Craft Books
As a visual and kinesthetic learner, I rely on craft books, workbooks, and writing prompt books to increase my knowledge and practical skills. I’m an editor and an author, and I have to balance when to be which one.
This page will be updated monthly with craft book recommendations, from the developmental-edit level down to the mechanics of copyediting. I either have read these previously or will be reading them shortly, so I hope you enjoy them!
Want to Be a Better Writer?
To improve your writing, perfect your process. Process is a vital, unsung writing skill. For example, do you fear the blank page? You may be skipping the essential early phases of writing. Do you generate swarms of ideas but never publish anything? You need strategies to focus and persist to the finish. When you learn to work with your brain instead of against it, you’ll get more done and have more fun.
Master The Inner Game of Writing
The Writer’s Process combines proven practices of successful authors with cognitive science research about how our minds work. You’ll learn:
- How to invite creativity and flow into the writing process
- Why separating writing into different steps makes you more productive
- How to overcome writer’s block, negative feedback, and distractions
- How to make time for writing in a busy, interruption-driven life
The Science of Writing Characters is a comprehensive handbook to help writers create compelling and psychologically credible characters that come to life on the page. Drawing on the latest psychological theory and research, ranging from personality theory to evolutionary science, the book equips screenwriters and novelists with all the techniques they need to build complex, dimensional characters from the bottom up. Writers learn how to create rounded characters using the “Big Five” dimensions of personality and then are shown how these personality traits shape action, relationships, and dialogue.
Throughout The Science of Writing Characters, psychological theories and research are translated into handy practical tips, which are illustrated through examples of characters in action in well-known films, television series, and novels, ranging from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and Game of Thrones to The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Goldfinch. This very practical approach makes the book an engaging and accessible companion guide for all writers who want to better understand how they can make memorable characters with the potential for global appeal.
