Top Writing books curated by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we have connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favouriteWriting books – and here are the answers.

  • Curated by industry experts
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Top Writing books recommended by experts
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Fundamentals of Writing

Understanding the concepts of Writing starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Immensely helpful and illuminating to any aspiring writer, this special edition of Stephen King’s critically lauded, million-copy bestseller shares the experiences, habits, and convictions that have shaped him and his work. “Long live the King” hailed Entertainment Weekly upon publication of Ste…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Wannabe a Writer?

Wannabe a Writer?

Wannabe a Writer? This hilarious, informative guide to getting into print, is a must-have for anyone who's ever thought they've got a book in them. Where do you start? How do you finish? And will anyone ever publish it when you have? Drawing on her own experiences as a novelist and journalist, W…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere)

It’s every novelist’s greatest fear: pouring their blood, sweat, and tears into writing hundreds of pages only to realize that their story has no sense of urgency, no internal logic, and so is a page one rewrite. The prevailing wisdom in the writing community is that there are just two ways arou…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization

Aristotle's Poetics for Screenwriters: Storytelling Secrets from the Greatest Mind in Western Civilization

Long considered the bible for storytellers, Aristotle's Poetics is a fixture of college courses on everything from fiction writing to dramatic theory. Now Michael Tierno shows how this great work can be an invaluable resource to screenwriters or anyone interested in studying plot structure. In c…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)

You Are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)

Becoming a writer begins with a simple but important belief: You are a writer; you just need to write. In You Are a Writer, Jeff Goins shares his own story of self-doubt and what it took for him to become a professional writer and best-selling author—and the principles he’s learned from seeing m…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence

Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence

Imagine knowing what the brain craves from every tale it encounters, what fuels the success of any great story, and what keeps readers transfixed. Wired for Story reveals these cognitive secrets—and it’s a game-changer for anyone who has ever set pen to paper. The vast majority of writing advice…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Additional Writing Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Writing, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

Writing Down the Bones

Writing Down the Bones

For more than twenty years Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering on writers with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practic…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

No plot? No problem!

No plot? No problem!

Let Chris Baty, founder of the rockin' literary marathon National Novel Writing Month (a.k.a. NaNoWriMo), guide you through four exciting weeks of hard-core noveling. Baty's pep talks and essential survival strategies cover the initial momentum and energy of Week One, the critical "plot flashes"…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work

The Writing Life: Writers on How They Think and Work

Featuring a gathering of more than fifty of contemporary literature's finest voices, this volume will enchant, move, and inspire readers with its tales of The Writing Life. In it, authors divulge professional secrets: how they first discovered they were writers, how they work, how they deal with…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Don't Make Me Think

Don't Make Me Think

Five years and more than 100,000 copies after it was first published, it's hard to imagine anyone working in Web design who hasn't read Steve Krug's "instant classic" on Web usability, but people are still discovering it every day. In this second edition, Steve adds three new chapters in the sam…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience

The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience

The journey to become a successful writer is long, fraught with peril, and filled with difficult questions: How do I write dialogue? How do I build suspense? What should I know about query letters? How do I start? The best way to answer these questions is to ditch your uncertainty and transform …

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434

Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434

For decades, Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 class at UCLA has been the premier screenwriting course, launching a generation of the industry's most frequently produced writers. Here, he shares the secrets of his course on the screenwriting process by actually writing an original script, step by s…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise.

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