Building A Reference Library

[VWeathers]

I am getting quite a collection of books on writing. What reference type books are on your "Must Have" list?

[Tarin]

Write Away by Elizabeth George

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King

How to Write (and Sell) a Christian Novel by Gilbert Morris

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas

The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White

--and last but not least--

Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life edited by Barnaby Conrad and Monte Schulz:D

[VWeathers]

!thumbsup! Hey I am off to a good start...
I have the following you listed:


Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas
The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White

[righter1]

What genre are you writing for? I'm assuming you're writing a novel, but if you're doing non-fiction, that can help whittle the list down too...

On Writing by Sol Stein is very good, both for fic & nonfic writers.

Make sure you have a good thesaurus and dictionary, as good a one as you can afford.

For novels, a great book for characterization is Getting Into Character by Brandilyn Collins.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head... I'll pop in if I think of any more.

[TanyaSue]

Are we listing books that have HELPED us in our writing or books that we REFERENCE frequently? I've read so many great books (books I would recommend), but reference very, very few on a regular basis.

[VWeathers]

Helped or referenced either one? Maybe a better thread would be "Don't waist your money on this book....or this kind of book."

[jvdoles]

On my shelf I have:
The Elements of Style - White and Strunk
The Writer's Legal Guide - Crawford and Murray
The Well-Fed Writer - Bowerman
Christian Writer's Market Guide - Stuart
Christian Writer's Manual of Style - Hudson
The Self-Publishing Manual - Poynter
Guerrilla Marketing for Writers - Levinson, Frishman and Larsen
Write Tight - Brohaugh

[kriswrite]

Here's my list: http://www.kristinaseleshanko.com/BooksYouMustRead.htm

Kristina

[VWeathers]

Y'all are just a wealth of information. I feel like I am playing catch-up. Unlike most of you, I have only discovered writing professionally in the last few years. I just never occurred to me that it would eventually be a passion.

It all started with my wanting to write a poem to me groom for our wedding day. That was six years ago and who knew God had all this in store? Thank you God!

[DraperJC]

In addition:

The Writers Journey by Christopher Vogler
The First Five Pages by Noah Lukeman

[VWeathers]

I have The First Five Pages which I liked very much. Tonight is date night for my husband and I. We usually go to Books A Million after supper. I'm going to look for some of these titles...Y'all have bee a lot of help.