Hi everyone! I hope you’re all doing well! Today is post number seven in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. If you’d like to participate in the challenge, you can find the list of topics for 2025 here. If you want to read about how others have responded to today’s topic, you can do so here.

What to Read to Learn About… Writing

Over the years, I have read many books claiming to instruct in the proper ways to write fiction and poetry, and today, I will share with you some of my favourites, i.e. the ones that actually helped me to hone my skills.
First, there’s no beating the “For Dummies” series of books, which teach you everything from basic story structure to how to look for an agent or even how to self-publish. My favourite book in this series is “Writing a Novel and Getting Published for Dummies“.

Another great book (and partial memoir) is “On Writing” by Stephen King. This book is full of helpful advice for writing, and it also gives a glimpse into King’s life and career. For instance, it was through reading this book I learned he almost died in 1999 when he was struck by a van and spent three weeks in hospital.

“The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook” is another tome of helpful information and solid advice. It is updated yearly and contains all sorts of useful stuff, like lists of agents you can query and tips from published authors. It’s a book I return to often.

Finally, one more book that offers good tips and advice for writing is “Take Off Your Pants: Outline Your Books For Faster, Better Writing” by Libbie Hawker. The book shows you how to create a solid working outline for a story and introduced me to “The Story Core”. This method has been a revelation to me; it’s a way of outlining that helps combine a plot structure with a character’s arc, and I’ve just started implementing it, so we’ll see how it works out.

Anyway, I think I’ve gone on for long enough, but I’m curious to read all your posts!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Until next time,

George

© 2025 GLT

Categories: life, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Tags: challenge, for dummies, Stephen King, Wednesday, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge, writing