sallymurphy.com.au

Sally Murphy, Australian author

Choosing the Writing Advice Book for You

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Yesterday I talked about why you should consider buying books of writing advice in addition to using the wide range of advice available online. All well and good, but with so many books available to buy, it can be hard to know which ones to buy. So, here are some quick pointers to selecting the right book for your writing needs.

1. Is It Aimed at You? Not every writing book is aimed at the same audience. Read the back cover blurb or the online description, and consider whether it is aimed at beginning or more experienced writers and whether it covers the genre you are interested in. For example, I’m a published author of children’s picture books, poetry and verse novels, so I am less likely to be interested in a book called How To Write Picture Books, than I am in one called Perfecting Your Prose. If you are new to writing children’s poems, you would get more benefit from Writing in Rhyme than, perhaps, a book called Tightening Your Verse.

2. What are the Author’s Credentials? On the book’s blurb, or isnde the book, there should be some information about the author’s background. If someone is going to tell you how to write a chidlren’s book, you would like to think that they are themselves a children’s book author, or editor or perhaps a reviewer. The advice they then give will likely come from experience, and be tried and tested.

3. What Do You Want from the Book? I admit to having a preference for books which actually give me some exercise to do. I want to be told to sit down and write, and given a challenge or starter which gets me going. You might feel the same, or you might want something different. For example, if you are trying to market your work you might be looking for a book which lists publishers and other markets. Or you might want something technical – a grammar guide, perhaps.

4. Recommendations. Before you spend your hard-earned money on a how-to book, it is good to hear from people who have already bought and used it. Ask your writer friends for recommendations, or search online. If you browse an online bookstore like Amazon, you’ll find reader reviews and recommendations. (Note, if, like me, you live in Australia and would prefer to support a local bookstore, you can still use Amazon as a source of recommendations before seeking the books locally)

5. Date of Publication. The more recent the book, the more up to date the advice and information. This is especially pertinent to market information, which changes all the time. With a ‘how-to’ book, the advice does tend to stay relevant longer, but even then, things can change. For example, where once picture book manuscripts averaged 1000 words, the preferred length now is 600 words or fewer. However, a popular book will often be updated when it is reprinted and some books go on speaking to readers for many years.

You’ll notice that in both this and yesterday’s article I have not actually pointed you to any specific books, because I wanted to give some more general advice. However, I will close by sharing a brief list of some of my favourite writing books. If you have a favourite which isn’t listed, feel free to leave a comment below.

The Writing Book: A Manual for Fiction Writers, by Kate Grenville (1990) ISBN 0-04442124-9 (Not specifically about writing for children, but lots of wonderful writing exercises)

Children’s Writer’s & Illustrator’s Market, by Alice Pope (Produced Annually) (Essential if you want to get published in the US or Canada especially)

Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out, by Ralph Fletcher (2002) ISBN 978-0380797035 (I’m reading this one at the moment and am only half way through but love it. It is aimed at young poets but has lots to offer adult writers and teachers)

Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words by Susan G. Wooldridge (1997) ISBN 978-0609800980 (Gets you writing poetry and playing with words)

Okay, that’s a very short list because these are the four I use regularly. Perhaps I’ll build on this list from time to time.

When the Universe Aligns a Poem is Born (and remembered)

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Weird. I’ve just had one of those strange moments where a series of coincidences leads you to ponder whether there’s any such thing AS a coincidence. Here’s what happened:

Last night, as I lay half-awake in bed, an image came to me, which my brain instantly started teasing out into a poem. The metaphor was so strong that I was sure I would remember it in the morning. But, as every writer knows, those late-night and mid-night flashes of brilliance rarely remain in the light of day and thus it was for me. When I sat down to write my daily poem this afternoon I had a vague feeling that I’d begun a poem in bed last night, but no idea what it was about.
Earlier today, my son (Murphlet Four) did some origami and, amongst other things, made two origami bats, which he left on the dining table.

Then, this afternoon, the Murphlets have had Malcolm in the Middle playing on Foxtel. This is a show which never ceases to distract me from my work and, today, I’d half watched an episode involving a swarm of bats.

Afternoon tea time came and, as I sat at the dining room table the origami bats caught my eye. ‘Isn’t it funny,’ I thought to myself, ‘how such a coincidence happens.’ Out of all the animals Murphlet Four could have made, he’d made a bat, an hour or two BEFORE the bat episode was on the television.

