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It is not surprising that one of the things which writers write about the most is writing, nor should it be surprising that these books sell. Every writer truly worth the title wants to improve his craft and we seek the tricks of the trade. There are a few of course, a growing number as you move from the most personal forms of writing such as poetry through into the business of writing, publishing and submission which ofter require as little creativity as a person can bring themselves to have, and are ideal for a detailed book. But with such a wide subject that is made up almost entirely of personal opinion and personal working preferences how can you find books that are useful? There are four types of book which are helpful in becoming a good fiction writer, each able to teach you important things that none of the others will.

The first group are reference books. Little will help your writing better than "The Elements of Style", the dictionary, a good thesaurus, a book of baby names and possibly a rhyming dictionary. There are of course other reference books that will fit your style and needs better but do not underestimate the necessities of these boring, but vital tools of your craft.

Second are the books about the industry. These are books which teach you how and where to get publish, how to find an agent, how to submit your work and all of the other things that you need to know. The most important of these is "The Writer's Market". Without this book I would be lost. It is a book of publishers, agents and advice such as how to create a cover letter, how to make a submission and other things you just have to know. The best of these books are those written by editors and publicists not by authors.

Next are books of tips and advice. The most important aspect of these books is that the writer, or at very least the reader, understand that this type of advice on the craft of writing is personal opinion and style. These are the most prolific style of writing book and nearly any author you can think of will at some point write one. Those which I have found most useful are "On Writing" by Steven King and "Writing down to the bones" by Natalie Goldberg, but this will almost certainly change with each person. Advice on how to plot out a story isn't useful to someone who prefers to write with less of a plan just as discussions of detailed character sketches may be useless to someone who prefers the story to drive everything. These are books of opinion filled with great tips and advice but almost always subjective and the best are written by people who understand that.

The final and most important books on how to write fiction are books of fiction. No amount of hints and advice will truly keep you out of the pitfalls of writing better than reading a wide variety of books. Read in the genre you write, read outside of the genre you write. Understand the cliches as well as the publishers. Find books that you love, books you hate and books you don't care about. Delve into them and find out why. You will never truly write great fiction until you have done this. Those that I have learned the most from are "The Grapes of Wrath", "Ender's Game", and "Lord of the flies" which I loved, and "The Great Gatsby" which I hated, but still taught me a lot.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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