Some of the Books I'm Reading Lately
I've been shifting out of reading a lot of fiction lately, moving toward some more books about writing craft and how to be a more productive writer.
Long ago I read Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within and I intend to re-read it soon. It's a writing book I keep referring to others and keep recalling as a must-read for learning how to shake the words out of yourself.
Much more recently, I finished Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative and it's another one of those books you didn't know you needed until you needed it (if you're an artist or a writer, at least). The book has even got me started with drawing again, which is something I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to doing until I retired.
I'm also in the midst of re-reading APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. How to Publish a Book because, frankly, I am a publisher at this point, and it's time I started thinking of myself as one.
Of course, producing content (a great euphemism for writing, guaranteed to turn off just about anybody, IMO) to publish is very important. Therefore, I've just finished the short but brilliant 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love which underscores the importance of knowing what you're going to write about before sitting down to type.
Now, Rachel Aaron's book might tout 10,000 words a day as an ultimate goal (which even she admits she doesn't hit all the time), but I find myself having giddy thoughts about being able to write 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter. I've heard some things about this book, mostly that it concentrates a lot on word sprints. Now, during NaNoWriMo, I tend to do the word sprints on Twitter. I've also used the Pomodoro method (writing for 25 minutes and then taking a 5 minute break), all to good effect. But I've really never gotten more than maybe 1200 words out per hour, even with the sprints. Can I get 5000 words in one hour? Can my keyboard even keep up?
Another book on my to-read list is Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing. I'm a reformed "pantser" myself (NaNoWriMo cured me of that) but every so often, the "outline" thing just makes me leery. I'm eager to see if my outline-phobia can be cured once and for all!
Some more books for indie author/publishers? Give a look at Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing (note: a fair amount of the material in this book is featured on Dean Wesley Smith's website) and the follow up, Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: A WMG Writer's Guide. I read these two series at a time I really needed to read what I read.
I've also been concentrating on formatting my ebooks, creating print books, and getting my website up and running at long last. The Lost Sigil eBook Editor Manual This book has been very helpful with using Sigil, a free program that will aid in formatting cleaner EPUB files for e-books. And Robin Nixon's CSS & CSS3 Crash Course has been invaluable with helping learn (finally) how to do Cascading Style Sheets.
It's a lot like I'm going to summer school this year...
Long ago I read Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within and I intend to re-read it soon. It's a writing book I keep referring to others and keep recalling as a must-read for learning how to shake the words out of yourself.
Much more recently, I finished Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative and it's another one of those books you didn't know you needed until you needed it (if you're an artist or a writer, at least). The book has even got me started with drawing again, which is something I thought I wouldn't be able to go back to doing until I retired.
I'm also in the midst of re-reading APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur. How to Publish a Book because, frankly, I am a publisher at this point, and it's time I started thinking of myself as one.
Of course, producing content (a great euphemism for writing, guaranteed to turn off just about anybody, IMO) to publish is very important. Therefore, I've just finished the short but brilliant 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love which underscores the importance of knowing what you're going to write about before sitting down to type.
Now, Rachel Aaron's book might tout 10,000 words a day as an ultimate goal (which even she admits she doesn't hit all the time), but I find myself having giddy thoughts about being able to write 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter. I've heard some things about this book, mostly that it concentrates a lot on word sprints. Now, during NaNoWriMo, I tend to do the word sprints on Twitter. I've also used the Pomodoro method (writing for 25 minutes and then taking a 5 minute break), all to good effect. But I've really never gotten more than maybe 1200 words out per hour, even with the sprints. Can I get 5000 words in one hour? Can my keyboard even keep up?
Another book on my to-read list is Take Off Your Pants!: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing. I'm a reformed "pantser" myself (NaNoWriMo cured me of that) but every so often, the "outline" thing just makes me leery. I'm eager to see if my outline-phobia can be cured once and for all!
Some more books for indie author/publishers? Give a look at Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Publishing (note: a fair amount of the material in this book is featured on Dean Wesley Smith's website) and the follow up, Killing the Top Ten Sacred Cows of Indie Publishing: A WMG Writer's Guide. I read these two series at a time I really needed to read what I read.
I've also been concentrating on formatting my ebooks, creating print books, and getting my website up and running at long last. The Lost Sigil eBook Editor Manual This book has been very helpful with using Sigil, a free program that will aid in formatting cleaner EPUB files for e-books. And Robin Nixon's CSS & CSS3 Crash Course has been invaluable with helping learn (finally) how to do Cascading Style Sheets.
It's a lot like I'm going to summer school this year...
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