Today, we are here to discuss some of the best books on writing a novel as we all know that the best way to learn the art of writing fiction is to read a lot of fictional pieces. This is crucial advice from professional writers, and I simply agree with it. When you thrive for some additional guidance, these bits of advice can benefit you be explicit in your writings.
You would hear a lot of advice every day being an aspiring writer that you should write every day, or you would fail, or you should always write your first draft manually. However, this isn’t necessary. You can gain inspiration from other masterpieces of renowned authors in order to improvise your writing.
But if you are confused with the choices you see in books on writing a novel, here is the list I prepared that highlights some best books on writing a novel I personally have discovered, specifically if you are an aspiring writer or a beginner.
The filters I applied while choosing the books to include:
- Structural Guidance
- Creative Exercises
- Practical Strategies
- Tips for fostering flow and creativity
- Industry Advice
- Grammatical Rules
I have not ranked these books in terms of quality. I have listed them in categories to seek inspiration and learn the art of basic writing and building up yourself to write a masterpiece.
You would see overlapping in this list but all the books listed are pretty beneficial for your writing journey.
So, let us briefly look over the best books on writing a novel to kick start your writing career.
Zen in the Art of Writing
By Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury is a pioneer in storytelling. His book “Zen in the Art of Writing” is loaded with essays on writing, offering a glimpse of Bradbury’s glittering career. It can significantly help you in becoming a writer who remembered for a long time for his work.
Ray Bradbury’s works are pretty inspiring and a great reminder to embrace your imagination and pursue creativity. Personally, it makes me feel that the single best thing a person can do in his life is to learn the art of writing fiction.
This book offers practical tips to assist you in finding unique ideas, developing characters, forming descriptions, and developing your own unique style and voice with several storytelling essentials. Moreover, this book is formatted into several different essays, making it easier to pick up whatever topic you want to read.
Steering The Craft
By Ursula K. Le Guin
Steering the craft is recommended to bring your words and stories to life. Ursula is a pioneer in developing the sound of language, point of view, and sentence construction. This book will significantly help you make your stories alive while assisting you in maintaining the passion and excitement in your stories which is pretty much needed when you are determined to write. It is pretty fun and playful to read, portraying the beauty of phrases, words, and narratives.
She stresses the need to think about the rhythm of your sentences to make writing splendid, rather than relying on overly complex vocabulary. She explores various aspects in her book like:
- Rhythm
- Pace
- Story Structure
- Narrative Writing
- Characterization
I also feature practical exercises with several options if any exercise doesn’t float with your writing boat.
Steal Like an Artist
By Austin Kleon
Stealing like an artist is especially for you if you constantly worry that your ideas are not unique or original. The best way to explore your creativity is in writing. But how? By developing backstories, characters, and plots from any of your favorite writers. Seeking inspiration from other works is ethical, but it doesn’t mean copying it. Likewise, Kleon, in his book, is not advocating plagiarism but also does not state that your ideas should always be original and unique.
He immensely focuses on helping you to harness your creativity and believe in your creative attributes. He encourages you to utilize the world around you as an inspiration by providing you with a lot of creative exercise and advice.
So, learning the art of writing does not need to craft an entirely unique plot. It’s all about crafting a plot with fresh perspectives, new paths and ideas, and exciting twists to offer what has not been read before. This book is pretty essential for beginners hunting for the best books on writing a novel.
The Writing Book
By Kate Grenville
“The Writing Book” by Kate Grenville encourages you to utilize intuition and instincts to help practice writing in a structured manner. It can be considered among the best books on writing a novel as it begins with what you already possess in your life experiences arsenal. It helps you in building from scratch instead of mimicking others or their writing style.
So, whether you are learning the art of writing fiction or rewriting something that needs more focus, this book aims to assist you in uncovering what you want to say and express in the most influential way possible. Click here:
This book features numerous creative exercises within chapters with examples that compliment them. All these exercises are built on each other to offer a specific activity to help you get words on the page with modifications and progressions that enhance your comments until you are willing to write a short novel or story.
So if you are determinant in completing this book, you will have a lot of material to work on within your writings.
The Elements of Style
By William Strunk Jr. & E. B. White
If you feel that you need to focus on the grammatical laws while writing, this book is for you. “The Elements of Style” helps you learn the fundamental laws of English grammar. This book has been the Bible of English Grammar rules for the last hundred years.
Most often, you might trip up reading a particular sentence or is unable to pinpoint why your descriptive passages are irking your writings. It’s because there is some sort of grammatical issues going on with your writing. Ultimately, this book will help you how to make corrections in uncertain terms. This book states several grammatical rules, explaining and providing vivid examples of proper and improper usage of grammatical laws.
Takeaways
So what’s now? Read the best books on writing a novel, collect the tips, and start implementing them while writing to enhance your writing’s essence. Practice writing until you feel confident that you are using the correct structure, flow and pace. I would recommend you to at least start with two books from this list of best books on writing a novel to let yourself get the potential words over the page. However, creative exercises can help a lot in this case.
Stephen King once said that “Writing is magic. As much the water of life as any other creative art. The water is free. So drink. Drink and be filled up.”
