These are the best books I’ve found for helping with dramatic writing: telling a story in a powerful way. If you can get only one book, I would say get The Story Template by Amy Deardon. If you can get three, I would add The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines by Cowden, LaFever, and Viders; and Creating Character Arcs by K. M. Weiland. But the more of these books you read and absorb, the better a storyteller you’re going to be.
The List
- The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby
- Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card
- The Complete Writer’s Guide to Heroes & Heroines: Sixteen Master Archetypes by Tami D. Cowden, Caro LaFever, and Sue Viders
- Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development by K. M. Weiland
- Making a Good Script Great by Linda A. Seger
- The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Flaws by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
- The Positive Trait Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Attributes by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
- Save the Cat!: The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
- Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
- The Story Template: Conquer Writer’s Block Using the Universal Structure of Story by Amy Deardon
- 20 Master Plots: And How to Build Them by Ronald B. Tobias
- The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters by Christopher Vogler
- Writing the Fiction Synopsis: A Step by Step Approach by Pam McCutcheon
Full disclosure: all book links on this page are affiliate links. That means whenever you click on one, you’ll be taken to the relevant book page on Amazon. If you make a purchase, I receive a small commission.
Sign up for my mailings to get discounts, private updates, and early access to my publications—plus a free copy of my 1980 short story, The Hermit, my first serious literary work.
