"The Art of Writing" He defines his view of good writing and art, his view of the industry, and then teaches writing with solid specifics and even exercises for the student. A very good basic book on Creative Writing.
"On becomming a Novelist" (with Ray Carver) About writing longer fiction and the need to lose the perfection of the short story. The organization of work and time in such a large task are also discussed.
Two books by OCS
"Character and Viewpoint" The best book on this subject that I have ever read.
"Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy" Good advice from a man who has made a good living writing in our genre.
Ursula LeGuin wrote "The Language of the Night" more about what Science Fiction and Fantasy are than a "how to" book. An amazing insight into the creative process of one of our greatest writers.
Azimov wrote a book about writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, but the title escapes me. Someone will correct me or you could find it on Amazon I'm sure. The most significant thing I took from the book was his description of two general types of writing. One the moving picture made up of the beautiful arrangment of millions of bits of glass. The other, the freshly cleaned sheet of clear glass behind which the story takes place.
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The only way I could get hold of Orson's 'Characters and Viewpoint' was as part of a book called 'How to write a million' which contains Orson's book and also: 'Plot' by Ansen Dibell and 'Dialogue' by Lewis Turco.
I haven't finished reading the dialogue one yet but I've found all three books really useful.
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I found Dean Koontz's How to Write Best-Selling Fiction helpful in a number of ways. I immensely enjoyed it---I wish I could say the same for practically all of his fiction. (I hope I got the title right---I returned it to the library years ago.)
Aside from that...
Science Fiction Writer's Workshop I by Barry B. Longyear. Though he didn't convert me to his way of writing, I learned a lot about how to frame my story scene-by-scene. (As far as I know, there never was a II. Again, I hope I got the title right.)
Handbook of Science Fiction, L. Sprague de Camp. Again, a useful work, particularly on how to organize your writing habits. (My story index cards still look like the samples in this book, even though it's all on my computer nowadays. Once again I hope the title is right---if you could see my files you'd know why I hesitate to root through them to find anything.)
Robert Silverberg has an anthology whose title escapes me---I know it's been published under at least two different titles---but it contains a dozen or so classic SF short stories with a blow-by-blow breakdown of them that tells the beginner (or intermediary like me) a lot about how to construct stories.
This is a much easier read than the earlier Stephen King offering: Danse Macabre. On Writing read much more like a novel than a "How To" book on writing.
Also, though its not necessarily a fiction-based book, William K. Zinsser: On Writing Well.
[This message has been edited by InarticulateBabbler (edited February 01, 2007).]
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Let's see, Here are some that I enjoyed reading and found somewhat inspirational. I can't say any of them have helped me, as that would presuppose that I have some degree of competence as a writier, which is something I'll believe when I see it .
I apologize if I get some of the tiles/authors slightly off. I don't have my bookshelf in front of me.
The First Five Pages - Noah Lukeman. Writing the Breakout Novel - Donald Maas
Both of those are written from an agent's perspective, and deal more with revision/polishing than writing per se.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers - ???? and Dave King(?)
Just reading this one now, talks about what appears to be advanced revision/editing considerations from the viewpoint of editors. Above and beyond line/copy/blue-pencil editing.
Immediate Fiction - Jerry Cleaver
Focuses on the basic elements of story telling and deals with things like motivation/finding time and writer's block.
Plot and Structure - James Bell
I haven't put this one to practical use, but there are lots of ideas for how to organize and plan a novel-length story.
Characters and Viewpoint - Orson Scott Card.
If this one hasn't been mentioned already in the thread, I'd be surprised. I don't accord it as high a status as many here do, but it will definitely clear up any confusion about the nuances of POV.
On Writing by Stephen King and Sometimes the Magic Works by Terry Brooks are good reads from well-known authors about being a writer in general. King's book has an interesting little section where he includes a draft story excerpt with editing.
You can probably tell from the order I listed these that my reading on writing tends to focus on revision/editing rather than creating. I've read many more, but these are ones that stirred up the writing juices inside me the most.
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Survivor's post. I just re-write all my work every time he posts something new. Whew.
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy - Orson Scott Card was my first book I stumbled upon and it blew my doors off, I had no idea of any of the stuff he was talking about and that is what started me wanting to write.
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Let me add both The Early Asimov and The Early Del Rey.
The Early Asimov 'cause it kinda kindled my interest in the idea of trying to get published---I don't know if, before that, I'd realized how stories actually get published.
The Early Del Rey for making me realize, early on, what worked for me as writer and reader, and giving me a lesson about who should be the lead character in any story.
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