5 Books for Writers I Couldn't Live Without

I was putting away some books on a "new" bookshelf we have that's been sitting bare and waiting for about 4 months, easily. All of my favourite books go near the top, while all of the heavy ones sit on the bottom. As I placed several of my books on writing in the second-to-the-top shelf, I thought about which ones really shaped who I am as a writer today. That's where this post came from, I suppose. While many fiction books helped as well, and I may do a follow-up post on that subject, these are the books on writing that helped me become the sort of writer I wanted to be.

The 3AM Epiphany by Brian Kiteley - This is probably one of my absolute favourite prompt/craft books. Even though it's not a book on craft in itself, the prompts within it help develop your abilities anyway. When you want a little inspiration or you want ideas on how to push something forward, this book swoops in and saves the day. It's great for creating background stories or for just coming up with ideas, and it does so in a writerly way rather than a "let's brain storm" sort of way.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers - This book should be required reading by every author. If you want to understand the way you work, or if you want to take self-editing to the next level, this book works great. It helped me find some of my trouble areas, to say the least, and it helped me develop my own editing checklist. I kid you not, this book sits on the side-table next to my bed.

Writing Great Books for Young Adults - This one's a little specific to what I write, but is a good one for anyone interested in writing for the YA crowd. Even though I read a lot of YA, this book can be helpful for those who don't or those who are older than the target audience. Young Adult fiction is a totally different beast than adult fiction and this book is helpful in understanding those differences.

Elements of Fiction Writing - Conflict, Action & Suspense by William Noble - I'll admit, I could do with a little refresher on this one, but it's another one of the most notable books I own. It's especially helpful for scenes that need a lot of action, but don't feel quite up to par.

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass - This is one of those books that even though I bought and read it when I first realised I wanted to start taking writing seriously, it still comes in handy now that I have a couple of books under my belt. More so than that, it will likely still be helpful when I have a hundred books in my repertoire.






You'll notice that I don't have Ursula LeGuin's Steering the Craft or Stephen King's On Writing on my list. Probably two of the most influential books for fiction writers. The reason, I suppose, is that they are not used on a regular basis for me. When I'm stuck on something while working on a book or short story, I don't go to either of these for answers or for inspiration. I go to one (or several) of the above five. So, while I do recommend Steering the Craft and On Writing, they are not books that I couldn't live without.

I Refuse to "Dumb Down" My Writing

A very interesting topic on vocabulary popped up on an writer's discussion board I participate in where someone questioned why an author would choose a "fancy" word over a more commonly known word. First, I wonder what a "fancy" word is. Is it just a word out of the reader's known vocabulary? Or is it a word that is rarely used in general public during this time period? Is it a word that is way too formal for the story/narrative? And really, is it a big deal if the author uses a word you don't know? Sure, you had to pull yourself out of the story to look it up, but now you know a new word. Education is always good, even while entertaining yourself.

As a writer, I refuse to "dumb down" my words, especially when I know it's the appropriate word. It's insulting to my readers. And I'll be honest, I don't have a huge or "fancy" vocabulary, but I DO write for children, teens, and young adults. Because of this, I have to be aware of what words I choose. For example, I had several fantastic beta readers for Land of No Angels, but had one mention that I should consider changing a word because it may be too advanced for the YA audience. The word was "equidistant", which I don't think is a very "fancy" or advanced word, but I considered the comment before ultimately keeping the word.

Had the book been a Middle Grade I may have changed it, but because it's a Young Adult book and my target audience is between 15-20, I felt that if they didn't already know this word, then they should. Don't YAs learn this word in high school math? I'm pretty sure they do. If they don't, then it's a great way to introduce them to the word. Why use two or more words to describe something that one word can? I trust that my readers are smart enough to either know the word, guess what the word means, or to educate themselves and look up its meaning.

Now, if the "fancy" words are used arbitrarily for no other reason other than to abuse the thesaurus and try to make the writing sound smart, that's where I draw the line. It tends to be easier to point out these instances since the vocabulary tends to be awkward when read with the rest of the story.

