Archive for the Category ◊ Friday Find ◊
The always-generous Erika Dreifus is offering up two of her books for writers for free. These aren’t just any books; they’re well-researched market guides. One, a guide to markets for book reviewers, the other for essay writers.
Read the details on Erika’s blog and get them through Lulu here. (You may have to register.)
I came across this beautiful essay last week by New York Times bestselling author Jenny Crusie, and absolutely loved it. Even though I can’t really say I agree with it completely, because there’s a difference between accepting a crappy deal in order to get published (something I may do), and accepting a crappy man in order to get married (something I wouldn’t).
Agree, disagree or fall somewhere in between, but do read this. It’s a very interesting look at writing without being dependent on the publishing.
Thank God for Women’s Liberation. You know the Women’s Libbers, the ones who said “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle,” and we all went, “Oh.” And thank God for Gloria Steinem, who said, “Marriage is a fine institution, but I’m not ready for an institution yet.” She’s the one (among others) who pointed out that waiting for somebody else to grant validation meant giving up control over our lives. She’s the one (among others) who clued us all in and made us stronger and helped guarantee our daughters didn’t fall for the same old lies.
Unfortunately, Gloria didn’t go far enough, probably because she didn’t belong to RWA. She didn’t see the same insidious forces at work in publishing, the same unconscious assumptions, the same frustration and depression. She didn’t see that just as women had to give up being married as a life goal before they could lead full lives as women, so writers must give up being published as a career goal before we can lead full lives as writers.
Cruisie has written some wonderfully insightful essays, so don’t forget to check out the For Writers page on her website as well as her blog.
I’m not a big fan of Gilbert’s book (I’ve only read the one), which is a fact I’ve established several times, so we’ll skip over that. But I love to hear the woman speak. Her talk on TED was so inspiring, everyone and their mother linked to it. And now she comes out with this very motivating talk for O Magazine.
It’s a good twenty minutes, but trust me, it’s worth the listen.
One of my favorite writing tools is the website RhymeZone.com. I’ve been using it for years to come up with titles, rhyming words, phrases that I couldn’t quite remember and of course, similar sounding words (for the various times I’ve been in a sans-tea form of confusion).
There are other features as well, such as finding synonyms, looking up old documents, etc, that I haven’t used much, but for your one shop stop in word needs, this is the place to go.
I also use Thesaurus.com, but find Rhymezone better for words that I have on the tip of my tongue but just. can’t. remember.
If you’ve been hanging out on freelance writing websites for more than a couple of years, you’re bound to have come across the name Kelly James-Enger. Kelly, who is an American freelancer, has been a full-time writer since 1997, and she’s written countless articles for websites, e-newsletters, and magazines on how to succeed as an independent professional. In addition to being a regular contributor to the Writer magazine, she’s also written two books for writers: Ready, Aim, Specialize! Create your own Writing Specialty and Make More Money (Marion Street Press) and Six-Figure Freelancing: The Writer’s Guide to Making More Money (Random House).
So now that Kelly has a new blog, it’s absolutely essential that you check it out. Already in her first week, she’s written about getting started, asking for more money, and selling reprints. It’s a fantastic way to learn a little more about how the pros go about running their business.
Oh my.
A writer I know and connected with on a message board a couple of years ago wrote to me the other day to tell me that:
(1) I rock. (I know.)
(2) I rock even more now that I’m a hardcore Mac fan. (I know!)
(3) I would continue to rock if I checked out this cool little software called Scrivener. Because you know, you’re not a real writer unless you’ve spent $40 on a program that lets you… well, write.
Well, that’s what I thought initially. The sarcastic part of me. But the geek part of me downloaded it anyway.
And wow. Wow. I’m in love.
The software was clearly created by a writer, because in a single project, you can save parts of the draft you’re working on, you can store research, you can view it all on a single page, and you can access it all in as little as a single click.
I’ve already managed to make some progress on a project that was driving me batty. If you’re bad at organization (and what kind of writer would you be if you weren’t?), you know the frustration of having research that’s scattered across a dozen web pages, stats that are in ten different files, and interviews that are all over the place.
The program makes it easy. Really, it does.
Check it out and watch this video to get a feel of it before you bother spending time learning all the ins and outs to know whether it’s for you.
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