Which books are worthwhile in assisting in improving one's

John Yorke's Into The Woods
Robert McKee's Story (and Dialogue is worth checking out too, it's his newest)
Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey
Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces
David Corbett's The Art of Character (it starts with the beginning of where people might gain inspiration for a character and gentle assists in building it from appearance, psychology, intentions/wants/needs, whether the character is worthy of being a protagonist, etc - probably better suited to beginners or someone who is trying to get back into writing).

Most of this stuff takes more of a screenwriting focus to be honest, but what they teach can also be applied to plays and novels too, to be honest.

>>9174090
Stephen king on writing
Elements of structure
Ray bradbury zen in the art of writing
Aristotle's poetics
Oxford english grammar

The rest can't be taught or is totally subjective.

>>9174090
Read books on composition (music and painting)-- on crafting (woodworking, for instance)-- on how to do most anything at all (by a good writer) OTHER than writing. It's counter-intuitive, of course..

apart from the books already recommended, one of the best things you can do is just read more literature, especially work outside of your own reading comfort zones.

i tend to recommend dostoevsky's work if people are interested in how to establish an internal, mental conflict: the protagonist vs. himself.

>>9174119
>>9174115
Seconding Aristotle and Joseph Campbell. I want to call McKee a hack but his work is like a literal cheat-sheet in how to write screenplays. He's a bit like Blake Snyder and Syd Field - they're like an easy way out and not always reliable. Take them with a pinch of salt. They still have information worthy of merit but try not to solely rely on them.