Writing - Barbara DeMarco-Barrett - Pen on Fire (2004)

This book was probably purchased during a book buying binge; those are usually the times I pick up writing instruction books. In this case, I only remember what I wanted this book to do, which was help me find time to write in between the moments of my life.

I'm pretty sure I got it while I still had a job.

Now, I have nothing but time, but I still can't really get myself out of this not-writing funk.

However, I pulled this tome off my bookshelf in anticipation of November, which everyone should know by now is National Novel Writing Month. At this point, I've lost more than I've won; a fact that makes me feel so guilty I refuse to go to a meetup organized by my fellow Las Vegans. I always tell myself that this time I will not lose, but then I do something to kick my own ass after week one.

You're not here to hear about this shit. You're here for this book review.

Honestly, this book is very average. It talks a lot about how women make themselves feel bad for taking time to do their own thing, which is true I think of more than just women, and how if you want to write, you have to work past that to carve out your own bits of time. It also tries to give you resources to develop ideas, as well as stuff having to do with the craft of writing like voice and shit. All and all, average.

The most disappointing part, I think, is the "Living the Life" section, which has more to do with literary agents than actually living a writer's life. Listen, the information on literary agents is great and all, but that has actually not much to do with your own section title. And, there are tons of books that work on that subject that you'd be better off just listing.

It may also be that the book is kind of dated, but the self-publishing world is so hopping, even traditional publishers have to rethink their acceptance guidelines or be left in the dust. Basically, what worked for one person does not work for all.

7/10

Buy it @ Amazon.
Buy it @ Barnes & Noble.

Writing - Sage Cohen - The Productive Writer (2010)

I want to take a brief moment to talk about GoodReads.

Until a few moments ago I had an account there, and I used it primarily to try to get those precious book recommendations. Unfortunately, you have to rate 20 (!) book in order to begin getting those recommendations. This is one of the reasons I had a problem with it. When I go to Barnes & Noble, the receipt will come with a short list of products suggested to me based on what I just purchased. Why can't GoodReads do that with just the books you just read? I get that it is free, but it was mostly useless.

I bring it up in this book review because I rated this book on there as low, and it was disseminated to my various social media profiles, particularly Facebook and Twitter. Then, someone asked why I didn't like it. I had intended to write this review, so of course I wasn't going to detail it there (or even on GoodReads, which is a feature it has, I guess), but it gave me pause. Wasn't my rating these books as I read them, in order to get the recommendations that I still hadn't earned, giving away the content of my blog, which I wasn't wanting to do?

So, long story short, GoodReads is not for me, and it took me being within 3 books of getting recommendations for me to realize it.

But I digress. The Productive Writer.

I picked this up after that tough first therapy session I mention in my review of The Fault in Their Stars. I expected it to be about heightening your productivity as a writer, which is something I am interested in since my current productivity is firmly planted at zero. I was wrong. But could you blame me for the assumption, when "productive" is one of the words in the goddamn title?

This book really should have been called "The Marketing Writer" because that is what it is about. There is almost nothing about how you have to actually write to be productive. For god's sake, the very first chapter is about developing your "platform". Ms. Cohen is a business writer and a poet, and the former is at the reins here. She gives her own examples of how you develop your platform and business presence, but she only talks about her nonfiction works in these examples. When it comes to fiction, she brushes it off as easy. Um, no. How about telling us how to determine "what you have to offer an audience" when you are writing a fiction novel? Whatever happened to just writing?

The beginning of each chapter is prefaced by a list of things that a "productive writer" does, usually things covered in the following chapter, but they are usually things not actually having to do with being productive at all. I think this woman is confusing productive with well-marketed. Not everyone wants to be a freelance article writer. But this book is making that assumption anyway. Some of us want to get help with writing, not with becoming a self-promoting typist.

Hey, maybe you want to be that. More power to you. This book will do well for you. But if you actually want to be a productive writer, I would say look elsewhere, because this book will have you doing everything BUT writing.

2.5/10

Buy it @ Amazon.
Buy it @ Barnes & Noble.

Writing - Heather Sellers - Chapter after Chapter (2007)

I told you I have a lot of these. I even have a lot I haven't read. I will admit that I read about half of this one back when I bought it, but then it lost me. I read it all the way through this time.

Maybe the fact that this book is not for my situation has colored the way I feel about it. I don't really like it though. I'll get into why in a minute.

This book is the spiritual sequel to Sellers's first writing book, Page After Page, which is mostly about getting started writing as a practice and a habit. This book, however, is about writing your book. Sellers's way.

