8 craft building books for writers

Get started with these craft building books for writers

   I have previously written on books to help develop the business side of writing, but it is pointless if you don’t have the strong craft to back it up. You need to always exceed the expectations of your customers/readers because that “Wow Factor” is what will get them buzzing. (You know this from reading PyroMarketing)  While I’ve spent a great deal of time on the need for great craft  you may not know where to start. These are the resources that are on the bookshelf in my office. I refer to them regularly whenever I’m writing.

The Synonym Finder
This is an excellent tool to have on your shelf. It is a comprehensive thesaurus and the one I use most. If you already have a thesaurus you like, you don’t need this one. But if you don’t have a thesaurus, this is the one to buy.

Flip Dictionary
This thing is so cool. This is designed for people like me who are forever forgetting the word I want. This dictionary is set up so you can look up “hair” and find things on hair styles, hair pieces, names for pieces of hair…Whatever you need. I do not have enough words to praise this book. If you already have a thesaurus you still need this one. You will find yourself actually READING it. It really helps with research so you can START with the correct vocabulary.

Fiction 101 by Randy Ingermanson. Affectionately known as “The Snowflake Guy” Randy will take the craft of ANY fiction writer and kick it up a notch. I paid over $1,000 to attend a writer’s conference to hear Randy teach and it was worth every penny. I didn’t know about Fiction 101 when I was starting out but if I had, I would have bought it.

Fiction 201 (by Randy Ingermanson) is the follow-up to Fiction 101. I do own this course and in a word it is WOW. Suddenly those places you’ve been getting stuck on in your manuscript go from BLAH to A-HA. I truly believe if you want to write solid fiction that sells you need to own these two lessons.

On Writing
By Stephen King. This man can make an ear infection interesting, and he does it in this book. Truly I wrote one of my novels simply because one sentence he said in this book took my mind on a wild tangent. And it ended up winning the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense in 2007(Read the story for free here[http://tiffanycolter.blogspot.com/search/label/A%20Face%20in%20the%20Shadow%20Part%201%20Chapter%201]). If you want to write fiction, get this book.

Writing the Breakout Novel
Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook
My husband and daughter’s got this for me as a Christmas gift and my writing has never been the same again. Every manuscript has to go through the “Breakout Edit” now where I use my editing worksheet with the first draft and use every lesson in the workbook on the manuscript. For fiction writers, it’s a must have.

Elements of Style, The (4th Edition)
This is a must have book that can be read cover to cover in an afternoon. Stephen King recommends it in his book On Writing and there is not a writer I know who doesn’t own a dog-eared copy. It is easy to read when you need to know a comma rule or how to tighten your writing.