- The 10% Solution, Ken Rand (Fairwood Press) – editing
- Creating Characters, Dwight Swain (Writer’s Digest Books) – characterization
- How to Tell a Story, Peter Rubie (WDB) – story structure
- Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight Swain (Univ. of Oklahoma Press) – writing technique
- The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers [2nd ed. or later], Christopher Vogler (Michael Wiese Productions) – story structure
- Writing Fiction [6th ed. or later], Janet Burroway (Addison Wesley Longman) – writing technique
- The Art of Creative Writing, Lajos Egri (Citadel Press [1995 reissue]) – dramatic structure and premise
- The Marshall Plan Woorkbook, Evan Marshall (WDB) – a little bit of everything, best on planning
- How to Write a Damn Good Novel, James N. Frey (St. Martin’s) – a bit of everything, big on dramatic structure
- How to Write Damn Good Fiction: Advanced Techniques for Dramatic Storytelling, James N. Frey (Macmillan) – like the subtitle says, advanced techniques
- The Key: How to Write Damn Good Fiction Using the Power of Myth, James N. Frey (St. Martin’s Griffin) – synthesizes mythic structure and makes it practical
- STORY: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting, Robert McKee (ReganBooks) – one of the best books on story structure, and not just for screenwriting
