Every serious writer needs guidance. There’s no shame in turning to the pros who have come before you for guidance, advice, inspiration, secrets, or just plain basic information.
Writers love to blather on about originality and experimentation and creativity, and it’s true that every truly great book breaks new literary ground, but every great book is also built on a literary foundation that goes back centuries, and writers who refuse to access that foundation handicap their own work. You have to know the rules before you can intelligently break them.
At the same time, we all probably know writers who collect craft books as if any one of them might hold the key to literary success. These collectors often spend more time and energy reading how-to books than they do writing. Instruction can be a form of procrastination, and there are new writing craft books published every day. Not all of them are worth your time.
We’re all bound to have our favorites, of course, and I’ll confess that I’m…
