So there you are. Searching on Amazon or in the library for books on writing. Surely there’s a book that can tell you how and what to write. It will literally pull the words out of your brain.
No. Wasting time hanging around bookstores looking for the pot of gold won’t get your book written. Only you can do the work. It’s like hanging around a gym and watching others clang the weights and sweat on the treadmills and thinking you’ll get six-pack abs and lose weight.
Ain’t happenin’.
But . . . but . . . but my adult writing students often ask, surely there’s a book that can help me get organized and start writing.
Other than doing free writing, mind mapping, writing all the time, making lists, chaining your laptop to your waist, and drinking Red Bull, I do recommend three writers and their books, if you insist:
- Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is easy and quick to read. She gives you permission to bang it out and write (in her words) that shitty first draft. She also gives guidance on how to handle sensitive topics such as abuse and abusers.
- In Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg assembles the sugar, flour, eggs, and vanilla. But do you have a cake yet? No. She gives some useful pointers to get your cake baking.
- And, of course, Stephen King. His autobiography and writing guide, On Writing, is a classic. Make sure you buy a paper copy, not ebook version, because you’ll want to dog-ear, highlight, and sticky note this thing to death (hmm, a common theme of his). He’s a master. You’ll learn a lot about him and about writing and discipline — and maybe something about yourself as a writer.
So why are you still reading this? Get busy writing.
Sandra Wendel is a nonfiction book editor. This post is an excerpt from her newly revised, award-winning book, Cover to Cover: What First-Time Authors Need to Know About Editing (2026). This is the book you recommend to your authors because it contains a helpful checklist for authors to get their manuscripts ready for your editing. Don’t miss the chapter titled “The Chapter on Writing I Didn’t Want to Include (ChatGPT Made Me Do It).”
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