Writers on Writing and Reading

Steering the Craft - Ursula K. Le Guin

I think I've told this story before, but when I was a novice blogger, someone left a comment on my site that said, "If you need to read a book about writing, you're not a real writer."

I have a few problems with that, the least of which being the whole "real writer" myth. What's real? Being a published author? Earning money from your writing? Getting an MFA? Enough people seem to think so. Even if you were to ignore that elusive "real writer," what's so wrong with books about writing? There are quite a few great books out there on the craft of writing. I'm not always in a position to attend a workshop, or even bounce ideas off other people. Books are an indispensable resource:

Ursula K. Le Guin - Steering the Craft and The Wave in the Mind
Generally overlooked as a critic as a teacher, Le Guin has written some of my favorite books on writing. She's unafraid to take on canonical writers like Tolstoy, and talks a lot about the "sound" of prose, something else that gets a overlooked.

Anne Lamont - Bird by Bird
When I was first assigned this in a beginning writing class, I hated it. I wanted practical advice, not hand-holding. I've since come around, and reference this quite a bit in my own writing.

Dorothy Allison - Skin: Talking About Sex, Class and Literature
Allison scores major points for knocking down the wall between "great literature" and "not great literature." (Note: I highly recommend the essay in here about fanfic and slash.) Allison is a working-class woman and a lesbian, two groups largely underrepresented in contemporary literature.

Alice Walker - In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose
More a collection of personal essays than a practical guide, but I can't recommend this enough. I keep a notebook close by when I'm reading something, and I know I like it when I've filled several pages by the time I'm finished.

My full list on Goodreads