Creative writing is something many people are inspired to try, but managing to produce something original, interesting, entertaining, and impacts on the reader isn’t easy. If it was, far more people would be doing it.

Of course, you need some basics to be a creative writer, such as a natural aptitude with words and some original ideas, but the key question is this: How can you take these raw materials and make them into something that stands out?

There is, of course, the saying of Thomas Edison that genius is “one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration”, but it helps to know exactly where to direct that effort. That is where books to help with creative writing can make all the difference.

What such books do is ensure you are not relying only on yourself for ideas. This is important because good reading is in itself a potential source of inspiration, not because you should copy ideas - that will prevent you from being original - but because it can help you observe techniques and methods and then adapt them to your own writing.

That is true of reading in general, but books designed to help you develop and refine creative writing techniques will offer practical help too, ranging from the basics through to more complicated elements such as writing plot twists and character building.

There are many practical tips out there, but books bringing them together comprehensively can enable you to draw many different threads together to build up your skills into a powerful creative force.

Consequently, the more you read such books and understand the many aspects involved in creative writing, the better able you will be to refine your own work. In doing so, you will understand how and where you can improve, and see better results, with the consequence being that your readers will increasingly enjoy your work.