In the end, as long as the vocabulary is appropriate to the style, time period, narrator, and the audience, I don't see a reason to "dumb it down".

Writing The Opposite Gender

So, today's a writing day and because the task ahead of me is so daunting, I'm here procrastinating instead of doing my work. Due to some news and business advice, I decided that instead of working on my Middle Grade novel, I was going to bang out this Young Adult novel that was next on my list. One of the biggest struggles I've come across in writing this story is that the main character is the opposite gender that I am.

I've written male leads before, and I'm by no means a girly girl, but I have to consider my audience, my limited knowledge of the male mind, and the story of this novel when I'm writing. For example, I believe more females read YA than males do, so my book having a male lead could be harmful if not done well. I noticed that of my two published short stories and my novel, the one with a male lead character and male on the cover does not sell as well as my other two. Could it be that the cover is just not as strong as the others? Perhaps, but when I consider how many YA books out there have a male lead, it makes me wonder.

This book I'm working on will have a much stronger romantic element to it than anything else I've written/published thus far, so to help attract the most people, I intend for the cover to show both an attractive male AND an attractive female. Doing so should keep it more neutral. I don't want to give anyone the impression that it's a paranormal romance, because it's a paranormal mystery of sorts, but I think highlighting the romance will help me reach my target audience, which is young adults between 13 and 19.

All that aside, the actual writing can be a challenge at times. In a good way, of course. But how much teenage boy do I want to include in the story before I start losing girl readers? I've been thinking about good YA I've read with male lead characters, and most of them were written by women. For example, Beautiful Creatures is a great book and has a male lead, and while the characters voice was there, I don't recall him feeling very manly. Teenage boys think about boobs and girls and nice legs, don't they? But I don't recall much of these things happening in the YA books with male leads written by women. I'm not saying that they have to overpower the story with the character talking about sex or boobs, but if a girl's blouse is too low or skirt too high and all the character does is mention this like an asexual third party observer, then what does that mean?

It's possible that I'm just over-generalizing teenage boys and that the majority of them don't sneak an (un)intentional glance at an attractive girl's chest when she leans over in her low cut top, or they don't notice long sexy legs in a short skirt. Maybe all of the guys in the books are too effeminate or too much of gentlemen to do such things. Or maybe the women writing the stories don't think it's important enough to mention, and maybe it isn't. I'm not sure, but I always found it strange that the point of view male characters were never as teenage boy-like as they should be. Again, it could just be me not knowing what I'm talking about.

So, how can I convey that this main character is in fact a teenage boy and not a woman trying to write a teenage boy? Voice and characterization are key, but how do I do this without making assumptions or stereotyping the character? An idea I had was in the way they notice things. Generally, I would say men are more visual and women are more intuitive. This is not to say that every single case is exactly the same or that both genders can't be both visual and intuitive. I know this happens and that's fine, but I'm speaking in general terms for the sake of this example. If both a man and a woman were to walk into a restaurant scene, how would their narratives differ? Would their narratives still differ if they were written in 3rd person rather than 1st? As a writer, I would tackle them differently, even in 3rd because the things they notice and the way they notice them would be different between them, not just because they are different people, but because they are different genders too.


[READER INTERACTION]: What are your thoughts on the subject? If you write, how do you tackle this challenge? Know any great examples of an author writing a lead/POV character of the opposite gender?

In Defense of the Thesaurus

The thesaurus is one of those things that can either be beneficial, or it can be the key to your undoing. General consensus deems that the thesaurus is a troublemaker for professional and amateur writers alike. Stephen King has even gone on record to say, "Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule."* While I adore him and his writing, maybe I'm just too naive or too inexperienced to agree completely. Another source of my sudden need to defend the thesaurus was in a book I am currently reading, Robert's Rules of Writing. Even though I'm enjoying the book and there are some wonderful little snippets of advice, I can't help but slightly disagree. For example, "Thesaurus words are words you would never use on your own; the fact you had to resort to the thesaurus just to find them proves it." (Masello, 293-98) I don't disagree with this statement completely, but I do have to come to the thesaurus' aid.

