List Version of Book Recommendations:

BOOKS ON CHILDREN'S LITERATURE:

  • Writing Irresistible KidLit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adults and Middle Grade Readers (Kole)

  • Children's Writer's Word Book (Mogilner)

  • Writing Picture Books (Paul)

  • Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly (Levine)

  • Writing Great Books for Young Adults (Brooks)

  • The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children & Young Adults (Klein)

BOOKS ON PLOT:

  • 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them (Tobias)

  • Story Structure Architect: A Writer’s Guide to Building Dramatic Situations and Compelling Characters (Schmidt)

  • Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Cron)

  • The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master (Alderson)

  • Plot and Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish (Bell)

  • The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (Truby)

  • Save the Cat! Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need (Brody)

BOOKS ON CRAFT:

  • Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict and Suspense (Bell)

  • Writing Deep Scenes: Plotting Your Story Through Action, Emotion, and Theme (Alderson & Rosenfeld)

  • Make a Scene: Writing a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time (Rosenfeld)

  • The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface (Maass)

  • A Writer's Guide to Active Setting: How to Enhance Your Fiction with More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings (Buckham & Love)

  • The Emotional Thesaurus and entire Writers Helping Writers Series (Puglisi & Ackerman)

  • Revision and Self-Editing for Publication: Techniques for Transforming Your First Draft into a Novel that Sells (Bell)

BOOKS ON THE CREATIVE PROCESS:

  • Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear (Gilbert)

  • Courageous Creativity: Advice and Encouragement for the Creative Life (Zarr)

  • The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises (Bell)

  • Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead (Brown)

  • Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (Goldberg)