Writing Websites:

Advanced Fiction Writing by Randy Ingermanson
Learn How To Write A Novel by Susan May Warren & My Book Therapy

Literary Agency Websites With Great Blogs:
The Steve Laube Agency
Books and Such Literary Agency

 

Essential Craft Books:

Self EditingSelf-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King

In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work. Chapters on dialogue, exposition, point of view, interior monologue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an expert editor would go through to perfect your manuscript. Each point is illustrated with examples, many drawn from the hundreds of books Browne and King have edited.

 

HookedHooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go by Les Edgerton

The road to rejection is paved with bad beginnings. Agents and editors agree: Improper story beginnings are the single biggest barrier to publication. Why? If a novel or short story has a bad beginning, then no one will keep reading. It’s just that simple. In Hooked, author Les Edgerton draws on his experience as a successful fiction writer and teacher to help you overcome the weak openings that lead to instant rejection by showing you how to successfully use the ten core components inherent to any great beginning.

 

Breakout NovelWriting the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

Maybe you’re a first-time novelist looking for practical guidance. Maybe you’ve already been published, but your latest effort is stuck in mid-list limbo. Whatever the case may be, author and literary agent Donald Maass can show you how to take your prose to the next level and write a breakout novel – one that rises out of obscurity and hits the best-seller lists. Maass details the elements that all breakout novels share – regardless of genre – then shows you writing techniques that can make your own books stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace.

 

Fire FictionThe Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass

We’ve all read them: novels by our favorite authors that disappoint. Uninspired and lifeless, we wonder what happened. Was the author in a hurry? Did she have a bad year? Has he lost interest altogether? Something similar is true of a great many unpublished manuscripts. They are okay stories that never take flight. They don’t grip the imagination, let alone the heart. They merit only a shrug and a polite dismissal by agents and editors. It doesn’t have to be that way. In The Fire in Fiction, successful literary agent and author Donald Maass shows you not only how to infuse your story with deep conviction and fiery passion, but how to do it over and over again.

 

The Art and Craft of Fiction by Victoria MixonThe Art & Craft of Fiction: A Practitioner’s Manual by Victoria Mixon

Based on Mixon’s work as a successful independent fiction editor, The Art & Craft of Fiction: A Practitioner’s Manual brings together in one place everything you need to know about writing a novel, an in-depth exploration of the myriad aspects of creating fiction in a warm, entertaining voice that welcomes you into the greater fellowship of all writers.

 

Creating Character Emotion by Ann HoodCreating Character Emotions by Ann Hood

In this unique book, Ann Hood will help you find fresh, creative images, words and gestures to evoke feelings in your fiction. In 36 “mini-lessons,” Hood sheds new light on love, hate, fear, grief, guilt, hope, jealousy and other major emotions. Each lesson offers instruction on rendering that particular sentiment; “good” and “bad” examples illustrating how writers have succeeded and where others have gone wrong; and imaginative exercises for putting the feeling into words.