Stephen Davies

Welcome. My name is Stephen Davies and I am a children's author writing picture books, chapter books and teen novels. I have lived in Africa for ten years, working with World Horizons amongst Fulani cattle herders. My books are set in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

Top 5 writing books – one writer’s recommendations

by Stephen Davies

You are currently browsing comments. If you would like to return to the full story, you can read the full entry here: “Top 5 writing books – one writer’s recommendations”.

Published: August 28, 2011 | Filed Under: Writing Tips, YA books | Tags: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :

8 Responses to “Top 5 writing books – one writer’s recommendations”

  1. inluvwithwords says:
    August 29, 2011 at 8:23 am

    Stephen, Thanks so much for this great post. I’ve only read one of these (Stephen King’s On Writing) so I will be adding the others to my list.

    An absolute favorite for me is Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones. She helps you put aside any fears about writing, any worries about the finished product while tapping into the heart of the writing itself.

    In fact, I think I’m due to read that one again!

    Two others that I had to own were Page after Page by Heather Sellers, and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

    Reply
  2. Steve says:
    August 29, 2011 at 9:38 am

    Thanks for the recommendations, Ruth. I think someone on the Verla Kay forums recently recommended ‘Writing Down the Bones’ – I shall give it a try.

    Reply
  3. Keith says:
    August 29, 2011 at 10:21 am

    So why don’t you write a book including the (lengthier) best bits of all the five, then I can just buy and read that one…

    Reply
  4. Mark Garvey says:
    September 1, 2011 at 9:52 am

    Hi. Strunk’s name was actually William, not Gordon. I liked what you had to say about The Elements of Style. I’ve been a fan for years. I’ve also written a history of the book, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2009, on the 50th anniversary of the Strunk/White edition. It’s called STYLIZED: A Slightly Obsessive History of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.

    Mark

    Reply
    • Steve says:
      September 2, 2011 at 2:57 am

      Thanks ever so much for your comment, Mark, and yes how silly of me, of course it’s William. Thank you for correcting me.

      Your book looks ever so interesting. Is it available as an ebook (epub or pdf)? If not, I would seriously think about converting it and making it available – it’s just the sort of thing people like to be able to carry around. Or perhaps I am just being selfish and my ulterior motive is that if it’s an ebook I can easily get hold of a copy here in Burkina Faso! I love your phrase ‘obsessive history’ – how could a history of THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE be anything else? Marvellous.

  5. Mark Garvey says:
    September 3, 2011 at 8:53 am

    Hi Steve:
    Thanks for your kind note. Yes, Stylized is available on a variety of e-platforms, including Kindle, epub, and pdf. I know there is an e version at ebooks.com, for instance. And at Amazon (Kindle). Also available, I’m told, through Apple’s ibookstore.

    I very much appreciate your interest, Steve. Take care.

    Best Regards,
    Mark

    Reply
  6. The Making of a Picture Book Part One: PLOT : Stephen Davies says:
    September 4, 2011 at 5:40 pm

    [...] have raved before about Christopher Booker’s masterpiece SEVEN BASIC [...]

    Reply

Leave a Reply