Now, here’s the eerie part. Just as that thought crossed my mind, last night’s poem came back to me. My late night head-poem was about bats in a mango tree! I jumped up, came back to my desk and started writing – and the poem was still there. Now, I’m not especially fond of bats, and have never written about them before – so what alignment of the universe cased me to create a poem about them late last night, Murphlet Four to make two bats out of origami this morning, and an episode of Malcolm In the middle featuring bats to show on the television this afternoon?
Whatever it is, I’m grateful for the latter two because, combined, they led to my recapturing that late night flash of inspiration.

Blog Tour Stop Four

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The Snowy’s Christmas blog tour rolls on. Today I am over at Claire Saxby’s blog, talking about the difference between writing a Christmas book and a non-seasonal book. Drop by and, if you have time, leave a comment se we can see who’s visited.

In the meantime, David spotted Snowy for sale at Borders online. Hopefully this means it will also show up in their brick and mortar stores. Remember, if you see Snowy on sale anywhere, let us know, as it’s really interesting to hear where it shows up.

If you’ve missed the start of the tour, you can follow it at:
Week One: 4 October Deescribe Writing Blog http://www.deescribewriting.wordpress.com/
Week Two: 11 October Write and Read With Dale http://livejournal.com/users/orangedale/
Week three: 18 October Alphabet Soup Blog http://www.soupblog.wordpress.com/
Week Four: 25 October Here!
Week Five: 1 November Sally Murphy’s Writing for children Blog
http://sallymurphy.blogspot.com/
Week Six: 8 November Aussiereviews Blog http://aussiereviews.blogspot.com/
Week Seven: 15 November Samantha Hughes’ Blog http://samantha-hughes.blogspot.com/
Week Eight: 22 November Robyn Opie’s Writing Children’s Books Blog
http://www.robynopie.blogspot.com/
Week Nine: 29 November Stories are Light http://sandyfussell.blogspot.com/
Week Ten: 6 December The Aussie Christmas Blog http://aussiechristmas.wordpress.com/
Week Eleven: 13 December Tales I Tell http://belka37.blogspot.com/

Writing Books – Why Purchase Hardcopies When There’s so much Advice Online?

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With all the wonderful writing advice available online, you could be forgive for thinking that hardcopy writing books have become redundant. After all, why pay money for a book when you have so much advice available online, for free? I’ve just taken delivery of an order of three hardcopy books which set me back about $40. Not a fortune, for three books packed full of good advice, but still $40 more than I would have paid to get that advice online. So, why buy the books?

Not All Free Advice is Good Advice. The ease of sharing opinions and information online means that is just as easy for people to share bad advice as it is to share good advice. The problem is that it is isn’t always easy to figure out which is the best advice a available online. To be published in book form, the writer has presumably got some credentials to give such advice, for the publisher to take the risk in publishing them. On top of this, the editorial process in traditional publishing ensures that the author’s work is checked and verified, often by more than one editor.

The Advice or Exercises are at Your Fingertips. Once you have your hardcopy book, it is easy to dip into it time and time again. If you read a useful chapter, or try an exercise and then, three months down the track want to revisit it, it is there on your bookshelf. Often, material online disappears, or you can’t remember where you read it.

3. The Information Is Collected in One Place. I find lots of great advice and writing exercises online. But, I do find that I spend lots of time searching for it. A great article on one site, a wonderful writing exercise in another. When I find a great writing book, there is chapter after chapter of good advice, and page after page of good exercises. The time it may have taken for me to find and order the book is paid off in time saved searching for new information.

4. You Can Carry It With You. I find that most writing books are such that I don’t want to read them all in one sitting. Instead I want to read a chapter, digest it and perhaps try an exercise, returning to the book later. A hardcopy book allows me that freedom wherever I am. You can take it on holiday, on a picnic, on the train to work, and dip into it without internet access.

Of course, I feel mildly hypocritical blogging on my writing blog about why you should choose a writing book over a blog. In fact, what I am saying is that whilst writing blogs and websites (like this one) are wonderful tools, so, too, are writing books. Neither is necessarily better. You can use both. Just a collection of links and bookmarks is an invaluable tool, so too is a carefully chosen library of hardcopy writing books.

In my next post I’ll share the titles of some of the books in my collection, and give some hints on how to choose a writing book for your own needs.

sallymurphy.com.au