This is the NaNoWriMo edition of The Author Recommends. For those who don’t know what it is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month and takes places every November, where writers across the globe pledge to write 50,000 words in a month. It’s a lot of fun, and I bet there are a lot of you out there who are participating. So I’ll focus on books that might help or inspire you. Happy NaNoWriMo!

K.M. Weiland is a master of writing. Outlining Your Novel, as well as her Structuring Your Novel, are eye-openers even if you consider yourself competent and experienced. If nothing else, she makes you think, and that’s what matters. I strongly recommend both books if you’re a writer.

This is your bible if you find yourself always using the same words and terms to describe emotions. Or even if you’re just looking for inspiration. The struggle is real, and this book is guaranteed to help you. It’s so genius it’s not even funny.

If you’re like me, you’ll occasionally run into some grammatical issue you’re not sure how to get around. This is the only book you’ll ever need for that. It came recommended to me by an editor I used to work for, and I’m not passing on the torch. Buy it, use it, abuse it.