Tools and What I Read

Writer’s Tools

I purchased the “Grammar Desk Reference” from Writer’s Digest. I had other references. This one is much more comprehensive. I’ve already found several things I need to check and probably change when I go back to the final draft of my book.

I bought “How to Blog a Book” by Nina Amir, though I had no intention of going this route and bought it for its advice on how to drive traffic to a blog, on which I’m definitely a novice. I’m learning—fighting past my resistance. The business and technical side of becoming published does not come easily to me. I’m trying to remember to take satisfaction in how much I’ve learned since starting this process. Note: the em dash. I wrote this in Microsoft Word then copied and pasted it here. Worked except for the spacing between paragraphs. I had to insert them again. I'll figure it out.

What I Read

Novels can be used as tools in a way by comparing what other writers do with grammar, beginning sentences, and writing styles. Right at the moment, I’m reading novels written from different points of view (POV). First person—usually the main character speaking directly to the reader—has become popular. I prefer writing from the third person (he/she said/thought), which can be limited to the viewpoint of one or two characters or omniscient with characters whose thoughts are shown in separate chapters or fully omniscient—going in and out of most of the important characters’ heads throughout the story.

In fiction, I like J. D. Robb’s books, mostly for the characters, Mary Balogh and Diana Gabaldan for historical romance, the Odd series by Dean Koontz, and recently bought the “Game of Thrones” series on sale. I love scifi/fantasy. I’ve also read many 19^th century writers like Dickens and Austen. It fascinates me the way they weave a host of characters into an intricate but not confusing story.

Next post, I'll share a short story I wrote.