Learn how music producer Rick Rubin’s insights about the creative process can help writers.

Percy offers detailed, distinctive clarifications of common craft advice.

Pickens, a psychologist, explores roadblocks like time, work, money, fear, and isolation that commonly beset creatives.

Salesses investigates why and how writing craft rules work, and gives concrete suggestions for how we might think about them differently.

Trubek offers a behind-the-scenes tour of a small press.

Is this popular book worth your time? It depends on where you are in the writing process.

Brooks Landon’s method for creating rich, complex sentences.

On Editing provides specific examples that will help you improve everything from your plot to your dialogue.

Sandra Scofield’s guide to revising your novel will teach you how to analyze your draft and improve it with detailed craft advice.

Virginia Tufte’s collection of beautiful sentences and her explanations of how they work will teach you new tools to use in your own writing.

John Truby’s popular Anatomy of Story is a valuable encyclopedia of plot moves and character insights but may frustrate writers wanting to explore deeper territory.

Donald Maass offers specific examples of what sets breakout novels apart from others.

The Way of the Writer is a book from a long-time writing instructor that is remarkably short on specific writing craft advice.

Jessica Morell’s exploration of common problems in fiction and how to solve them.

Advice, encouragement, and wisdom from a range of writers.

John Gardner’s Art of Fiction is misogynist and dated, but here are four pieces of wisdom worth retaining.

Stephen Pinker’s exploration of how good sentences work.

Advice and encouragement from Walter Mosley for authors facing a blank page.

Elizabeth George’s method for crafting characters, plots, and scenes.

Jack Bickham’s advice on how to harness the logic of cause-and-effect to create effective plots, characters, and scenes.