Creative Works About Being A Writer
I was going to make this a list of books about the writing life, but instead it flowed into a couple different genres, and I think that’s a really good thing. We don’t all learn the same way, and sometimes we need those lessons learned across multiples platforms.
So here’s a list of things which inspire us to write, or teach us how to write, even if maybe that’s not their main purpose.
Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird Stephen King’s On Writing Ann Patchett’s essay ‘The Getaway Car’ (inside Happy Marriage, or as an single ebook) Magic Lessons Podcast by Elizabeth Gilbert (of Eat Pray Love fame) Madeleine L’Engle’s A Circle of Quiet Rainer M. Rilke Letters to a Young Poet (pdf) Chaim Potok’s My Name is Asher Lev (fiction) Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life Noah Lukeman’s The First Five Pages (how to fine-tune your query to keep it out of the rejection pile, but mostly it just gives really tight advice on writing itself) Poets & Writers (website with resources for writers, contests, agents, etc) Elements of Style Strunk & White’s classic grammar guide, available online Ruby Sparks, Stranger Than Fiction, The Words (movies about writers, writing, and point of view/perspective)