5 Essential Books for Aspiring Writers

We bet you have heard that to write well, you need to read a lot. It is right for academic writing, fiction, non-fiction, essays for magazines, and online blogs. The more you read, the broader your horizon is, the better writer you are. We have asked expert essay writers from WriteMyPaperHub working for a website that writes papers for you to share their perspective on the essential books for aspiring writers. Here is a brief list of books every person who wants to write better should read. Well, maybe even not once!

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King

In the first part of this book, King talks about his life’s most memorable events, starting from the age of two. At the same time, much attention is paid to childhood and school years, which makes it possible to understand what events in his personal life influenced King’s formation as a writer. In the second part of the book, King gives practical advice to writers, giving good and bad, in his opinion, examples (excerpts) from both existing literary works of famous authors and from non-existent works (written by himself).

This is perhaps the most unusual of Stephen King’s books. A book in which autobiographical memoir motives coexist not only with reflections on the art of writing in general but also with real “professional advice for those who want to write like Stephen King.”

What forms a writer? What are the main “secrets” of an author’s difficult “craft”? What, strictly speaking, does a person need to know and be able to do in order for his creations to top international bestseller lists? Don’t miss this book.

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott

Do you have an unwritten book inside you? Anne Lamott is ready to help you get her out. She will show you where to find inspiration, motivation, how to find your own style, from poor drafts to the oddities of communicating with publishers.

Lamott talks about the realities of a writer’s life, which has little to do with literary hangouts – rather, it consists of envy, creative crises, and desperate battles for each paragraph. The book has been tested by time — 18 years have passed since the first edition, recommended by Austin Cleon in Steal Like An Artist, and by Jim Collins.

Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience – Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

In his iconic book, eminent scholar Mihai Csikszentmihalyi presents a completely new approach to the topic of happiness. Happiness for him is equal to inspiration, and he calls this state a flow. The author analyzes this fruitful state on the example of representatives of various professions and discovers that the emotional uplift experienced by artists, actors, musicians is available in any business. Moreover, one must strive for it – and not only in purposeful activity but also in relationships, in friendship, in love. The book teaches how to get in this state while doing anything.

Exploring creative personalities, the author found in his research that they are happy due to the fact that they experience a state of flux during the process of insight. But the flow is not the exclusive possession of any special people. The author builds a detailed, coherent, and experimentally confirmed theory, in the center of which is the idea of the flow. This is a state of complete merging with your work, absorption by it when you do not feel time, yourself when instead of fatigue, there is a constant surge of energy.

On Writing Well — William Zinsser

An amazingly accurate textbook perfect for both a novice journalist and a scientist striving to clothe their discoveries in a form accessible to the general reader. And, in general, any person who wants to express their thoughts clearly and become a storyteller, listened to, with their mouths open, no matter where at the podium or in a friendly company.

William Zinsser’s book is the most popular and authoritative book in the world about writing. It went through 30 reprints and sold over a million copies in total. This is a book about how to write articles, essays, blogs, and entire books – fun, vivid, and intelligible. Its audience is not only professional journalists and writers, but all intellectual workers. After all, the ability to competently express their thoughts in writing is a must for anyone who wants to succeed in today’s information-saturated world. Zinsser tells in detail how to write any text on any topic – about people, about travel, about yourself, about technology, about sports, about art. Explains what rules the writer should follow, what methods to use, and how to relate to his work in order to bring it as close as possible to perfection.

Zinsser’s book will be useful to everyone who has to or who writes non-fiction texts of their own free will – from business letters to popular science books.

The author tells in detail how to write any texts on any topic – about people, about travel, about yourself, about technology, about sports, about art. Explains what rules the writer should follow, what methods to use, and how to relate to his work in order to bring it as close as possible to perfection.

Steal Like an Artist — Austine Kleon

The key idea of this book is simple — you don’t need to be a genius, you need to be yourself and use everything available to make your craft better and more professional. Kleon argues that there is nothing original left in this world. There are no original plots, no original music, nothing. This means that all this world needs is not originality, but your personal take on the matter. Of course, and we cannot emphasize it enough, Kleon is against any plagiarism, as plagiarism is an illegal practice and is especially dangerous in the academic world.