Ten Must Have Books For Writers

 

These are ten books that every writer should have in their collection. They provide valuable insights into the world of writing while also helping you hone your craft. I have ranked these books in order of their importance to me. I have also included links to Amazon.com so you can check them out.

1. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White – Follow this book as a fundemental guideline for quality writing and you will do just fine as a writer.
   
2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald – When Hunter S. Thompson was young he used to type this book over and over so he could get a feel for writing greatness.
   
3. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson – A great look at the english language.
   
4. Forest for the Trees: An Editors Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner - This book offers the writer a look into the industry of publishing.
   
5. Huck Finn by Mark Twain – Just read it if you haven't all ready.
   
6. 78 Reasons Why Your Book May Never Be Published and 14 Reasons Why It Just Might by Pat Walsh – A hilarious look at the do's and don'ts of the professional writing industry.
   
7. Ernest Hemingway On Writing by Ernest Hemingway – See how the master himself worked, and what he though of it.
   
8. Write Like The Masters by William Cane – One of the best books on emulating great writers I have ever read.
   
9. Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Trusse – A hilarious approach to the stuffy world of the grammar police.
   
10. The Writers Little Helper by James V. Smith Jr. – This book has a ton of fun exercizes for editing and improving your craft.

Staying Motivated As A Writer

 

Lets face it, staying motivated is the key to being a successful writer. But having a career so intertwined with your personal life motivation can be a serious issue. It's easy when we're riding high with our muse in the passengers seat full of ideas and early morning coffee. And then something happens. You stop off at a rest stop for some lunch and when you come out your muse has hitched a ride with someone else. And sometimes she never even wants to get in the car with you. What do you do after the day from hell? Real life has worn your fingers to the bone and you just want to come home and go to sleep. Should you write? How do you get the creative car rolling again when it's broken down with a flat tire? Well would you just sit on the hood of your car and wait until it starts? No. Here are some ways I stay motivated when reality rears its ugly head and my creativity pressure gauge hits zero.

1. Don't ever let the well go dry. Think of your creativity as a well. If you drink all of the water from your well it will refill itself. But it's going to take some time and rain to get it full again. Rather than let it go dry stop when your still on a roll. Only drink from the well just enough to get things done. That way you will never be sitting around waiting for inspiration.
   
2. Protect your writing time, make it special even if the time has to change daily. Life doesn't always allow us to schedule things the way we want. But whatever time you write should be sacred. It's your time, your career and nobody should be allowed to interrupt it. Your family and friends will understand.
   
3. Use writing as and an escape. You write not only to make money but because you want to. It provides you with some sort of inner fulfillment. Use it as an escape from the drudgery and let it be an exciting thing. Try and not let it be work.
   
4. Don't be negative. If it's the first draft just let it go. This phase is simply you getting the idea out of your head. You can make it work later, right now just get it done. If it's a draft your editing try and remember that you are your own worst enemy. It will never be perfect and there is always somebody who will hate it. Let others criticize it, don't beat yourself up.
   
5. Use the monotany as time to think. Some of the greatest creations were brought to life from great adversity. Keep notepads on or near you at all times. Shut off the television and use dish washing time as a way to generate ideas. If you really want to be a successful writer then everything else will eventually take the back burner. So when your at work in a cubicle thinking about where chapter three is going jot down some notes.
   

   
    

These are just some ideas that work for me and hopefully you can add them to your arsenol of writing weapons.

New Author Spotlight

Check out Jessica Brody and her new book The Karma Club for a great new read.

"You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you."

~ Ray Bradbury

Great Sites For Fiction Writers

http://www.Fictionwritersplatform.com

http://www.Critiquecircle.com

http://www.Helium.com

I have used each on of these websites and they all have their pros and cons. Helium boasts big money for freelance writers, yeah right. If only it were that easy. But it is a great place to get some of your work on display to link to from your site. Fiction Writers Platform offers a tightly knit group of writers who both offer and like to receive constructive criticism. Critiques Circle is a great site for getting critiqued, but you only get what you put in. They operate on a point system that requires you critique others work to earn enough points to submit. But it is worth it.

Write about it by day, and dream about it by night.

~ E. B. White

Philter \Fil-ter\ , noun

1. A magic potion for any purpose.

2. A potion, charm, or drug supposed to cause the person taking it to fall in love, usually with another person.

New monthly giveaway page is up with our first free item. Check it out!

Pacing Around Your Novel

Not paying attention to the pace of your novel(Or short stories or poetry) can make or break your writing career. Did you see what I just did? I interrupted you and slowed the pace of this blog post. Now let me start over to speed things up.

Slow pacing kills good writing.

Fortunately there are several techniques to increase the pace of your writing.

Using short sentences and frequent paragraphs will help speed up your pace while at the same time making your writing look better on the page. But we will cover how writing looks on the page in another post. Quick exchanges of dialog. This means cutting out all inane conversation. Salutations, introductions, pleasantries, and most importantly the word uh. Jumping ahead in time and switching scenes. We don't need to know where the character parked or how she got to her car. Just end the chapter and start a new one with her driving. And the final step, cut the flab. Beefy writing slows down your reader and makes them skim. Below is a short list of some words that can make your writing flabby, delete them.

Very

Quite

However

Almost
Entire

Successive

Respective

Perhaps

Always

There is

Now there are exceptions to the flab rule. You want to keep the adjective when it peaks the readers curiosity and also when it conveys an exact image to your reader.

"Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy."
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

Free Online Writing Courses

The link below is a list of free online writing courses offered by universities. These programs are aimed at honing your skills without leaving you with huge bills. Some of them are pretty useful even for a brush up.

