Every writer has a handful of books that have helped him or her along the tough journey to becoming a writer.

I can still remember my battered red Roget's Thesaurus that sat on my shelf alongside my stereo, back when I was a teenager.  I'd had the misfortune of an early writing teacher who told me that there was no point in using the adjective "blue" when something more precise, like "cerulean," would do.  Luckily, a professor in college set me straight with a denunciation of multi-syllabic Latinate words.  I was cowed.  "Blue" returned to my lexicon.

Once I'd graduated from English grammar books, which trained me in the correct way to construct a sentence, I was away and running.  Books on the writing life flooded my shelves.  Annie Dillard's The Writing Life, Terry Brooks' Sometimes the Magic Works (yes, I confess to an early love of fantasy), even Piers Anthony's hilarious book (the name escapes me now) that consisted of an early manuscript he submitted to publishers and the various critical notes editors had scribbled in the margins.

But there are three books that have stood way above the rest.  They're not about the publishing process or about the right way to write a sentence.  They're short on Latinate words and long on Anglo-Saxon.  And they're books that need to be on every serious or budding writer's bookshelf, because they're just plain great

Best Writing Book Ever #1:
Annie Lamott - Bird by Bird

I owe this gem to my friend Jennifer.  She introduced it to me in college, and I've been grateful ever since.  This is the kind of book that friends and parents buy as gifts for wanna-be writers.  (I'm guilty: I've done it, too.)

Expect an informal, casual conversation about life, love, words, and the process of writing.  Annie Lamott will feel like your best friend by the time you're done.  Wrapped up in a compelling story of a dying father is the story of a writer's awakening.  Inspirational, unforgettable, and essential reading for beginning writers.

Buy it now on Amazon.

Best Writing Book Ever #2:
Julia Cameron - The Artist's Way

I'm going to see Julia Cameron in London in September, and I can't wait.  Julia Cameron is funny, quirky, and passionate about the act of creation.  She knows that one of the biggest dangers to creative people is getting blocked, and she's developed this 12-week course to nurture the budding artist inside all of us.

If you're not writing as much as you should, or if you spend more time criticizing other people's writing than doing your own, this course is for you.  It will make you face up to some very hard truths, such as the fact that all that time you spend reading (the writer's addiction) is time you could be spending on your own creative work.  Cameron believes that most of us get some "payoff" by being creatively blocked.  If you don't risk trying, you don't risk failing.

The book is structured as a 12-week course, containing at least an hour's worth of exercises a day.  Although the exercises are easy, the emotions they'll dredge up are not.  You'll cry, you'll make difficult realizations, and you'll get angry.  With catharsis comes unblocking.

Buy it now on Amazon.

Best Writing Book Ever #3:
Robert McKee - Story

I have Peter Jackson to thank for this gem.  I'd purchased his biography on sale in the New Zealand equivalent of Wal-Mart (Jackson, of course, is a god down here), and I was captivated by his story of how he and Fran came to develop the script for The Lord of the Rings.  If it weren't for Jackson attending a workshop by screenwriting's king, Robert McKee, The Lord of the Rings movies may have never become the blockbusters they are today.

Yes, Story is about screenwriting, but it's about much more than that.  It's about the principles of storytelling, fired with McKee's passion for movies.  McKee breaks down the art of storytelling into such a powerful formula that following it is almost a 100% guarantee of commercial success.

I wish I could absorb Story by osmosis, because plot has never been one of my strong points.  I'm much more drawn to images and scenes that float in the air, evoking powerful emotions, but not necessarily going anywhere.  I know that's a weakness of mine, and I've been working on it for the past seven years.  I even went back for a master's degree in writing to help me figure out plot, and I was gutted to realize that my professors had no clue, either.  I should have spent all those thousands of dollars on attending McKee's workshops - over and over again.

If you want to write stories that people can't stop reading, get this book.

Buy it now on Amazon.