Tag Archives: writing tips

5 writing books worth the price

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As someone who has gone to school to learn how to write (and graduated With Distinction), I have quite a collection of books that claim to teach people how to write. To some extent, anything that you read will help you become a better writer, as the old prof’s advice goes. Ultimately, you learn how to write better by writing, and by reading. But here are some books that I’ve enjoyed, in case you’re convinced you need more of a handbook or manual to push you in the right direction.

  1. How to Become A Famous Writer Before You’re Dead by Ariel Gore: Okay, so to be honest, this book is more about how to achieve success as a writer, which comes from public recognition of your work, but it’s definitely one of my favorites on the subject of writing. As I mentioned in my review of the book for Fiction Writers Review, it’s not a free ride, but it’s definitely within reach if you’re serious about success. And the advice Gore gives comes from a variety of perspectives, asking famous writers from all genres to explain their methods for achieving fame, if not fortune as well. If you’re at all DIY in your perspective, you’ll find this book incredibly helpful, because it’s not aimed at the traditional path of writing a book, getting an agent, getting signed by a big-deal publisher, and continuing to write bestsellers, Stephen King-style, for the rest of your life. There are alternatives, and Gore gives them in style.
  2. The Copywriting Scorecard for Bloggers by Darren Rowse (ProBlogger) and Glenn Murray (Divine Write): This is a brand-new e-book, published by the hugely popular ProBlogger, Darren Rowse, and it’s well worth the introductory price of $9.97 (which is going up to $29.97 after the first two weeks). The book is literally a checklist of items that you can use each time you post to your blog, with the intent of improving your writing as well as your hits and, ultimately, your sales. Yes, it’s a copywriting book, but as Darren and Glenn point out, writing for the web is a hybrid of copywriting and storytelling. How do you tackle this brave new world of blogging? Well, you probably ought to get advice from a dude who was able to quit his job and blog full time, don’t you think? You can score a copy from the ProBloger site. Click here to view more details.
  3. The Playwright’s Guidebook by Stuart Spencer: As I mentioned in my previous post, “Reading as Rx,” this is for all you writers out there. Yes, I know, it’s about playwriting specifically. But don’t scratch it off your list if you write short stories, novels or even poems. It’s essential reading for all writers looking to build dramatic stories, because it discusses Aristotle’s Poetics in a modern way. (If you don’t know wtf the Poetics are, and you’ve been through any type of creative courses in your life, then god help you, cus your teachers have all had their heads up their asses.) Plus, Spencer is incredibly well-read and peppers his pointers with references to well-known works you should have already read, thereby suggesting in a very subtle way that if you haven’t, you should, forthwith. Seriously, dudes, it’s a creative writing degree in a book, probably the only practical book I’ve saved from my own days as a university writing student, which I reference whenever I find myself in a jam, and it’s totally worth the $16 to get a copy. All the rest are, as they say in Philosophy circles, mere footnotes to Plato (who was Aristotle’s teacher).
  4. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott: The subtitle of this oft-referenced and absolutely fantastic book is “Some Instructions on Writing and Life,” and Lamott delivers both in alternating funny and poignant ways. One of her best chapters is entitled “Shitty First Drafts,” and suggests that even perfectionists must abandon their ideas of perfection just to get something on paper. The shitty first draft can be thrown away or edited until it’s perfect. Either way, you still need to get that awful crap down on paper so you know what you’re trying to say and have something to work with. The book is great for people whose expectations of themselves are so high that they believe they must write ALL or NOTHING. Lamott has given herself permission to fail, and passes this wisdom along to the reader. Another great suggestion? Don’t EVER buy fancy notebooks; they will only make you feel pressured to avoid writing shitty first drafts in them. This is exactly why I love the ugly 25-cent notebooks with 60 pages in them. Mistakes must be made in defense of art, after all.
  5. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published by Sheree Bykofsky and Jennifer Basye Sander: Normally, I tend to avoid both the Dummies’ and Idiot’s Guides, perhaps more for the fact that I don’t like to view myself as either a Dummy or an Idiot. However, this book is legitimately worth purchasing, especially if you have questions about the traditional book publishing process and how to navigate it. Whether you’re wondering how to write a non-fiction book pitch or have a novel finished and want to know how (or if you should bother) to get an agent, this book’s got logical answers. There’s also a CD-ROM full of helpful documents and templates that you can use to craft your own queries, pitches and proposals. A great practical reference manual for the business side of writing.Got any books you turn to for writing, publishing or promotional advice?

