One Book Every Writer Should Have

Istijlal (Majesty), 18 Sharaf (Honor), 164 B.E. - Thursday, January 17, 2008 about 2:58 PM PST

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg is one book that every beginning writer should have in his or her personal library. This wonderful little book is written from the point of view of a writer and a poet. Every chapter gives exercises or writing advice.

When reading a book about writing use various colored highlighters to mark passages of interest. Use one color for writing advice and another color for writing ideas. A writer can get a great many ideas poetic themes when reading any book, but this book is especially good for finding subjects for poems and giving useful advice on things like sentences. I enjoy this book and reread sections of it all the time.