What Is The Best Fiction Writing Book For Beginners?
Yesterday I answered a question by Claude. In his email, the question was two-fold. Firstly, what’s the best book for fiction writing? And secondly, what is the best fiction writing exercise?
Naturally, I’ve answered these on the blog in the completely wrong order, but in today’s article, I’m going to expand on what I said to Claude in my reply.
Here’s My Email Reply
Those are some great questions. For the first one on fiction writing
chops, I guess the place to start would be On Writing by Stephen King.
In reality though, there are a ton of decent books on writing and they
all blur into one. There’s one called Plot to Print to Pixel which I
remember – it’s by Lawrence Block. What I would say though is that
before reading books on writing, check that the author is actually
successful as an author and not just a creative writing teacher. On
Writing is the place to start because Stephen King knows what he’s
talking about and he’s about as successful as you can get. Block has
written more tan a hundred novels. There are some other great ones for
general writing knowledge.
Now, for specific knowledge books or genre books, there are some good
ones too. For instance, if you’re into writing Thrillers or Romance,
there are specific books on that. Same with plotting and character
development. I guess that’s outside of your question though, but your
question has opened up lots of ideas in my head – I might elaborate in a
future article, if that’s ok?
Expanding On The Answer
I’d split the question into two parts once again.
If you’re looking for a book about the basics of writing fiction, then there are plenty of options.
After you’ve read a book or two on general fiction writing, you’re going to want to delve deeper into what makes a specific book or genre work.
(For what it’s worth, I recommend studying and writing genre fiction as opposed to literary fiction unless you’ve got a pressing desire to be the next John Steinbeck or win a Booker prize or something. The money’s better, the fiction’s better and you’ll enjoy yourself more. Oh, and it’s easier too.)
Most of your learning is going to come from the second part, but you have to start with the first part if you want to get an education in fiction.
Why Does Everyone Recommend King’s On Writing?
Here’s a little caveat: I’m going to recommend On Writing as well as some other books. Realistically though, most, “How to Write Books” all cover similar ground. You can pick whichever you want, but make sure it includes:
- How to write characters
- How to write a plot
- How to create a setting
- How to build tension
And all those other basics. Also – I would strongly recommend avoiding recommendations in these books about career advice.
“What?” you say.
Look, Stephen King is an accomplished writer. He gives great advice on writing in his On Writing book. But his career started in the 1970’s and – if you take him at his word – he got lucky breaks thrown in.
What worked for him forty years ago won’t work for you now.
This is true whether you’re talking about an author who debuted in the nineteen-sixties or five years ago. Publishing is going through a renaissance, and stuff that was written a year ago is outdated.
Whatever your opinion on the changes or non-changes in the publishing industry, I’m telling you this so that you separate “Writing” from “Publishing.”
King’s advice is fantastic when it comes to writing. He is a master of writing. His advice on publishing is outdated. Don’t throw the baby away with the bathwater.
Secondly and crucially people recommend King –as they should – because King has a verified track record at selling books and writing books that are popular.
Don’t buy a writing guide from a guy who has written three books – none of which sold – and is using those as a launching pad to become a “writer trainer.”
Stick with people with a track record.
I recommend:
On Writing
From Plot To Print To Pixel
Million Dollar Outlines
There are others, and read them at will – as long as you follow the rules.
Part Two: Let’s Get Specific
Once you’ve gotten one of those guides – or preferably all of them – (and hey, while we’re at it, getting them through my affiliate link won’t cost you anything ;)) you’ll want to get specific.
Get books on writing in your genre – but more importantly, get books from your genre. Pull them to bits. Use the exercise from yesterday to help you.
Once you’ve done yesterday’s exercise, you can buy more books on specifics as and when you need them. I own books on creating characters, writing monsters and other weird things like how to write sex scenes and how to write violence.
When you come to a sticking point, chances are there are good guides out there. But you won’t know until you get there and if you try to buy in anticipation, you’ll just spend all your money and will be too busy reading to write.
Final Thoughts
That’s all there is to it, really. Buy a book or two to get general knowledge. Start practicing. Copy and learn from what you need to. Then look for more specific information that’s relevant to what you need to know at that point.
Amazingly, that doesn’t just apply to writing fiction – it applies to learning about anything. As always, learning comes 90% through doing and 10% through the materials you use to learn (and 0% from listening to overly-analytical nerds.)
Good luck guys, and let me know how you get on.