Thursday, January 9, 2020

Great Books for Writers



By Laurie Allee
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NanoWrimo 2019 wrapped this past November, and if you are anything like I was after my first Nano, you're still trying to decipher the rambling mess you made!

Congratulations to all the now-novelists who finished 50K words in 30 days.  I didn't participate in the madness this year, but I'm an old NanoWriMo-er.   I managed to earn the T-shirt in 2014 and 2015, finishing two halves of a (really really long) first novel in those two intense marathons.  Yes, I'm still editing that book.  We can talk about the editing process later.  Right now, let's talk about writing...

I love what my old friend and prolific playwright friend Mark once said.  He told me that he didn't necessarily like writing but he loved having written.  Can you relate?  I find nothing more satisfying that finally finishing a manuscript.  But getting there?  All the way to the end?  Sometimes we need a little help.  (My very first published short story was called Lifesaving.  It was about a bunch of characters who joined together and haunted the dreams of a writer because she never managed to finish their stories.)

With that in mind, I want to recommend a few of my favorite books for writers.  Deadlines for paid gigs are excellent motivators, but we don't always have an external impetus to finish our passion projects.  (And, to be honest, sometimes we need a little inspiration for those paid gigs, too.)