Struggling Writers discussion

A book on writing about injuries and what to do on them
some books on guns
right now, a mess of books on mythology
potraits--it's a nat geo book that is all just portraits of people from around the world, so if I get stuck on what someone looks like i can flip through.
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

Well, I have a dictonary of mythlogical/fairy tale creatures with pictures (dont have the book handy right now) for when I write that sort of stuff and need ideas, a websters dictonay unabridaged w/ pictures for just about everything ( it is my fav. dictonary), and I have a book of quotes for various things. If anyone wants the tittles i can give them to you ( i just need to be home and i am not right now) all except the webesters dictonary because the year and that stuff are missing ( got it a a yard sale)

@Ingrid: which tittles would you like?

I will get them to you when I get home ( somthing came up).

Oh, it is probably going to be a while. I don't quite know when I will be home.

I should be home tomorrow if everything goes well.

What's with the wink? :)

Just curious, hey did you by chance look at the website discussion i had an idea and think it might work. Mind looking at it? ( in the sucide no go group)

Yeah, me too. I think it will have some real potential.

I might have to check that one out.

@Ingrid: Okay, the dictonay and the book of quotes don't have author names (i got them at a yard sale so they aren't new and are missing the tittle pages) sorry. The book of quotes is called Quotes and the webster dictonary is just an unabriged dictonary. As for the mythlogical book it is actually quite new "The Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures" by John and Caitlin Matthews. (My parents got it from barnes and nobel)

Sorry, I really wish that the front pages werent missing (actually the book got a bit of water damage and apparently the pages had to be removed). The other one though is really great for ideas/research.

The Oxford English Dictionary,
Pocketguide to writing in History,
The Bedford Handbook,
The Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators Market,
Story Sparkers,
How to Tell a Story and Other Essays,
How to Write and Illustrate Children's Books,
The People's History of the United States,
The Kings and Queens of England.

Yes, it is quite helpful. I will look into somevof these.

The only one I have on my Kindle for PC is How to Tell a Story and Other Essays. I am sure some of them would be somewhere online.

That's okay at least you handed it in...way back when in high school I argued with my English Lit teacher about a John Steinbeck essay I was convinced I had handed in, needless to say I didn't do too well in that class because of it, and a few years later I was sorting out....can you guess where this is going?...yep, I found it!!!!!! I never have apologised to my teacher, oh well, too late now..he may be dead!!!

I was not a very organised individual, I am a little better now that I have a child of my own (and an iPhone, what a saviour!), but am still losing bits and pieces here and there!! The only way is up and I am confident by the time I am 80 I will be super organised and probably have a plot picked out and dug!!!!! LOL:)

XD

Umm all depends on what I am writing. My current series, Spellbound, involves research for both the witch hunts, pirates and all the other historical elements that go with it when it comes to accuracy. I have a spellbook, a witch craft encyclopedia, the English version of the Witch Hammer (witch hunter's guide used back in the witch hunts). I always always always have my novel book with me, about how to develop characters and plotting and so on. :)

What is the tittle/author of the novel book it souds like a book I want to read.

I have...

The Oxford English Dictionary
Deadly Doses: A Writer's Guide to Poisons
Body Trauma: A Writer's Guide to Wounds and Injuries
Murder One: A Writer's Guide to Homicide
Malicious Intent: A Writer's Guide to how Murderers, Robbers, Rapists and other Criminals Think
The Writer's Guide to Character Traits
Common Poisonous Plants and Mushrooms of North America
The Physics of the Impossible

But that's just at the moment.

I already own the dictonary but all the others sound really good and i will be looking into them.

Just a few include...
How to Write Fast (While Writing Well) by David Fryxell

The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McCutcheon

Romance Writer's Sourcebook (from Writer's Market)

How to Get Happily Published by Judith Appelbaum

The Writer's Handbook

How You Can Make $25,000 a Year Writing by Nancy Edmonds Hanson

I have to say, though, that How To Write Fast While Writing Well is the book that helped me the most. Except for a pre-Civil War era book, and then the Everyday Life in the 1800s came in very handy! :)

But with dictionaries, online thesauruses, and other research sites so readily available online, I use Google more than anything else these days.

There a ton of writer resources online that you can find through Google. It's amazing. However when it comes to other research that goes into novels, I don't find Google to be sufficient enough for say, history research or something. That's why I love libraries. :)

That's why I have books like Everyday Life, Lavinia. Although places like PBS.com is a wealth of information, videos, transcripts, etc... I love that website for historical information. Of course I've spent countless hours in both the local and state libraries, too. As well as city records offices, and newspaper offices. I just love reading through old newspapers to see what they considered newsworthy back then (who was in town visiting family), ads-which are amazing when you see what things cost 'way back when,' and what fashions were in different eras. I've spent a small fortune copying some of those! :)

Oh I can imagine! It's very fascinating! My journalism teacher kept old newspapers in his office and anytime I'd go see him for help or something I'd get to look through them. I have books, there are a few websites I'll use though I restrict my online research as you never know what to really believe on the Internet.

OED
Body Trauma
Whatever books directly relate to my project.

Lavinia wrote: "Oh I can imagine! It's very fascinating! My journalism teacher kept old newspapers in his office and anytime I'd go see him for help or something I'd get to look through them. I have books, there a..."

Yeah, I'm pretty careful as what I take for fact. Now if it's just opinions, that's another story. But I usually like to be as accurate as I can. One of my favorite places in the world is a vintage book store near the university in East Lansing. I bought a Farmer's Almanac and a woman's magazine from the early 1900s, and they are so interesting! A couple of my prized possessions. And it's so funny. The magazine is almost the same size as a newspaper that's folded in half. They were huge!

Strunk & White little book of grammar. Since English is not my first language I tend to get hung up on things.
I've read quite a few how-to-write cooks over the years, but rarely read them again as reference. My style is my own.

Online resources are readily available ie, dictionaries, thesaurus, language translators, maps, pictures, etc. Having the internet makes writing so much easier.

This spoken from a writer who first started writing with a typewriter and carbon paper, encyclopedias, Webster's Unabridged dictionary, etc.
Jo

A good site is the OWL predue college writting site, it is more for grammer, siting, ect.

I really liked How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months. It got bad press but it does show the nuts and bolts of doing it.

Yes, one million ebooks?

Irene wrote: "Yes, one million ebooks?"

yes he did. I think Amanda Hocking has also sold 1 Million ebooks, or else she has made a million dollars, one or the other. The guy who wrote the book is the number 1 best selling ebook author of all time.

Interesting.

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