Books, Links and Recommendations

by | May 20, 2015 | Blog1 | 0 comments

Almost no one writes in a vacuum anymore.  Very few of us can retreat to the manor house on a solitary island in the middle of nowhere to pen our masterpiece with Mozart, Morissette or Muddy Waters playing quietly in the background.  Fortunately for those of us who live in a demanding, absorbing work-a-day and ‘connected’ world, we don’t have to.  The internet, libraries, weekend workshops, and writer’s groups are chock full of authors, editors and publishers with expertise and a willingness to help the aspiring writer.

Here are only a few of the books, authors and links I have found helpful in my own writing. I hope they inform, aid or inspire your writing as they have mine.

Books

  • Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg ***  (Still one of the best!)
  • Elements of Fiction Writing by James Scott Bell
  • Writing Children’s Books for Dummies by Buccierie and Economy
  • Elements of Fiction Writing, Beginnings, Middles and Ends by Nancy Kress
  • Writing Fiction for Dummies, Ingermanson and Economy
  • Writing Fiction: The Practical Guide by Gotham Writer’s Workshop
  • Writing from the Inside Out by Dennis Palumbo

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Writing for Fun

by | May 20, 2015 | Blog1 | 0 comments

Few of us are born churning out perfect stories, rhyme or prose.  For most, writing is a craft of passion and hard work, honed by wonderful hours spent reading the works of others, then of writing, revising, practicing, doodling, noodling, tweaking, combining, exploring, dreaming and thinking about our own stories.

In fiction, ideas, characters and stories arise from experience, observation AND in the expanded imagination of the mind and heart  But until we put those ideas, stories and characters into words, until we “write down the bones” of our thoughts and ideas, they remain stuck in a nebulous cloud inside of us––raw, unrefined and difficult to organize or share.

So…how do we get started? How do we learn to write, to put our words to paper, word-processor or recorder so that they make sense, not only to us, but to our future audience?  How do we build a cohesive story with a beginning, middle and end?

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