3 Best Books on Writing

If you want to be a good writer, study your craft. You wouldn't preform brain surgery without training, don't dishonor your book/story by going in half-assed. Arm yourself with the right tools.

First, get yourself a good grammar book. I personally like Stunk & White. Just the facts here, no window dressing. Grammar is the basics of  writing and just like any other skill you can learn it. Refer to the book with any questions that pop up. Make notes in the book. I use post it notes to flag pages where I know I'm weaker. Every now and then I page through it to reinforce those rules in my mind. After all, if you don't know the rules, how ya gonna break them?

Second, Writing Down the Bones by Annie Lamott. This book will show you some ins and outs of the writing life. It ain't all tea parties and book signings. Writers work. Hard.

Third, will give you some inspiration. Stephen King's On Writing. Find out where he came from an the work he did to get there. From disgusting laundry sheets filled with maggots to how he hit it big. Then he tells you about his own tool box of writing. His writing schedule and his self imposed discipline.

The key to writing your book, finishing your book is found in your daily routine. Prolific writers know this in their heart.

The Amazon Hate Game

I've been over at Konrath's blog and reading about all those who are mad at Amazon for offering thousands of writers a chance at their dreams. Konrath (love this guy) has it right. Go check it out.

He sites a few articles that are bashing Amazon including Patterson's attempt to come to the aid of his publishing house. Wait, I thought I read somewhere that Patterson had a team of ghosts and didn't even write his own books anymore? (Hey Jim! It shows!) I have to wonder; what's the point? Why wouldn't an author want to control his own work? Is Patterson so rich that it doesn't matter anymore?

I went Indy a few years ago and don't have half the stuff up that I should have by this time. I worry too much about the polishing and I'm always working on my next book. There are too many books to write and too little time. There are several reasons I went Indy and none had to do with money. Don't get me wrong, any money would always be nice, but that didn't push my decision. I went Indy because I just want to write. There is where the joy lives.

If I were with a publishing house and scored the contract as a romance writer, I doubt they'd like it if book two of three were a mystery or a zombie book, or that vampire idea I've been cooking. If I had a contract I'm sure I'd lose a bit of control. My work would be a shared decision with someone in an office that makes decisions, not on my work alone, but on several factors. Climate of the industry, length of the book, what's hot, and their own personal preferences.

Bah!

How many ditched the the Harry Potter book for some of those reasons? Why did they make that decision? The quality of the book was probably not the issue, yet they still rejected it.

One of the criticisms of Indy books is the quality of the book, but that doesn't really fly, does it? I've seen books come from the big publishing houses that had typos and grammatical errors. I've read lots of traditionally published crap. Sometimes my hand itches for that red pen! Then I've read Indies who are outstanding and some with problems. There's really not a big difference in quality between traditional and Indy.

So why go Indy? Or better yet, why not?

Control is an awesome thing when it comes to your own work.