Hi there,

It's almost November, which means it's almost time for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In case you're unfamiliar, the goal is to write a 50K-word novel by the end of the month. That means writing 1,667 words per day.

It's hard. It's really, really, really, really, really hard.

But by the end of the month, you have a solid first draft, and thousand of authors participate. The timing is perfect for me this year — I'm usually buried in revisions in November, but I just finished my third novel last month, so NANO HERE I COME!

To get into the spirit of writing a shiny new manuscript, I wanted to revisit some of my favorite books on the craft on writing, and thought it might be helpful to compile a short list of my favorites for other authors (or aspiring authors)! Here are the 8 books I've found most helpful on writing fiction: