Best Books on Writing
A Book Coach’s Favorite Books on Writing Life
“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
I am constantly drawn to the power of words and the art of storytelling. In that spirit, I have carefully curated a list of the best books on writing, essential for every aspiring author:
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
This New York Times Bestselling work of HEART is intended to inspire and stir the souls of all creatives who read it. Through her unique perspective as a writer and deep creative, Gilbert uses personal anecdotes to encourage readers to embrace curiosity and let go of suffering in order to live a more creative life. In this book, she explores the themes of courage, enchantment, permission, persistence, trust, and divinity as routes by which we carve out a creative life for ourselves.
One of my favorite sentiments from the book is that ideas are disembodied forms of consciousness that need us to bring them into form. She writes,
“Ideas are a disembodied, energetic life-form. They are completely separate from us, but capable of interacting with us—albeit strangely. Ideas have no material body, but they do have consciousness, and they most certainly have will. Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest. And the only way an idea can be made manifest in our world is through collaboration with a human partner. It is only through a human’s efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual.”
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott
This timeless book on writing is a must-read New York Times Bestseller for writers of all walks. This book provides practical tools for writers and hilarious insights into the ups and downs of the writing process and life as a writer.
It is from this book that we get the idea of Shitty First Drafts, which has been variated by other creatives to the Stormy First Draft and the Sacred First Draft. Nevertheless, Lamott pulled back the curtain to reveal what writing really is like and how to focus our creative efforts in a way that serves us best. She writes:
“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship.”
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
This classic book on writing shares encouragement and exercises for aspiring writers, touching on how to get your ideas down on paper, the importance of listening (in the writing process), overcoming doubts, and even how to use verbs more powerfully. Goldberg believes that writing is a way that we comprehend the meaning and importance of our lives. She writes:
“I write because I am alone and move through the world alone. No one will know what has passed through me... I write because there are stories that people have forgotten to tell, because I am a woman trying to stand up in my life... I write out of hurt and how to make hurt okay; how to make myself strong and come home, and it may be the only real home I'll ever have.”
Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms our Lives by Louise De Salvo
My copy of this book is heavily dog-eared from my days of writing Birth Your Story, as it served as both a guide and inspiration for my own work on writing to heal. It has also helped shape my program Heal a Story That Hurts.
This inspiring Spiritual Nonfiction book explores the healing power of writing and how to write to heal trauma. Among my favorite topics in this book are the emotional and health benefits of writing, the qualities of a healing narrative, and how to take care of ourselves as we write about difficult things. She writes:
“Safe writing – writing what we already know or understand, writing that is superficial – won’t help us grow, either as people or as writers. For our writing to be healing, we must encounter something that puzzles, confuses, troubles or pains us.”
The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing and Life by Marion Roach Smith
This book about memoir writing gives solid advice and guidance to those looking to write their own memoir. Roach Smith uses her personal perspective to explore simple yet fun guidelines that help encourage writers to write with intent. She is an incredible wordsmith and uses her storytelling prowess to model the kind of writing she advocates in her readers’ memoir writing.
I appreciate the simple, yet profound, writing “equation” she insists every memoirist must solve: We must be able to say: My writing “is about X as illustrated by Y, to be told in a Z.” If we can solve for X, Y, and Z, we know we are on the right track. This simple formula allows the theme of our work to take center stage so our writing serves a larger purpose for its readers.
They Say/ I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein
Yes, yes, I know, this book is about academic writing. But stay with me here.
This book, one I used to teach in my days as a college professor, stands as a trusty resource for anyone writing non-fiction. What this writing book shares is indispensable in terms of how to make a strong case for your perspective, how to address your reader’s experience within your writing, how to make transitions, and so much more.
This book is an easy read and a great tool to have on hand as you write the first draft of your book.
If you’re a client of mine who has heard me say that “your ideas need to hold hands” or that you need to make a quotation sandwich (or frame your quotes), this book is the reason.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
This book on writing explores the concept of what it takes to overcome obstacles. The book dives into how to effectively work through doubts in order to reach creative discipline. This book is straight to the heart, no BS, truth that every writer needs to read, and then re-read, and then read again.
Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield
Turning Pro is the follow-up book to The War of Art. This book discusses the differences between amateur and professional mindsets, and how one can find power once that mindset shift is achieved. If you want to get serious about your writing and become an author, this book is fireball fuel for your rocketship.
Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
This book on writing, written in the same take-no-prisoners style we have come to love in Pressfield, takes readers through the steps of completing any creative project, including all the major thresholds of resistance we need to cross to make it to the full creation and “sending” of any creative work.
This book provides tools and techniques that help you overcome resistance and actually finish your project. Short but powerful, this book on writing will meet you right in the messy middle of your writing process and guide you like a lighthouse through virtually any storm of resistance you may encounter.
Diving Deeper
If you’re curious about other books I love, please check out my blog articles on my favorite books on creativity and my favorite memoirs. If you want a real, live writing champion on your team, I encourage you to check out my book coaching services.
