10: Conclusion

Last updated

Oct 19, 2024
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- 9: The Rules and Strategies of Dialogue
- Back Matter

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We’ve reached the end of our journey into the art of novel writing. I hope you have found the exploration beneficial.

My goals have been to teach you a bit about novel writing and to give you the tools and know how to continue learning and exploring on your own.

Learning how to learn about writing and the publishing industry and filling your toolbox are the best things you can take away from this book. I couldn’t possibly include every piece of knowledge about novel-writing on these pages. The book is intended as an introduction to novel writing. I am blessed to have many friends who are novelists, and even those who have been writing for decades admit they are still learning their craft.

The learning process never ends.

With that in mind, I want to share a list of craft books. Each semester that I teach novel writing, I offer this list to students, so that they may make a selection from it to read for their craft book project. Essentially, that project requires them to read a book about craft and then to develop a project to share the book’s key takeaways for their classmates.

While I admit that there are many other books that could be included on the list, it offers solid suggestions. I want to challenge you to follow this text with another book on craft - this time of your choice.

When you finish that book, choose another from the list.

And so on.

Continue learning about writing. Continue reading books in your genre and age category but in others as well.

And, of course, continue writing.

"Chapter 10: Conclusion" was created by Tamara Girardi and was licensed as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 in October of 2023.

Books on the Writing Craft

The Anatomy of Story, by John Truby

The Art of Fiction, by John Gardner

Becoming a Writer, by Dorothea Brande

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott

The Elements of Style, by Strunk & White

The Emotional Craft of Fiction, by Donald Maass

The First Five Pages, by Noah Lukeman

Getting into Character, by Brandilyn Collins

Hooked, by Les Edgerton

How to Write a Damn Good Novel, by James N. Frey

How to Write Bestselling Fiction, by Dean Koontz

On Becoming a Novelist, by John Gardner

On Writing, by Stephen King

On Writing Well, by William Zinsser

Plot & Structure, by James Scott Bell

Reading Like a Writer, by Francine Prose

Romancing the Beat, by Gwen Hayes

Save the Cat Writes a Novel, by Jessica Brody

Steering the Craft, by Ursula LeGuin

Story, by Robert McKee

Story Genius, by Lisa Cron

Wired for Story, by Lisa Cron

Wonderbook, by Jeff VanderMeer

The Writer’s Journey, by Christopher Vogler

Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg

The Writing Life, by Annie Dillard

The Writing Life: Writers on How they Think and Work, by Maria Arana

Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass

Zen in the Art of Writing, by Ray Bradbury

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