Read Books to Become a Good Writer

The only way to become a good Writer is to be a great Reader. Reading a book doesn’t just take you away from your surroundings, but it also helps you learn new techniques from the authors that wrote the stories. I am currently reading two books: The Lovely Bones and The Sugar Queen. I am quickly re-learning the art of dialogue and how to describe a scene so that readers feel like they are right there with you.

This isn’t just for creative fiction and non-fiction, you can also use it for technical writing and blogging. Reading allows you to find ways to describe things in a way that anyone can understand, and it helps in understanding the level of detail that you have to have in your pieces of work.

It’s true what they say.  Reading is Fundamental.

Photo Detail: she likes to read, originally uploaded by dinerdog.

Ten Resources to Start Writing Your Book

Books I Have Read Recently, originally uploaded by nbklx17 / Sandy.

Every Friday I am going to post the ten articles or blog posts that will help you with your writing, whether you are a company or individual.  Here are ten great resources for people who are writing a book:

1. How to Write a Book and Publish it for Under $1000
2. How to Write an Ebook that Doesn’t Suck
3. How to Write a Book That Children Will Love
4. Write Your Book: 5 Most Important Questions
5. How To Write A Book
6. Starting Your Book
7. How to Write a Book in 3 EZ Steps
8. How to Write a Book Proposal and Get Your Book Published
9. How To Write Your Book In A Month
10. How to Write the Killer Book Proposal

Scrivener Is the Best Tool to Help You Write a Book

I decided that it’s time to start writing a book. I’ve had so many ideas for years, but I never had the guts to write anything. This week everything changed. I was thinking of the best word processor to aid me on this venture, and I decided to have Scrivener coming along for the ride.

Scrivener is a Mac-only application that is tailored towards Writers. It combines a robust word processor with a smart project management system that helps you build your book from start to finish. You can section your story the way that you want. For me, I have started doing it in chapters. Scrivener has a neat functionality that displays your chapters/sections into a corkboard (shown above). You are able to shuffle them around, which also changes the way your draft is organized.

Another thing that I absolutely love is how easy it is to do research alongside your writing. This is great for Writers writing a nonfiction or historical piece. You are able to drag and drop images, links, tidbits of texts, etc. There is a research area that allows you to group the research into different areas.

A book outline is always something that Writers should start off with, and Scrivener has a way for you to create one.  The “Outliner” functionality allows you to organize by color coding your writing by chapters, concepts, and/or whatever way you want.  Additionally, it has a status section, so you can track if it has been completed and in which revision.

After you are happy with your book, you can combine the pieces to create one book.

Good luck on writing your book, and if you have a Mac, give Scrivener a try.

Check out their video tutorials: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/videos/index.html

Do You Know How to Write Hypnotically?

Hypnotic Writing: How to Seduce and Persuade Customers with Only Your Words by Joe Vitale

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Hypnotic Writing is a great book to refine your writing focused on getting more clients. However, for me, I found it repetitive because many of the things that the author was teaching people to do are things that you learn when writing proposals. Don’t get me wrong though. The book is definitely a must-read for everyone in business, especially for people whose job description doesn’t include writing. He taught many basic rules that are you need to learn in order to write an effective copy. For instance, problem, solution, proof, repeat.

His chapters were short and to the point and didn’t have unnecessary words that would make you forget what you reading in the first place.  Additionally, he had great tips that could be applied to all forms of writing.  My favorite chapter was about choosing a title.  I am not the best title chooser, so his top titles to choose really helped a lot.  

If you are new to the game and/or are not a writer, then this is a book you should read that will help your business.

View all my reviews.