On (creative) writing: books, tools and other usefull stuff

I tend to dabble in writing fiction. Even though I have never published anything (yet), here’s a list of books, tools and other invaluable things I discovered throughout my years of writing.  It’s by no means an exhaustive list, but more a “things I like”-overview.

Who knows, someone of you gets inspired by it.

Enjoy!

Books

There’s an impressive amount of books “on writing”, so here are the ones that you definitely should read, ignore the rest for now and simply start writing. Consider this my personal top 10, with number 1 on top:

• On Writing by King, Stephen (2012) Paperback
• Wonderbook (Revised and Expanded): The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
• The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing
• Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within
• The Modern Library Writer’s Workshop: A Guide to the Craft of Fiction (Modern Library Paperbacks)
• How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting
• Just Write: Creating Unforgettable Fiction and a Rewarding Writing Life
• Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
• My Story Can Beat Up Your Story: Ten Ways to Toughen Up Your Screenplay from Opening Hook to Knockout Punch

For Dutch-reading people, I’d like to add one more to this list: Schrijfwijzer

Need more? Check out this curated Goodreads list by yours truly.

Tools

You don’t need a lot to write. Honestly, pen and paper or notepad suffice. However, for larger projects I keep returning to these three “tools”:

• Scrivener: A great organizer and ‘visualizer’ of your story and project. Buy this during NaNoWriMo at a discount here.
• Novlr.org: I’ve been using this one ever since it was launched (in fact, I’m a lifetime member) and it’s my main writing environment during drafting.
• Aeon Timeline: An invaluable tool to keep track of all your timelines. During nanowrimo, they usually also offer a nice discount.
• Some tools I didn’t check out yet but look interesting:
  • Campfire
  • World Anvil
  • Archivos

Online classes

• Masterclass.com: Ok, to be fair, this one is expensive and with 200 dollars a year you could buy my whole top 10 of creative books and learn way more. However, it’s the only way to learn from the master, Neil Gaiman, himself. So yeah, I like it.
• Couch to 80k Bootcamp: Need a more cheap approach? (can’t blame ya) Then you should definitely Tim Clare’s FREE boot camp. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was both inspiring and insightful. (oh, it’s also embedded inside novlr.org, which is a nice extra)