you know, some quick reads that give tips on writing a novel... setting up plots, characters, crap like that.
The Writers Digest Elements of fiction writing has a good collection of writing books. Usually each one covers a specific need. Plot , Dialogue, Scene and structure. They're not perfect but they're good for starting off.
How to Grow a Novel, by Sol Stein Plot & Structure, by Scott Bell Scene and Structure, by Jack M. Brickham Beginnings, Middles & Ends, by Nancy Kress How to Write a Damn Good Novel, by James N. Fry Story Engineering, by Larry Brooks The 38 Most Common Fiction Mistakes, by Jack M. Brickham Stein On Writing, by Sol Stein
There are several threads on this topic. If you search for them, you'll find a lot of writing book recommendations. I like Self Editing for Fiction Writers and the Gotham Writer's Workshop book.
Yeah, but you will also find that most of them (well...all of them really) degenerate into arguments over whether how too books actually help or not. Not that the one's arguing that they do not have read enough to be able to back-up their assertion...but whatever.
All the same, you can still find suggestions of books various people have found helpful. And I'm sure someone will chime in on this thread too, to express the opinion that such books are useless. Someone will also suggest King's On Writing, and someone else will say they didn't like it at all, and still someone else will say they found it useful as a biography but not as a how-to guide, and someone will also bring up his rule about adverbs, which will be answered by the assertion that he is wrong about adverbs and uses them himself...
Many of them are. But there are a number of pretty decent ones out there that can help in some ways. 'Course the best way is to learn under a master--who will take it as their duty in life to beat it into your skull to Write Write Write...and Read Read Read.
Freeze-dried author is no good. Slow simmering from choice ingredients is the only way to go. Read good fiction by good writers, with a sharp eye on technique. That will serve you better than any How-To guide.
I like the way Hemingway shapes characters, although his writing doesn't exactly fit today's market. Sue Grafton is a great role model for first person writing. I've always liked Larry Niven for science fiction, especially his earlier works. However, his human characters don't shine as brightly as his aliens. Asimov, of course, is one of the greats, and he values the art of the pun. There are many, many more, of course. Those are just a shop teacher's handful (fewer than average fingers) off the top of my head on a quickie post.
A Few Authors of Interest: (no particular order) James Lee Burke Val McDermid Ross MacDonald Margaret Atwood Dennis Lehane Kate Atkinson Frank Herbert Robert Crais William Gibson Kazuo Ishiguro Robert Stone Anne Lamott John Updike Ian Rankin Ray Bradbury P. D .James Stieg Larsson Randy Wayne White H. G. Wells James W Hall Elmore Leonard Douglas Adams Thomas Pynchon John Steinbeck Robert A Heinlein Ian McEwan Tony Hillerman J. K. Rowling Jack Kerouac Henning Mankell Anton Chekhov Denise Mina George Orwell James M. Cain T. C. Boyle Neal Stephenson Joseph Wambaugh Walter M. Miller Robert Louis Stevenson Leo Tolstoy Donald E Westlake Neil Gaiman Hakan Nesser George Pelecanos Isaac Asimov Ngaio Marsh Kurt Vonnegut Philip K. Dick Harlan Coben, Ed McBain Chinua Achebe Janet Evanovich Franz Kafka Daphne Du Maurier Martha Grimes Barnaby Conrad China Mieville Victor Hugo Haruki Murakami Iain M. Banks Raymond Chandler P. G. Wodehouse Hunter S. Thompson Paul Auster Edgar Allan Poe Barry Eisler Chuck Palahniuk F. Scott Fitzgerald Ben Bova Nick Hornby.
