Fiction writers love to write about writing--more than they like to write fiction, sometimes. You can fill bookshelves with writing-instruction books without scratching the surface of the genre. Worse: publishers and editors spew forth collections of letters and interview-snippets formed from their pet writers, the writers who made them plenty of dollars. Thus the aspiring young writer can sift through useless pages of tripe and pontificating without learning a solitary axiom or skill--though they might think they are accumulating crucial concepts. That's who spends the dollars: young writers who couldn't possibly know better.

Purchasing an "editor on writing" book is the worst mistake a young writer can make. For example, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King could kill your love for reading and writing, and thoroughly corrupt your understanding of both at the same time. The first chapter, "Show and Tell," devotes itself to the title thesis: the generic writer's rule of showing the scene rather than telling the reader about it.

Showing rather than telling is a wonderful guideline for writers. But it isn't the point. Writing good, intriguing, thought-provoking stories is the point. In Self-Editing's first chapter, Browne and King (two editors--what a shock) have the nerve to whittle down a delicious scene from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Why? Who knows? Removing the unnecessary may be the editor's job, but why confuse the student of writing? Read The Great Gatsby if you want to study stellar writing, and leave Self-Editing on the shelf.

Evan Marshall: nuts. Marshall has a "16-step program guaranteed to take you from idea to completed manuscript." In fact, he's written a collection of writing workbooks headed by the title The Marshall Plan. Hey folks: this isn't writing. This is scrapbooking. If you don't give two whits about writing but you still want to publish a book, then The Marshall Plan might conceivably provide you with some watery, quasi-information on how to proceed. For such an individual I'll make this suggestion: Go buy a cookie cutter and do something more useful with your life.

Certain fiction writers have a knack for voice, and when a publisher decides to collect these authors' scattered scrawlings, a reader can get lucky.

Here's a great one: Ernest Hemingway on Writing: Source Link. This collection organizes and showcases Hemingway's take on various aspects of writing. Because Hemingway devoted himself to developing the "true sentence," inside and outside his fiction, you can find sources of wisdom (and understand them) on what it means to be a writer, on the writing process, and on the art of writing itself.

Some of the quotes here are priceless, for example: "A man's got to take a lot of punishment to write a really funny book," and "a writer without a sense of justice and injustice would be better off editing the year book of a school for exceptional children than writing novels." Still, for the aspiring writer and Hemingway aficionado, nothing (nothing) beats A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway: Source Link.p>

The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers, by John Gardner: (Source Link), is invaluable to the writer--if the writer is wary. The writer must use extreme caution when reading this book, if only because John Gardner proves his fluency in arrogance. In addition, he is preaching. A writer with his head screwed on properly will probably burn this book before completing it; and yet, no other book compiles as much concrete, hard-nosed, straight-up-now-tell-me facts about writing that we need to hear. If you are patient, Gardner will explain concepts like tension, like sentence-structure variance, like narrative distance, like plot--Gardner explains these ideas thoroughly, like he was teaching; like he cared. There is nothing wishy-washy about his explanations, either; for a disgruntled MFA student writer like myself, concrete is sexy.

I have saved The Modern Library Writer's Workshop, by Stephen Koch: (Source Link) for last: this is a special book. Stephen Koch is the former chair of Columbia University's graduate writing program, and this book he's put together is nothing short of amazing. Using the knowledge and experience he collected over twenty years as a writer and professor, he offers nothing short of the heart-felt, inspired wisdom that every writer desperately wants to hear. Everything is about perspective. He brings together the theories proposed by all sorts of writers--from Ernest Hemingway to Anthony Trollope to Eudora Welty to Stephen King. He explains both the logistical side of writing and the artistic side.

More importantly, he constantly reminds us of- and brings us back to the most essential aspect of all: in order to write well, you must first write something. In the end, of course (or the beginning, depending on your perspective), after learning about styles and skills and theories, you must put down your books and start writing. That's what this is all about: writing and writing until, years later, you realize that you are no longer trying to write; you are, in fact, a writer.

These books, and none more so than the last, help the young writer remember that all writing begins somewhere, and all writers--the James Joyces AND Danielle Steeles--must start writing before they know how to write well. They only know that they want to write.

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