I read a ton of books on writing craft. I’ve got so many I had to divide them into categories. Here they are.

Story Structure

• The Anatomy of Story, John Truby (Faber and Faber, Inc.)
• How to Tell a Story, Peter Rubie (Writer’s Digest Books)
• The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers [2nd ed. or later], Christopher Vogler (Michael Wiese Productions)
• 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
• The Art of Creative Writing, Lajos Egri (Citadel Press [1995 reissue]) – dramatic structure and premise
• The Marshall Plan Workbook, Evan Marshall (Writer’s Digest Books) – a little bit of everything, best on planning
• The Story Equation: How to Plot and Write a Brilliant Story from One Powerful Question, Susan May Warren (My Book Therapy)
• How to Write a Dynamite Scene Using the Snowflake Method, Randy Ingermanson (Ingermanson Communications, Inc.)
• Perfecting Plot: Charting the Hero’s Journey, William Bernhardt
• Super Structure: The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story, James Scott Bell (Compendium Press)
• Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story, K.M. Weiland (PenForASword Publishing) – highly recommended
• Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, Janice Hardy – highly recommended
• Scene & Structure, Jack M. Bickham – highly recommended

Premise and Theme

• Powerful Premise: Writing the Irresistible, William Bernhardt
• The Moral Premise: Harnessing Virtue & Vice for Box Office Success, Stanley D. Williams (Michael Wiese Productions)
• Writing Your Story’s Theme: The Writer’s Guide to Plotting Stories That Matter, K.M. Weiland (PenForASword Publishing)

Characterization

• Creating Characters, Dwight Swain (Writer’s Digest Books)
• Goal, Motivation & Conflict: The Building Blocks of Good Fiction, Debra Dixon (Gryphon Books for Writers)
• Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development, K.M. Weiland (PenForASword Publishing) – highly recommended

Point of View

• Point of View in Fiction, Marcy Kennedy (Tongue Untied Communications)
• Deep Point of View, Marcy Kennedy (Tongue Untied Communications)
• Writing the Intimate Character: Create Unique, Compelling Characters Through Mastery of Point of View, Jordan Rosenfeld (Writer’s Digest Books) – highly recommended

Writing Technique

• Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight Swain (Univ. of Oklahoma Press)
• Writing Fiction [6th ed. or later], Janet Burroway (Addison Wesley Longman)
• The Language of Fiction: A Writer’s Stylebook (UPNE), Brian Shawver – the nuances of language for fiction writing
• Story Engineering: Mastering the 6 Core Competencies of Successful Writing, Larry Brooks (Writer’s Digest Books)
• Sizzling Style: Every Word Matters, William Bernhardt
• Narrative Tenses and Future Tense, Viv Quarry

Showing and Telling

• Showing and Telling in Fiction, Marcy Kennedy (Tongue Untied Communications)
• Show, Don’t Tell, Sandra Gerth (Ylva Publishing)
• Understanding Show, Don’t Tell (And Really Getting It), Janice Hardy (Fiction University Press)

James Frey’s “How to Write”

• 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

Writing Faster

• 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter, Chris Fox
• 2,000 to 10,000: How to Write Faster, Write Better, and Write More of What You Love, Rachel Aaron

Writing Career

• Lifelong Writing Habit: The Secret to Writing Every Day, Chris Fox

Revision and Self-editing

• Self-editing for Fiction Writers, Renni Browne and Dave King – revision and self-editing
• Revision, David Michael Kaplan – revision
• Getting the Words Right, Theodore A. Rees Cheney – editing
• Editing Fact and Fiction, Sharpe and Gunther – editing
• The 10% Solution, Ken Rand (Fairwood Press) – editing
• Editing Fiction at Sentence Level, Louise Harnby – editing – highly recommended!

Marketing

• Book Blurbs Unleashed, Robert J. Ryan – writing back cover copy
• Write to Market: Deliver a Book That Sells, Chris Fox – writing to market
• Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert, Tammi Labrecque
• Strangers to Superfans: A Marketing Guide to the Reader Journey, David Gaughran