Books on Writing

I don't know about you, but I have shelves of books on the craft of writing. Some are terrific, some not so much.

What's important to remember when you buy a book on the craft of writing, is that it won't do you any good if it just sits on your shelf looking good. I know this from personal experience.

So, as a kind of accountability, here are the craft books I'm reading bits from every morning (beginning this morning) while I sit outside in the Colorado sunshine:

The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell. As opposed to craft, this is more about the writing life, and how we can get through it. I'd begun reading it ages ago, but for some reason (probably the need to organize my desk), I shelved it.

The Fire in Fiction by Donald Maass. I don't always agree with him, but I always learn from him. Again, I'd started reading this one a long time ago and had to pull it off the shelf this morning.

Write Away by Elizabeth George. This one has been untouched on my shelf, but not for very long. George is going to walk me through her process, and I have the feeling she'll hold my hand if I need it.

The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. I confess that this book has been in my home longer than I can remember. Even before I seriously considered writing a novel. Unread. I think because I thought it might be a lot of psycho-babble. But, along with Write Away, it's probably the book I'm most excited to read now. She teaches us how to unblock our creativity. I'm willing to give that a shot.

What books on craft are you committed to reading right now?

CR: Passions of the Dead by L.J. Sellers.

It's all better with friends.

Publishing's Teasin' Season

Colorado is entering what I call the Teasin' Season. We have two of those. People—who don't live in Colorado—often refer to them as Spring and Fall. Right now we're getting teased from summer into winter. We're probably looking at our first freeze next week, but we've enjoyed many Thanksgivings in short sleeves. Looking for all four seasons in one day? Check out Colorado.

I love Teasin' Seasons. Change holds promise. An opportunity to start with a clean slate. I like Mondays for the same reason, call me crazy.

The changes in publishing are almost overwhelming. In a weird way, I've been kind of glad to not be personally involved. At least I'm not personally involved at this minute. I'll be happy to figure out the lay of the land when I'm actually walking on it, ya know? Why get all nuts over something I have no control over? I don't have a dog in the fight . . . today.

Is publishing teasing into another season? Probably. But no one knows for sure what that season is going to look like. I sort of think it's going to be fantastic. A mixture of traditional and alternative. Something for everyone.

And parity. More informed people than yours truly are the ones to look to for information on this part of the change, but that doesn't mean I can't feel it in the wings.

What we're going through now is the shake-out. The leaves falling to make way for new buds.

Some of those buds won't open. To me, those are the people who haven't learned the craft, who haven't paid their dues. People (I can't quite call them writers) who have shifted from vanity press to the electronic options. They'll figure out they need to invest more time, or they'll move on.

Is it an accident I'm using the analogy of budding trees to the e-book industry? I wish I could say not, I figured it out a split second before I asked the question. But I have been called a tree hugger once or twice.

This entire post actually came about because I had the opportunity to read what I'm calling the E-ARC for a book scheduled to be available in November. This author has not yet been published, but she's paid her dues and studied her craft . . . and made the decision to take control of her own destiny. I'll be talking about her a little more as we get near the release date, but make a note to be looking for Widow's Row by Lala Corriere online next month.



CR: The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver.

It's all better with friends.

Where Did the Words Go?

I have a theory.

Writers who are new to the game—who haven't yet been thrown back on their haunches with the sheer enormity of the learning curve before them—can lay down an enormous amount of words in a single setting.

They're free, and if their feet don't touch the ground, so what? They are creating the greatest work of verbal imagery since . . . well, since forever. They are basking under a rare and unimaginable (to all of those non-artistic folk, anyway) light. They are the newest, as yet undiscovered, treasures of the publishing world.

I know this, how? Because that new writer's name was Peg.

Let's go back . . .

At some point, my eyes begin to get adjusted to this strange new light. This writerly light that had placed me atop pedestals (for a few days at least) is now shifting, at least to me. It's betraying my birthright with something called Craft. The daunting spectacle of POV and backstory, MRUs and GMCs, hooks and sagging middles, scene structure and that pesky thing called grammar, all begin to rain their tentacles down on my fresh, green, Spirit. And my Spirit becomes paralyzed. Belief has been sucked out and replaced with mind-numbing, creativity-breaking, Need for Education. Aaargh.

Somewhere along in here, word count drops about 90%. And if it moves at all, it goes down.

Sound familiar, anyone?

But then, after some fitful starts and stops, something begins to happen. The butterfly begins to emerge from the cocoon of Writing 101. There's a pattern to her wings, a purpose to her day. She knows ever so much more than she did as a caterpillar. She can step out—or fly out—with the confidence that now the words of her warped mind (she's a Suspense Butterfly) will meet their intended target without fail.

And word count increases.

CR: Dead On by Robert W. Walker. This book puts a fully-realized character in your lap from the beginning. So far, so good. It will hit the stands mid-July.

It's all better with friends.