I've made a list of the books on my bookshelf. I don't recommend that you buy all of them - or any of them! - but these are the ones I've acquired over the years. You might find some of them in your local library or might even be able to request them through inter-library loans. I suggest that you look at each of them and decide if they seem to be helpful to your particular way of story telling before you buy them. Or, you can do like me and buy every book in sight!
Books I can’t live without:
Goal, Motivation, Conflict, Debra Dixon (order directly from http://www.gryphonbooksforwriters.com/ - was $19.95 when I last checked)
Theme and Strategy, 0-89879-392-0 (may be out of print but still can be found on Amazon - used)
Fiction is Folks, Robert Newton Peck, 0-89879-266-5
The Writer’s Journey, Chris Vogler, 0941188132
Techniques of the Selling Writer, Dwight Swain, 0-8061-1191-7
Characters and Viewpoint, Orson Scott Card, 0-89879-927-9
Good books I highly recommend:
Character Naming Sourcebook, 0-89879-632-6
Eats, Shoots and Leaves, Lynne Truss, 1-592-40203-8
The Plot Thickens, Noah Lukeman, 0-312-30928-7
Scene and Structure, Jack Bickham, 0-89879-551-6
Save the Cat, Blake Snyder, 1-932907-00-9
The Art of Dramat!c Wr!t!ng, Lajos Egri, 0-671-21332-6
Plot, Ansen Dibell, 0-89879-303-3
Writing the Breakout Novel, Donald Maass, 1-58297-182-X (also the workbook)
The First Five Pages, Noah Lukeman, 0-684-85743-X
Books I own (in no particular order – many of them are very good):
The Writer’s Guide to Conquering the Magazine Market, Connie Emerson, 0-89879-484-6
The Marshall Plan for Novel Writing, Evan Marshall, 0-89879-848-5 (also the workbook)
Writing the Block Buster Novel, Albert Zuckerman, 0-89879-598-2
How to Write a Damn Good Novel (I and II), James Frey, 0-312-10478-2
Conflict, Action and Suspense, William Noble, 0-89879-907-4
Writer’s Guide to Character Traits, Linda Edelstein, 1-58297-390-3
Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott, 0-385-48001-6
Police Procedural, Russell Bintliff, 0-89879-596-6
Structuring Your Novel, Meredith and Fitzgerald, 0-06-463325-X
How to Get Happily Published, Judith Appelbaum, 0-06-273509-8
Time Travel, Paul Nahin, 0-89879-748-9
Cause of Death, Keith Wilson, 0-89879-524-9
Spider, Spin Me a Web, Lawrence Block, 0-688-14690-2
On Writing, Stephen King, 0-684-85352-3
The Courage to Write, Ralph Keyes, 0-8050-3189-8
Handbook of Short Story Writing, Joyce Carol Oates, 0-89879-049-2
Handbook of Magazine Article Writing, Bob Greene, 0-89879-408-0
No More Rejections, Alice Orr, 1-58297-285-0
The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, Georges Polti, No ISBN
Writers Inc, Sebranek et al, 0-939045-48-6
Setting, Jack Bickham, 0-89879-635-0
Writing Fiction, Gotham Writers’ Workshop, 1-58234-330-6
Fiction Writer’s Workshop, Josip Novakovich, 1-884910-39-4
The Writer’s Idea Workshop, Jack Heffron, 1-58297-279-63