and can help jiggle your mind to get you back on a productive track. Makes a good gift for a writer, but is definitely optional.
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 | The Paris Review Interviews, I by The Paris Review
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $4.40 Classic in-depth interviews with great writers about the writing process.
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 | The Paris Review Interviews, II by The Paris Review
Buy new: $12.00 / Used from: $3.18 More...
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 | The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction
Buy new: $55.25 / Used from: $26.98 The best way to learn to write fiction is to read fiction and this book offers a great selection of first-rate pieces plus a section in which writers discuss how they write.
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