I have a confession: I use the thesaurus. Often. All the time, really. My desktop dictionary/thesaurus is open almost the entire time I write or am on my computer at all. Why? Because I don't have a vast vocabulary, nor do I remember the exact meaning of every word I (or anyone else) have ever used. This doesn't mean I lack skill, or that I'm an amateur, or worse: just and idiot. It means that I have a zillion other things going on in my head at one time and I can't always remember things, even when I really do use them on a daily basis.

Let's do a quick scenario. I'm looking for a different word for a colour. It's red, but not the typical cadmium red, or tomato red. Crimson's not quite right either. Also, who wants to use those couple of words over and over again in their writing? Not me. I'm thinking of a dark reddish colour with maybe a hint of purple, but I can't think of the word. I know there's a word for it, but for some reason I can't remember what it's called. It's a word I use plenty in my vocabulary, and, hell, I can even tell you exactly how to mix the paint that will make that exact colour. But for some reason, the word escapes me. Should I put "He wrapped a dark, reddish-purple colored shawl over her shoulders and sat down next to her." and use so many words? Or should I take the two seconds out of my "organic flow" of writing to type in 'red', click enter in my dictionary/thesaurus program, and find BURGUNDY sitting in there among the other different types of red? Heh, which do you think I picked?

This happens to me plenty of times with other things too. Completely common words that I can't think of during my focused writing time. Sometimes I'll just go back and edit, but my brain doesn't work that way. If I'm writing about an imp and it's fleeing from someone, shouldn't I use a better word than 'run'? Maybe that word doesn't reflect how he's actually moving. So let's work through some words I could use: dart, bolt. Okay, sure, those are pretty good. It implies quick movement, which works for an imp. Scamper or scurry would be better, though. Sometimes I can't remember the meanings of words, so I will check the thesaurus and the dictionary to be sure the words mean exactly what I'm visualizing in my head. I don't want to use the word 'run' when I meant the word 'scamper'. Run is NOT the right word. Scamper is. No matter what any other author tries to say. Should I leave it as run because I had to use the thesaurus to remind me of the word scamper?

There are so many different and commonly used words for many things that sometimes, to make the writing clearer and less wordy, it would be better to use one of those words. Maybe I'm not the brightest crayon in the box, or maybe I'm just not as awesome as those who hate on the thesaurus. And I can understand. Some people... even extremely famous authors *cough* abuse the thesaurus with inane synonyms that people haven't used since who knows when. Funny, though, that this same author uses a few other words so many times in the same page that it becomes ridiculous. At any rate, when used well and not mistreated, the thesaurus can be a useful tool. And I'll continue to use it without shame.

[READER RESPONSE] How do you feel about the thesaurus? Do you ever use it? Why or why not?


_{*Quote found on http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Stephen_King}

Infinity and Craft

It's that time again! I'm going to share an exercise I did using 3 AM Epiphany, which is one of the most useful book of writing exercises I have ever used. The point of the exercise was to write something that felt the way an infinity symbol looked, and gave an episode of Start Trek (when the ship gets stuck in a time loop) as an example. I've always been a huge fan of this type of story and wanted to give it a try.

Something I discovered afterward was the style in which I wrote the exercise. I've been reading a lot of Hemingway for another class and am really fond of the minimalist style in which he writes. I took a minimalist approach to this exercise using mostly dialogue and only detail when necessary. I often tend to write like this, which is often my downfall in novel writing, and I think doing so for this exercise helped with the feeling of mystery and dread I was trying to convey. However, I don't think I did it on purpose. It was more of an instinctual thing, which is good, but I wonder if I will have to remind myself of these things later when I'd like to replicate the effect or if I will do it naturally again.