The wisdom of the Dalai Lama

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This morning I woke up early to take a crack at the book. It was somewhere around 5 AM, and after I wrote down what had come to me, I hit up Twitter to see who else was up and posting. The Dalai Lama (@DalaiLama) had this to say:

(For those who don’t do graphical interfaces, he tweeted “You need self-confidence and determination: feeling depressed and losing hope will never really help to correct any situation.”)

This guy is like a Tibetan fortune cookie, slapping me upside the head. I don’t regularly see his tweets in my Twitter stream, perhaps due to time zone differences, but this one was a perfect shakabuku. Lately, I’ve been swamped with “real” work (i.e. the stuff that pays my bills), which has been causing Naked Montréal to fall by the wayside. It’s been getting me down, and I started to feel depressed about it, like I would never get around to finishing this book. But it’s true: feeling depressed and losing hope don’t help. You’ve just got to get up early in the morning, give your cat some quick snuggles, and then get to work.

So here I am, working on my novel. And you know what? 5 AM never felt so good.

(Cross-posted from NakedMontreal.net)

Writing tips for n00bs: Get a job!

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Back when I was finishing up my writing degree and looking to land a nice “writing job,” I found myself a bit confused about where a writer might seek out these kinds of dream jobs. After all, everyone knows classified ads are dead and Craigslist is full of scammers and spammers. So where do the pros go when they’re looking for legitimate writing jobs?

Here’s what I learned from my J-school pals, who were infinitely more practically trained than I was in terms of searching out legit writing jobs:

  1. JournalismJobs.com — The go-to website for journalists looking for work, whether it’s in print, online or broadcast media. Find a job, post your résumé, or catch up on the latest media news. Just be wary of the Demand Studios ads and other content mill crap that seems to come up at every writing job board and you’ll be fine.
  2. JeffGaulin.com — At first glance, this site’s URL doesn’t seem particularly like it would help the media job-seeker, but if you’re Canadian, you’ll definitely want to give it a whirl. Gaulin is a Canadian journalist with an assortment of degrees, as well as experience in the field, and first started the job board in 1995 to help his fellow J-school classmates find work. Now the board’s a phenomenon; hit it for good quality full– and part-time jobs or to post your CV.
  3. MediaBistro.com — Aimed primarily at U.S. journalists, but also featuring perks for the freelancers of the world, MediaBistro has a pretty decent job board that can be sifted by industry, location, duration (FT/PT/freelance) or featured employers, which are typically the big boys like the NYT, Dow Jones and (unfortunately) Suite101. Steer clear of the content mills, as always, and hone in on the skills you’ve got to pay those bills. As an added bonus, you can purchase an AvantGuild membership, which offers special insights about breaking into those top-tier mags through their How To Pitch guides, as well as discounts on their online course offerings and other freelancer goodies (like health insurance).

Aside from those top 3 sites, you should also check the Berkeley School of Journalism’s excellent list of journalism job banks to see if any particularly fit your needs. They’ve got everything from general sites (including my top three) to freelance-specific to radio, TV and the ever-dwindling print media, plus a section for “new media” (i.e. web writing and multimedia).

You can still cruise the Craigslist writing section for your city (and any others with bigger listings, like NYC, LA and even Chicago), as there are occasionally some good jobs listed there, particularly for freelancers looking for new gigs. Of course, some of the best places to find new (and perhaps previously overlooked) markets to try, plus a regular source of job listings are Angela Hoy’s WritersWeekly.com and Hope Clark’s FundsForWriters.com. Sign up on their respective sites to get both of them delivered straight to your inbox on a weekly basis, with WW on Wednesdays and FFW on Fridays. Throw in a dose of FFW’s Small Markets for listings from the smaller markets that will get you some of your first published clips and you’re rolling.

What about you? Have you found any great job boards or e-newsletters with helpful tips, tricks or writing gigs? Feel free to share in the comments section; it’s good karma, you know.