To this day, I think the best book I’ve ever read about the art and act of writing is Russell T Davies’ The Writers Tale. It’s a series of e-mails from then Executive Producer and Head Writer of Doctor Who, Russell T Davies, to Doctor Who Magazine writer Benjamin Cook about the process of writing for series television and all the hassles and problems therein.

I love it because I’ve never seen a better illustration of the daily frustrations of writing—finding solutions to puzzles that have come up, finding the best way of creating a scene or a character, trying to keep up with external pressures and demands. You can see how Russell creates the scripts for several stories in the fourth series of the new Doctor Who and it’s really quite enlightening to watch a writer at the top of his game share, even a little, about his creative process.

I say this because there’s a new paperback edition, with an additional 100,000 words on the creation of David Tennant’s final specials, now available. It’s good, but only if you’re a Doctor Who fan. If you want a great book about writing, the original hardback edition is what you should get.