by Creative writers read more books so that they will be able to learn and understand the writing craft mastery. The more you read, the better you can develop your knowledge. Reading helps you practice imagination by letting the words describe a certain image while the reader manipulates the picture in the mind.
By reading the following best books on creative writing you can learn how creatively they have written their books and can get more ideas from them in such a way you can develop your creativity. You can decide the genre you are comfortable with. It might be science fiction, horror, or comic. Then go with the renowned author in that particular genre.
Best Books on Creative Writing
| Book Name & Author | Image | Rating | Price |
| On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser |   |
9.5 | View on Amazon |
| The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook by Paul Mills |   |
9.0 | View on Amazon |
| On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (A Memoir of the Craft) by Stephen King |   |
9.5 | View on Amazon |
| The Secrets to Creating Character Arcs: A Fiction Writer’s Guide to Masterful Character Creation by John S. Warner |   |
9.2 | View on Amazon |
| The Creative Writing Coursebook: 40 Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction and Poetry by Julia Bell (Editor) & Paul Magrs (Editor) |   |
9.0 | View on Amazon |
| Imaginative Writing by Janet Burroway |   |
9. 0 | View on Amazon |
1. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
On Writing Well has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and the warmth of its style. It is a book for everybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does in the age of e-mail and the Internet.
Whether you want to write about people or places, science and technology, business, sports, the arts, or about yourself in the increasingly popular memoir genre, On Writing Well offers you fundamental principles as well as the insights of a distinguished writer and teacher. With more than a million copies sold, this volume has stood the test of time and remains a valuable resource for writers and would-be writers.
On Writing Well embodies what excellent writing should be. At first, I thought the book would be a dull “how to write” book, much like a cookbook, without a lot of creativity. Instead, On Writing Well has depth and soul. It challenges you to ask, what can you achieve?
On Writing Well gives you a high standard to emulate and debunks many myths perpetrated by people I consider more knowledgeable than myself. This book is a gift to anyone who takes writing seriously.
The importance of this book is not difficult to explain this is an essential must-have for all interested in books, not only for those who write but for anyone who reads; at the end of it, you’ll be better in both. The book focuses on how to write well non-fiction, but virtually all its comments do apply also to fiction. And it goes further and helps to understand why good writing is good writing and why good literature is good literature.
2. The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook by Paul Mills
This step-by-step, practical guide to the process of creative writing provides readers with a comprehensive course in its art and skill. With genre-based chapters, such as life writing, novels, short stories, poetry, fiction for children, and screenwriting, it is an indispensable guide to writing successfully. The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook:
- Shows new writers how to get started and suggests useful writing habits
- Encourages experimentation and creativity
- Stimulates critical awareness through discussion of literary theory and a wide range of illustrative texts
- Approaches writing as a skill, as well as an art form
- Offers invaluable tips on the revision and editing processes.
Featuring practical suggestions for developing and improving your writing, The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook is an ideal course text for students and an invaluable guide to self-study.
This is a concise, clearly written guide to imaginative writing and reading in all the main contemporary genres. It’s packed with vivid examples and abundant practical suggestions. And it has something extra narrative energy that makes a story of the arts of writing it explores. No readers, of whatever level of skill or inexperience, will finish this book without a sharper sense of literary territories, and the desire to strike out on paths of their own.
3. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft (A Memoir of the Craft)
This is immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work.
“Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Stephen King’s On Writing. Part memoir, a part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer’s craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have.
King’s advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999 and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly, and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.
This insight into King’s techniques exposes what works for him and what could work for others, though of course not all creative spirits. Young writers should allow themselves leeway in deciding how to tap and work with their talents. Creativity should be allowed to flourish, even when establishing a personal method on how to use that force, and sometimes it’s necessary to forge a unique path diverging from even the greatest masters.
4. The Secrets to Creating Character Arcs: A Fiction Writer’s Guide to Masterful Character Creation
You can transform your story with a character your readers will remember long after they’ve turned the last page. When do you think of unforgettable characters from books you’ve read, who comes to mind?
James Bond, Harry Potter, Scarlett O’Hara, Elizabeth Bennett, Atticus Finch, Sherlock Holmes?
These are just some of the most iconic characters in fiction. They are so memorable that even decades or centuries later, they still captivate our imagination. But what exactly is it about them that keeps readers through generations so invested in them?
Do you want to know how you too can create your own unforgettable characters that your readers will be dying to read about? Yes, it’s rare to write such timeless characters even though some bestselling authors don’t have widely recognizable protagonists.
However, it’s entirely possible to write characters that resonate strongly with your readers and get them hooked on your story no matter how new you are to the game. Writers apply certain rules and tricks with their characters to make their stories shine and keep their audience engrossed. And with this guide, you’ll find out exactly what they are.
In The Secrets to Creating Character Arcs, here is just a fraction of what you will discover:
- How your characters can make or break your story – and what you can do to make your characters more compelling.
- 10 simple tricks to add more excitement to your plot without veering away from your main story.
- How to take advantage of plot and structure to help develop your protagonist’s journey.
- The worst thing you can do for your character will immediately make them unappealing and uninteresting.
- How to make your readers relate to – and root for – an unlikeable character.
- A fun yet insightful exercise in character building that can help you make sure all your characters have their own unique individual personalities.
5. The Creative Writing Coursebook: 40 Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction and Poetry
This coursebook takes aspiring writers through three stages of practice: Gathering – getting started, learning how to keep notes, making observations, and using memory.
Shaping – looking at structure, point of view, character, and setting; and
Finishing – being your own critic, joining workshops, finding publishers. The exercises and activities throughout encourage writers to develop their skills. Contributions from 40 authors provide a unique and generous pool of information, experience, and advice. This is the perfect book for people who are just starting to write as well as for those who want some help honing work already completed. It will suit people writing for publication or just for their own pleasure, those writing on their own or writing groups.
The Creative Writing Coursebook is perfect if you want to set up a writers’ group or you want to run a creative writing class. It’s full of great ideas and covers many aspects of writing such as characterization, plot, setting, editing, and revision.
It is full of wonderful assignments that have given you a new outlook on writing short stories, with easy-to-read instructions for each assignment. The recommending of books to read is also an advantage that you will find helpful. This book is also an invaluable tool for developing a critical editing eye for your own work.
6. Imaginative Writing by Janet Burroway
Imaginative Writing covers all four genres: creative nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and drama. This textbook discusses elements of craft common to all creative writing before delving into the individual genres. After an introduction, the next five chapters each investigate a specific element of craft -Image, Voice, Character, Setting, and Story from a perspective that crosses all genres.
Nearly half of the selections in all four genres are new. New “Try This” exercises give students plenty of practice. Imaginative Writing is a very popular book for courses on teaching the craft of creative writing.
The fourth edition adds several new short stories, creative nonfiction, poems, and dramas and drops some of those in the third edition, keeping the overall page count in the book about the same. The new stories added are by Tobias Wolff, Jamaica Kincaid, Ursula Le Guin, and others; new examples of creative nonfiction are from Michael Chabon, David Sedaris, and others.
Some of the additions are from the most widely anthologized. That’s good for beginners: if you haven’t read them before, they are great additions; good for instructors: if you have read them before, they cut down your preparation time.
Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” is an excellent example of innovative craft. The extended use of what the main character did not remember in his dying moments to show and tell the back story and the one childhood event that he did remember to reveal the theme of the story.