The Best Books about Writing

Please send me titles of your favourite books about writing. Here's my provisional list for the workshops I'm starting this week which is more about freeing our inner voice, or unblocking rather than rules or how to write.


Creative Novel Writing by Roselle Angwin

Writing The Bright Moment by Roselle Angwin


Creative Pathways -Freeing the Writer's Inner Voice by Suzanne Ruthven


The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron



Writing For Self Discovery by Myra Schneider and John Killick


Anyone like to add to that?



Penny Alexander in her previous comment recommends the following:


Jane Wenham-Jones 'Wannabe a Writer?' and not just because I'm quoted, but because it made me giggle and spill my tea several times.



Stephen King's On Writing is supposed to be one of the best too, though I confess I haven't read it [yet].



David Isaak recommends:
Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art" is wonderful. Initially the format--little short chapters that look as though they verge on proverbs--is a little off-putting, but if you read it straight through it is one of the best things ever written on the writer's battle with all the naysayers in their own mind.

My favorite manual on how writing works is the unfortunately titled "Modern Library Writer's Workshop" by Stephen Koch (novelist, and also the head of Columbia University's Creative Writing Program for many years). Koch isn't one who hands down rules, but he discusses all aspects of the craft and art, and peppers the book with quotes from a joyously eclectic selection of writers