It may stem from my relationship with my parents (better, now, that I don't live with them), but I hate it when people tell me what to do and imply that it is their way or the highway. Sellers spends the last half of the book talking about how to keep on your book and how to then get it published. This includes not reading anything while actually writing the book (which can obviously take a year or more!), how to travel while in the midst of your book (make assignments for yourself every day and don't you dare enjoy your vacation), and how to not even think about any of the new ideas your musing brain may come up with while in a creative stance to write your story.

Normally, I would just remember that it's advice. This lady is not going to fly to Vegas from Michigan, beat down my door, and strangle me for not doing things her way. But she often bookends her advice about not doing things you like while writing with "if you want to be a real writer" or "if you ever want to finish" or even "if you ever want to publish".

If you're writing, you're a real writer. You can finish in your own way, at your own pace. Thousands of books get published every year. You're not going to miss out somehow just because you decide to spend your Florida vacation on the beach rather than in a darkened hotel room.

The first half of the book actually does address some of the anxieties writers have about their stories. Like how they might mess them up if they actually write them. Like wanting to write, but having to go to a child's birthday party, or celebratory dinner, or help your friends move, or whatever other obligations you may have. Like feeling like you should be writing, or doing something else, or working on one project or the other. But again, these are steeped in "this is what I do, so you should do it too, especially if you want to be a real writer". Like, do you volunteer and visit with your friends over lunch? Say goodbye to it. It's taking up too much of your time.

The part I think that I dislike the most is the part about the "Book 100". Sellers says that you should, before even starting on writing your story, read 100 books like it. List them all out, and read them all over the course of a year, taking copious notes on each one. And, if you can't easily list 100 books similar to yours, (by the way, you probably had to read them in the first place before to know this) then it's probably not a good idea.

Read that part again. If you cannot list a hundred books like yours, it's not a good idea. This is book writing on Sellers's terms.

I say, if you have a story in you right now, start it right now. Give it a shot. Don't wait until you've found and read a hundred books like it. And if you want to read while you write, have at. You may find new themes and concepts from the book you're reading that you want to incorporate into a book you're writing. Go to lunch with your friends. Have a life outside the writing room.

The reason I think that it may have gone over better with me is the fact that it is for a person in the middle of their story and floundering. I have a few started stories, but like I said in the last post, I haven't actually written in a long time. So the exercises in this quickly became irrelevant to me. I don't need something to help me finish something. I need something to get me back on the horse.

If that has colored my review somewhat, then so be it. All I know is that the last book had me excited about writing. This one made me feel cynical and like I shouldn't bother.

4.0/10

Writing - Jamie Cat Callan - The Writer's Toolbox (2007)

I think this is the first writing book I'm reviewing. You may not know this, but I have a ton of these things. Not boxes full of stuff. I only have two of those.

Except for this blog, regrettably I haven't written for a while. It was my job, and also the wedding, and also my depression and anxiety. But now I'm unemployed, married, and on Celexa, so I figured it was time to stop with the excuses.

And if you have writer's block, this is fucking amazing.

The book inside is a scant 60 pages long, but it's mostly an instruction manual for the goodies inside the box, which include Popsicle sticks, a deck of cards, a three-minute hourglass, and spinning palettes you would otherwise think are more suited to kids learning their addition or times tables.

But they aren't normal items. The Popsicle sticks have first lines on them, lines to start new scenes, and even something to spark the conflict in a story. The cards have ideas and senses on them, so you can dive into description or use one as a starting off point. The palettes have protagonists, their goals, what's standing in their way, and how they try to get around that. All in all, it's a pretty robust set of inspiration tools for any stuck writer hoping to fill a notebook with some ideas to mine through later.

I used some of the tools as I read through the manual. I ended up with a guy setting his family's home on fire while hallucinating that they are actually all going on a vacation together, three female roommates that secretly and not-so-secretly hate each other, and an older guy trying to reclaim his youth through sex with younger women. This, after not really writing for months.

The great thing about book itself is that it doesn't just explain the tools in the box and give crappy examples of how to use them. It describes how to use each tool to start a new story, start back into a half-finished one, and even how to combine them more than just "sticks go together, cards go together".

I mentioned earlier that I have a lot of these kinds of books. One thing that this one does, and I love, that none of the others do, is show some examples of using the tools by other authors. Short little vignettes followed by commentary by the author describing their thought process while writing. That was super cool. And the vignettes are enough to inspire you to pick up your pen and start on using the tools yourself.

Not bad for a box I picked up on a whim to use a coupon.

9.5/10