Free Courses Offered By Top Universities

Please Stop Shouting At Me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For me this little segment isn't just about exclamation points, it's personal. The overuse of the exclamation point is a plague on our nation. The next time you stop in for your morning coffee pay attention to the notes behind the counter. These notes are posted on every important spot in every workplace and here are some examples:

Don't overfill grinder!!!!!!!!!!

Replace when empty!!!!!!!!!!

Be careful when operating!!!!!!!!!!

Caution hot!!!!

It seems that whenever someone wants to get their point across they use a whole bunch of exclamation points. What I wonder when I read this is; Who is this person and why are they yelling at me? Now as for your fiction. Elmore Leonard states in his Ten Rules of Writing that; "You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose." You don't need to throw these little buggers in to make a point. A good writer's reader knows when his characters are shouting despite how the dialog is punctuated. And as for the memos and passive aggressive notes at work? Do society a favor and throw out everything you see with more than one exclamation point.

"We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will."

~ Chuck Palahniuk

The "Write" Setup

In order to produce creatively the setup is the key. If you have the ideas without the setup then you only have the ideas. I have worked like this before, it's frustrating. In order to maximize on your space it you should focus on five important aspects;

1. Privacy - Whether you work better in public or private the best way to maximize your creative output is to reduce distractions. Probably not a good idea to have that Playstation 3 in your office where you work. Also family, they need to know when it is your time to write. It can be as simple as a closed door or as complex as a monthly time schedule on your fridge. At any rate they need to know what times to leave you alone.
2. Research - Your references should be right at your finger tips. Dictionaries, The Elements of Style, hell even old copies of writers digest. I have turned a large portion of my office into a working library. That way if I have anything from pharmacological texts to the Encyclopedia Britannica right behind me. The internet does wonders for the consolidation of information but just remember if that connection goes down you will be screwed.
3. Comfort - The majority of your time will probably be spent hunched over hunting and pecking away at a keyboard. Your chair should be comfortable. Your monitor should relieve eye strain. Your keyboard shouldn't cause any discomfort to your wrist. But most of these factors vary from person to person so a lot of this one is down to personal choice.
4. Organization - Every office is messy. I am not talking about overall cleanliness. Hear I am referring to your writing. There are times when I have had up to thirty documents open spread out over two computers. You must have a good filing system in order to keep track of current projects. You don't want to end up editing the same manuscript four or five times because you forgot what folder you saved it to.
5. You - This is the most important aspect of your writing space; you. It must be tailored to your needs and wants. Everybody is different so go crazy. If you work best at a desk behind your living room couch while your family is home then go for it. If you work best in solitude try that. Decorate and then redecorate. If you start to suffer from writers block move your desk to another wall. Get attached to your office, its an essential part of you as a writer.

"What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though."
— J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)

Hyaline \ HAHY-uh-lahyn \ , adjective;
1.Glassy or transparent.
noun:
1.In biochemistry, a horny substance found in hydatid cysts,
closely resembling chitin.
adjective:
1.Of or pertaining to hyaline.
noun:
1.In biochemistry, a transparent substance found in
cartilage, the eye, etc., resulting from the
pathological degeneration of tissue.

Fiction Editing - Exploring Your Theme

A well edited story can mean the difference between the slush pile and the contract. But besides proofing for correct grammar and spelling how exactly can you take your manuscript to the next level? You can start by editing your books theme for consistency and structure. To begin this editing process you will have to start by asking yourself two simple questions.

1. What is a theme?

Breaking it down to its most basic definition; The theme is the overall message or idea that you the author want to convey to your reader.

2. How do I find my theme?

If your not sure what your theme is start with your characters. Question their motivations, needs and desires. Who is the story about? And more importantly, why does anybody care? Once you answer these questions within the question you should see your theme start to appear.

3.Is my theme consistent?

Beginning to end is your theme consistent throughout your story? This has to do more with continuity and direction than anything. A theme that is to vague or fades out to be replaced by another leaves readers confused. A theme that loses direction in a story can take a reader from point a to point c without any mention of point b.

4.What's more important my story or my theme?

Story always takes precedence over theme. Always. If you sacrifice elements of story to teach a lesson your readers will hear you. The object is to get your readers to hear you without knowing your there. Any time story is sacrificed it is the author interrupting the reader. The more subtle you are the better. Let your read draw their own conclusions to your lesson and the impact will be far greater. Let your theme appear and disappear with the natural ebb and flow of your story.

"When a man writes from his own mind, he writes very rapidly. The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading, in order to write; a man will turn over half a library to make one book."

~ Samuel Johnson

Divagate

\ DAHY-vuh-geyt \ , verb;

1.

To wander; stray.

2.

To digress in speech.

Spell check- One of Your Greatest Enemies

Have you ever read anything that didn't make sense? Your skimming an article and suddenly your informational pressure gauge is zeroed and you come to a screeching halt. Then you find yourself reading and re-reading a sentence or two wondering why you don't get it. It's not you, it's spell check. There are a lot of tools laying around waiting for the writer to pick up and sharpen his craft with. Spell check is not one of them. It is a tool built into most every word processor that breeds laziness. And no two spell check dictionaries are the same. Take MS Office versus Open Office for instance. One is given an American dictionary and the other an English dictionary. Not a big deal? Is it colour or color? Is it center or centre? Each program will tell you something different. Simple solution; don't use it. Hemingway once said that the dictionary is a reference guide, read it once and throw it away. Remember that practice makes perfect and also renders this tool inert. You won't need to use it if you don't have to. You will also feel personally accomplished when you finish a piece and it has no red lines under it. Plus you will avoid embarrassment when it does work like it did at Brigham Young University. In an article about The Jesus Christ Church of Latter Day Saints spellcheck replaced the word apostle with apostate.