On Writing

In my quest to become a better writer, I've found a few helpful guides along the way. There have been great teachers who not only critiqued me, but encouraged and validated me as well. There have been great writers to inspire me and I am ALWAYS looking for ways to improve.

When I am in Barnes & Noble I always swing by the Writing section to see what catches my eye.

Here are a couple of books I've especially appreciated:

This one is actually a required text for my writing course this semester, but I saw it at B&N and thought I'd include it. Ann Lamott puts my mind at ease with her humorous approach to writing and helps me quiet the critics in my head in order to write freely.


One of my favorite tidbits from Bird by Bird is on silencing all the stifling mind chatter by pretending each voice is a mouse. "Pick it up by the tail and drop it in a mason jar. Then isolate another voice....Drop in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers, colleagues, children, and anyone who is whining in your head. The put the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away trying to make you feel like shit because you won't do what they want...A writer friend of mine suggests opening the jar and shooting them all in the head. But I think he's a little angry, and I'm sure nothing like this would ever occur to you."

I laughed out loud when I read that. Any writer can appreciate that visualization. Plus, I like that she throws in a few curse words to keep things lively. I might just try that out.

The next book is about as indispensable as a thesaurus. I snagged this illustrated copy because it's much more chic than some of the other versions I've seen. Great art and writing tips. Yes, that is White, as in E.B. White, author of Charlotte's Web and other delightful stories.

Isn't this cute? PW would be thrilled to see a basset hound on the cover.
Even though I consider myself a fairly decent writer, I know there are things I can do better. This book has a ton of reminders.

With all of that being said, I am thinking about posting some of my essays on a separate website. Several years ago I had a dream that I wrote a book called The Adventures of a Lost Soul. This website would likely be a petri-dish for said book. We'll see what, if anything, grows.