My favorite reference books
A few of MY Favorite Writing Books:
TECHNIQUES OF A SELLING WRITER by Dwight Swain; and Swain's student's book on the same subject:
SCENE AND STRUCTURE by Jack Bickham (This is one of the The Writer's Digest "How to" series) All are good.
STORY: SUBSTANCE, STRUCTURE, STYLE AND THE PRINCIPLES OF SCREENWRITING by Robert McKee
THE WRITER'S JOURNEY by Christopher Vogler (2nd edition.)
HOW TO WRITE A DAMN GOOD NOVEL (I & II) by James N. Frey
HOW TO TELL A STORY by Peter Rubie and Gary Provost
THE WEEKEND NOVELIST by Robert J. Ray
CREATING CHARACTERS by Dwight Swain
FICTION IS FOLKS by Robert N. Peck
CREATING UNFORGETTABLE CHARACTERS by Linda Seger
WRITING ROMANCE by Vanessa Grant
THE WORDSWORTH DICTIONARY OF CLICHE by Terry & David Freedman, 1996.
THE DREADED SYNOPSIS, order through her web site
<http://members.aol.com/ESinclair1/index.html>
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King, 1993
HarperCollins, ISBN 0-06-270061-8
The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B.White, 1979 MacMillan
Publishing, ISBN 0-02-418190-0
The Elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer, 1986 MacMillan Publishing, ISBN 0-02-015440-2
HOW TO WRITE A BLOCKBUSTER NOVEL by Al Zuckerman;
WRITING DOWN THE BONES by Natalie Goldberg;
THESAURUS OF ALTERNATIVES TO WORN-OUT WORDS AND PHRASES by Robert Hartwell Fiske, Writer's Digest Books. ISBN#0898796016
The basics:
WRITER'S MARKET (ANNUAL) This one also comes in a CD rom/ online edition and can be searched and sorted by various criteria which is nice. Also you get access to its website for updates.
NOVEL AND SHORT STORY WRITERS' MARKET
HOW TO BE YOUR OWN LITERARY AGENT by Richard Curtis
FICTION WRITERS' SILENT PARTNER
GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS
MERRIAM WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY, TENTH EDITION (has dates of first usage of words, wonderful for historical writers.)
ROGET'S SUPER THESAURUS (second edition) by Marc McCutcheon
Reader's Digest's FAMILY WORD FINDER (1975, out of print.)
WHAT'S WHAT edited by Bragonier and Fisher
