April 2009

I've read a lot of books on writing in the past five years or so. Some I've read and never thought of again, and some I've internalized into my process. Today I want to give you a list of the 4 writing books that I think are the best of the bunch. Here's a little caveat though, or maybe a hard lesson I learned and one you won't have to, because I'm warning you: There are no rules in writing. Wait, let me amend that. There are rules (lots and lots and lots of them), but that doesn't mean you have to follow them. The most important thing about writing is to find your process, and that takes time, and practice, and you won't find your process by copying someone else's process. So when you're reading books on writing, observe, learn, and throw out all the stuff that doesn't work or make sense for you. Ok, end of warning. On to the books. 1. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott Most of the time, How To Write books are either reeeeally touchy feely, or completely technical. I get annoyed with books like that because writing is a combination of both. So I wasn’t convinced I’d much care for this book, which leans toward the touchy feely. I was NOT expecting to find touchy-feely with a hint of tough love. I enjoyed it very much. Lamott manages to inspire without fist-pumping theatrics or lies about the publishing business. Instead, she offers humorous, straight-forward, sometimes tough-love advice aimed at helping you get over yourself and get on to your writing. If you’re in a rut, do yourself a favor and pick up this book. It helped me immensely. 2. On Writing by Stephen King Part memoir, part writing instruction, this is a great read. The memoir part made me go out and buy some of Stephen King's books, even though I'm really not much of a horror fan. The section I was really interested in, though, was the writing section. Stephen King offers a lot of good advice, but you have to be warned that it's advice on how he writes. See the above caveat. Stephen King writes, as we say, by the seat of his pants. If you are not a pantser, you never will be. I am not a pantser, but I did try the exercises in the book, and it was a good way for me to expand my thinking and loosen up a bit. 3. Telling Lies for Fun & Profit by Lawrence Block This was one of the first writing books I read, and is still one of my favorites. All good advice and worth a read, though most of it was fairly intuitive. Still, it really helps to have those intuitive things put into words sometimes, especially for me. Block is entertaining to read, even if you don't learn anything earth-shattering. But I think you'll learn something, too. 4. No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty (of NaNoWriMo fame) Most definitely the resource of all resources for NaNoWriMo. Get yourself a copy before November! Even if you're not a huge NaNoWriMo dork like I am, I think you can still get something out of this book. A lot of times, we as writers take ourselves too seriously, and Chris Baty won't let us do it! He gives lots of writers' block busting techniques and ways to churn out that first draft fast, fast, fast. After all, that's the point of NaNoWriMo. *** There, that should keep you guys busy for a while! So how about you? What's your favorite writing book?

I'm living the dream, people. I am a writer. I receive a regular check because people  pay for what I wrote. I think, though, that a lot of people have a different idea of what "being a writer" involves. Maybe it's that we all sit around all day in our pajamas alternately eating bonbons and shoving our cats off the keyboard. Oh, and we wear pink boas while we're doing all that. We rarely go out in public, but when we do, people stop us in the street and ask us to sign our latest and greatest work for them, and we obligingly do, even if it will make us late for this posh and fabulous dinner party our publisher is throwing just for us. I gotta say, it's not really like that. Most of us have a day job. If you're looking for a Get Rich Quick scheme, I promise that writing is not what you want to be doing. I get a check once a quarter. It's enough to let me claim I write for money, but it is not enough to live on, even for, like, a week. I don't eat bonbons while I'm writing. I'd get chocolate on the keyboard. I do not own a pink boa. I do not own a cat. (Well, no one really owns a cat, I guess, cats being the way they are. But there is not a cat in my household.) I do sometimes write in my pajamas, but not very often, because it makes my husband look at me and go, "You're not even dressed yet?" (Yeah, some people just don't get that writing in your pajamas is considered glamorous. I dunno.) Publishers (at least most of them) do not throw parties for their authors, although book parties and author parties seem to be in all movies involving authors. Weird. Authors write for months, or even years, and then send their book around to be roundly rejected before finally finding the right publisher. When they do sell, most don't make much in the way of money, and many keep their day jobs. It's hard work, and not really all that glamorous. But, you know what? We wouldn't trade it for the world!