Writing
This is where information on books on writing is posted.
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There are a lot of helpful books on writing and in this section I will try to pick out the ones that I think might be the most helpful to review and add them to the list.
To be honest, I enjoy writing but decided a long time ago I would not try to write for publishers. And let us face it, the reason there are so many sucky books out there is because the majority of people give up on entertaining themselves and others with story telling and write for publishers. The great thing about the internet is you can share your work, no matter how bad it might be, and some people might actually have fun reading it, no matter how bad it might be.
I would guess my fans, and I do have a few, like what I write not because I am a great writer. I'm not. But I don't let that fact get in the way of my telling a story. I don't mind embarrassing myself. If I get too much in perfectionist mode I do not get anything posted and for the internet business; not good.
There are writers I read. At times I can tell they have spent so much time on a page to get it really good; at least in their mind. The writing isn't really natural and so you know they've worked to make it stand out from the rest of what they've written. Do you know what I normally do when I happen on to those pages. I scan right over them. Generally on those type of pages, the page might only have 3 important sentences to the story.
The pages I might spend the most time on are the pages that intrique me. A page that will bring me back into the story is a page that will cause me to reflect on what I've read. "Okay, maybe I did miss something on the page I scanned." A page that keeps the story alive is a page that will cause the reader to ponder what is going to happen next; but at the same time not cause the reader to feel overly confused.
Some readers and reviewers love great description. "Oh, I could feel I was right there." But me. Okay, from page one I've been picturing Blahblah as Marilyn Monroe and now you tell me she looks like Milton Berle in drag. That is such a disappointment. I don't like reading a bunch of description. I don't like writing a bunch of description. But you will find that is what some books focus on when telling you how to write. Maybe it is because I like to write, but there are some things I'd rather the writer leave to my imagination.
A good character is a character that might remind the reader of someone they know. Maybe the writer's arch enemy has certain physical traits but most likely the reader's arch enemy has different physical traits. Being overly descriptive with physical traits rather than personality traits can play against what you are attempting to do with a character.
One of the favorite line of teachers and others attempting to help someone write is they say to write what you know about. If you are writing fiction I think you want to escape from what you know and you want the reader to escape from what they know. But at the same time you want to identify with your characters and you want the reader to be able to identify with your characters. With fiction, you don't really want to so much write about what you know as you want to make fun of, exploit, and exagerate what you know but in such a way that the reader can identify.
It is great to work on improving ones writing ability. But remember, most people aren't going to get published. Most people aren't going to become the richest woman in Great Britain from writing. Writing is about entertainment. Are you having fun writing. Will anyone enjoy reading what you are writing.
If you ask someone to read what you've written and they run screaming and jump out the window, maybe you do need to work on some things. But don't take it overly seriously. "I didn't like that asshole anyway."
Oh, yeah, for internet writing, one rule is to keep it as short as possible. I just broke that rule. Breaking the rules on writing is what helps keep writing fun. Course it doesn't hurt to know the so called rules.
Write on. :-)

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