“Summer’s Top Four Books on Writing”/ Summer Ross

One thing I do without fail every time I walk into a library or bookstore is check to see what books there are on writing. I’m always on the look out for good books about self editing and the writing process.

Here are my top four favorite helpful books about writing:

4. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg.  “Don’t stop in the middle. That moment won’t come back exactly in that way again…” (104).

3. How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One by Stanley Fish.  “Just as you can practice writing three-word sentences or sentences that travel across time zones, so can you practice writing sentences that breathe unshakable conviction,” (48).

2. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.  This book is updated regularly, I have the 4^th edition. It’s grammar rules and such and is an essential to any writers arsenal of helping books.

1. Self-editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browe & Dave King. “So when you come across an explanation of a character’s emotion, simply cut the explanation. If the emotion is still shown, then the explanation wasn’t needed. If the emotion isn’t shown, rewrite the passage so that it is,” (17).

This last one is my favorite; it is the best I’ve read so far in the self-editing process. Just when I thought my writing was good, I came across Self-editing for Fiction Writers and realized I still had a great deal more to learn.

Always keep an open mind to learn more about your craft, you’ll thank yourself later.

About Summer Ross:

If I had to describe myself, it would be in a word that has many meanings with a complexity which falls off the tongue. A word made up of many elements, is deceptive in appearance, and creates an illusion from the imagination. My word would be Phantasmagoric. I’m a mother of two, a sister, a daughter, a student of life, an editor, a writer, and a person- just like everyone else.