Top Books On Writing

There’s an old maxim that those who can do, and those who can’t teach. Anyone paying attention to the lives of good teachers knows this is utter twattle. There is, however, an amusing trend in America, of those floundering for career direction finding a sudden calling to become career coaches or offer resume writing services; of those having trouble getting published, publishing books about how to get published; of those who’ve gotten a bit out of shape teaching gym class.

What then, out of the vast section of writing books in any bookstore or library, is actually helpful? What’s been written by people who actually know how to write on the subject of writing? Here are my all-time top three authors on writing.

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

First published in 1986, this is still the best push out of the nest and onto the page a new or timid writer could hope to receive. In her simple and direct style, Natalie Goldberg encourages, motivates, and inspires one to the point where they can hardly keep themselves from the desk or the pen for several years after reading this book. It seems that only after giving yourself freedom to write can you indulge in being slavish to the muse. Whether you’re purging or creating, whether in a driven or a dreamy state, you’ll find a physical restlessness urging you to put the book down for a moment, stop reading for once, and get writing. For a book of this genre, that’s high praise indeed.

On Writing by Stephen King

One of America’s most prolific and engaging writers, Stephen King shared his best advice with the rest of us in 2000. When you learn how many rejection slips he collected, you can’t help but feel better about yourself – even if he was brave enough to send out work and self-publish while still a child. In On Writing, ironically, the master of horror takes a good deal of the terror out of the blank page – and the revision and submission processes – for countless of others who long to write and get published. It’s also chock full of the sort of irresistible (and sometimes disgusting) anecdotes we’d all hope for from this natural born storyteller.

‘Tis and Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

Perhaps our best known example of a teacher who can and does, Frank McCourt’s second and third memoirs recounts his life as an immigrant, his teaching career, and most useful for writers: how he finally became a writer. Those who are familiar with him and his work know that he did not write his Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes until he had retired from teaching (English and creative writing) and was well into his sixties. The writing however began as oral storytelling in the classroom and jotting down bits and fragments of childhood memories in notebooks while he was pursuing his first career. The combination of the beautiful finished work of the books in your hands and the recounting of the actual lessons he gave to his creative writing students within their pages is plenty to get and keep any aspiring writer going. Let these books be an inspirational guide to all those as-yet-unpublished authors out there who feel they’ve made their career bed and must now lie in it. It’s never too late and you never know how great your work may be until you get it on the page. For writers, McCourt teaches by example.