If you’re a budding author who loves reading books, you will benefit from reading about some characters who also love to express themselves through the written word. Each of these characters use writing in different ways. Some communicate purely through writing, some only write in lists, some write beautiful prose, and others catalog their daily habits. Whether you’re an aspiring prose author, poet, screenwriter, or you just like getting your thoughts down on paper, these 5 books will help inspire you to reach your full writing potential! After all, there’s nothing as comforting as knowing someone else is going through what you’re going through.

1. Autoboyography by Christina Lauren

Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class—one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community.

2. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

Sixteen-year-old Lara Jean Song keeps her love letters in a hatbox her mother gave her. They aren’t love letters that anyone else wrote for her; these are ones she’s written. One for every boy she’s ever loved—five in all. When she writes, she pours out her heart and soul and says all the things she would never say in real life, because her letters are for her eyes only. Until the day her secret letters are mailed, and suddenly, Lara Jean’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control.

3. Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach

“Was this story written about me?”
I shrugged.
“Yes or no?”
I shrugged again, finally earning a little scowl, which somehow made the girl even more pretty.
“It’s very rude not to answer simple questions,” she said.
I gestured for my journal, but she still wouldn’t give it to me. So I took out my pen and wrote on my palm.
I can’t, I wrote. Then, in tiny letters below it: Now don’t you feel like a jerk?

4. Me Being Me is Exactly as Strange as You Being You by Todd Hasak-Lowy

Told entirely in lists, Todd Hasak-Lowy’s debut YA novel perfectly captures why having anything to do with anyone, including yourself, is:

1. painful
2. unavoidable
3. ridiculously complicated
4. possibly, hopefully the right thing after all.

5. Confessions of a High School Disaster by Emma Chastain

Mom says the only thing sadder than remembering is forgetting, so I’m going to write down everything that happens to me in this diary. That way, even when I’m ninety, I’ll remember how awkward and horrible and exciting it is to be in high school.