An introductory book in creative writing

King. Go with King he is the best

don't get her self help books. the king one is a possibility. hemingway's "on writing" is very good. i think there's a faulkner "on writing" as well. get her a subscription to the paris review. print out back issues of the art of fiction, available on their website. the interviewers know what questions to ask the writers. some great insight in there that's been helpful to me anyway.

King. Go read his old stuff. Don't connect only intellectually, but emotionally as well. King mentioned in that book many are real life experiences, especially with the accident.

More important than a book or a college course is for her to find ways to get feedback. Get her to join a writer's group (either online or in person).

I've had a novel, a novella, and about 200 short stories published. I've never read a book on how to write fiction (although I've read plenty of books that have certainly contributed to my own writing). The only creative writing classes I took in college were on writing poetry. I didn't find them helpful at all.

Joining writing workshops is what has helped develop my craft. That and writing/editing constantly.

Your gesture is nice and I'm sure these books are all okay. Just throwing my two cents into the hat.

Stephen King quotes from On Writing:

“The road to hell is paved with adverbs.”

“Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.”

“In many cases when a reader puts a story aside because it 'got boring,' the boredom arose because the writer grew enchanted with his powers of description and lost sight of his priority, which is to keep the ball rolling.”

“Good description is a learned skill, one of the prime reasons why you cannot succeed unless you read a lot and write a lot. It’s not just a question of how-to, you see; it’s also a question of how much to. Reading will help you answer how much, and only reams of writing will help you with the how. You can learn only by doing.”

“I'm a slow reader, but I usually get through seventy or eighty books a year, most fiction. I don't read in order to study the craft; I read because I like to read.”

Another quote King likes to repeat, originally stated by one of his editors.

"Second draft equals first draft minus ten-percent."

Hi. I watched a DVD series on creative writing that I thought was really great. It was a series from New York University called: "Building Great Sentences" and the teacher on the DVD is Professor Brooks Landon. It is kind of like being in class, but I preferred it over reading a book. The website is thegreatcourses.com.

It is pretty pricey though. I do believe that you can buy the book for the class separately on amazon. Good Luck. Greg