Books like How to Write by Richard Rhodes

On Writing blends Stephen King’s memoir with practical guidance, offering a personal look at his path to success and essential lessons for aspiring writers.

Steering the Craft offers practical guidance on fundamental elements of narrative prose, including point of view, sentence structure, syntax, indirect narration, grammar, punctuation, and the musicality of writing.

A thoughtful meditation on Annie Dillard’s creative process, woven from anecdotes and vignettes that illuminate her distinctive prose style.

Analysing Discourse offers a practical introduction to discourse analysis for students and researchers in the social sciences, guiding the study of real language data such as speeches, news reports, and corporate texts.

A reissue of a classic work published in 1934 on writing and the creative process, Becoming a Writer recaptures the excitement of Dorothea Brande's creative writing classroom of the 1920s. Decades before brain research "discovered" the role of the right and left brain in all human endeavor, Dorothea Brande was teaching students how to see again, how to hold their minds still, how to call forth the inner writer.

Elizabeth George draws on years of teaching and her own publishing experience to offer clear, practical guidance on the creative process of fiction writing in this engaging handbook.

Walter Mosley’s practical guide urges writers to overcome hesitation, offering daily‑regimen advice, voice‑selection strategies and tips for drafting and revising a novel in a year.

Valerie Parv’s practical guide offers step‑by‑step instruction for aspiring romance writers, covering character creation, dialogue, setting, conflict, plot, and industry marketing with clear examples and checklists.

A practical guide for a booming market.Every aspiring self-published author needs this guide, which covers everything from design to sales. It reveals all the tools they'll need, including worksheets for estimating costs, timing, and resources; up-to-date information on production and design; formats for many genres; strategies for publicity and sales; plus success stories from self- published authors.Publishers Marketing Association estimates there are 73,000 small and self- publishers in the U.S., with 8,000-11,000 new ones each yearOf the approximately 2.8 million books in print, 78% of the titles come from small/self-publishers (PMA)For small and self-publishers, sales increased 21% annually from 1997-2002; in 2002, these 73,000 publishers grossed $29.4 billion81% of the population feels they have a book inside them; 6 million have written a manuscript; and another 6 million have a manuscript making the rounds

A practical guide for writers seeking to earn a reliable income from freelance writing, offering step‑by‑step tactics for finding high‑paying magazines, building editorial relationships, pitching stories, and negotiating fair rates.

Moss Hart once said that you never really learn how to write a play; you only learn how to write this play. Crafted with that adage in mind, The Dramatic Writer's Companion is designed to help writers explore their own ideas in order to develop the script in front of them. No ordinary guide to plotting, this handbook starts with the principle that character is key. "The character is not something added to the scene or to the story," writes author Will Dunne. "Rather, the character is the scene. The character is the story." Having spent decades working with dramatists to refine and expand their existing plays and screenplays, Dunne effortlessly blends condensed dramatic theory with specific action steps—over sixty workshop-tested exercises that can be adapted to virtually any individual writing process and dramatic script. Dunne's in-depth method is both instinctual and intellectual, allowing writers to discover new actions for their characters and new directions for their stories. Dunne's own experience is a crucial element of this guide. His plays have been selected by the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center for three U.S. National Playwrights Conferences and have earned numerous honors, including a Charles MacArthur Fellowship, four Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards, and two Drama-Logue Playwriting Awards. Thousands of individuals have already benefited from his workshops, and The Dramatic Writer's Companion promises to bring his remarkable creative method to an even wider audience.

Discover the art of weaving captivating prose with Lawrence Block’s practical guide, Spider, Spin Me a Web, built on his experience across 100+ novels.

A practical guide drawn from Lawrence Block’s bestselling writers’ seminar, offering authors concrete strategies to break writer’s block, ignite creativity, and sharpen their craft.