The Five Secrets of Story Structure, K.M. Weiland. Highly recommended. For beginning students of structure, first read/listen to her Structuring Your Novel.

The Writer’s Journey:  Mythic Structure for Storytellers & Screenwriters, Christopher Vogler. For story structure, this work is foundational, essential.

Secrets of Successful Fiction, Robert Newton Peck. This deceptively simply, spot-on book is hard to find but well worth the effort.

The Psychology Workbook for Writers: Tools for Creating Realistic Characters and Conflict in Fiction, Darian Smith. A short, crisp roadmap for integrating psychological elements into characterization.

Eats More, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss; The Well-tempered Sentence:  A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, Sharon Elizabeth Gordon; Rebel with a Clause: Tales and Tips from a Roving Grammarian, Ellen Jovin. Control of grammar matters. And, who knew? it can be fun, as proven by these three gems.

I Is an Other: The Secret Life of Metaphor and How It Shapes the Way We See the World, James Geary. In creative writing, the selection of specific words and phrases can be magical, making Geary’s secret relevant.

Super Structure The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story, James Scott Bell. Friendly, accessible and easy reading or listening. Widely recommended by younger authors.

The Best of Nancy Kress, Nancy Kress. No one writes better short pieces on fiction writing.

Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life, Anne Lamott. This book has hummed in my mind since I read it more years ago than I care to count.

Mastering the Process:  From Idea to Novel, Elizabeth George. This book offers a whole gestalt approach from a brilliant and wise woman.

The Only Character Workbook You’ll Ever Need, T. M. Holladay. A useful tool with apt prompts and questions for character development.

Heart Breathings, a YouTube Channel created by successful Indie Author Sarra Cannon, an especially useful resource for genre writers.