Learn Something New

All writers tend to get stale over time. Most are rule-followers. They’re the ones who turned in their homework on time in school, played clarinet in the marching band, didn’t have premarital sex. As adults, most writers play it safe. They drive defensively, wear sunscreen, eat right, and consult experts before making big decisions. For the most part, they don’t take risks.

The primary goal of any writer is to produce work that resounds with authenticity. We must create detailed non-fiction that holds our readers and exciting fiction that leaves them spellbound. And taking the safe path won’t always cut it. Comfort zones hold writers back both in life and in their work.

Ernest Hemingway definitely took chances. He was cut down by a hail of bullets in World War I, recovered and skied the Alps, hunted lions on foot in Africa, ran with the bulls in Pamplona, and fought fish as big as him in the Caribbean.

British writer Rebecca West took to the streets of London to advocate for women’s suffrage, probed the guts of Yugoslavia to write her nonfiction masterpiece Black Lamb and Grey Falcon, covered the Nuremberg Trials for The New Yorker, and risked arrest while exploring the slums and prisons of Johannesburg to report on apartheid.

Both used their experiences to prime their creativity. They actively sought to learn new things, not only to keep their writing fresh but to make them better and more interesting persons. To keep from getting stale, you need to learn something new.

Though a glancing acquaintance with something is often all you need to extrapolate accurately when writing fiction, most fiction writers today do extensive research to make their locations and their characters come alive. It goes without saying that non-fiction writers, to get what they need for their articles and books, need to do detailed research. Sometimes, they even have to learn all about a subject before they can write intelligently about it.

There are lots of ways to learn—and not all of them involve school. The idea that taking a class is the only way to learn comes from years of schooling. But the whole world is a classroom, and today, writers can go anywhere by searching the Internet.

But let’s start with the obvious. You may want to take a class to improve your writing skills. Professional dancers continuously take classes to improve their skills. Most writers don’t. If you write non-fiction, what about taking a class in short-story writing to learn how to write in scenes and add new dynamics to your work. If you write fiction, why not take an article writing class. You may find being limited to the facts a challenge.

And how about taking a class to learn how to use your new digital camera effectively in your work. Digital isn’t at all like 35mm, no matter how much camera manufacturers and many professional photographers would like it to be so. The new technology opens up a whole world of visual possibilities.

You can also learn a foreign language or learn to search your family’s history in a genealogy course. And while you can learn the basics of any subject in a class, it’s not a means of intense study. Only you can provide that.

Travel is a great way to learn about other cultures. By observing other cultures first hand, you’ll develop a better understanding of how everyone fits together on this planet. But it may also offer the opportunity to develop a new specialty or a chance to expand on a subject you currently write about. You don’t have to go to the extremes that Hemingway did, but you should learn to see other cultures in depth. Avoid traveling with a tour. Instead, go alone or with a friend or spouse. Focus on one culture—don’t hop from country to country, culture to culture. Experience unusual things while there. Go off the beaten path.

If you can’t afford to travel much, take advantage of Google Earth Street View. With it, you can plunk yourself down just about anywhere to get the feel of a place. Perhaps you want to create a walking tour of an historic district, but it’s been a while since you’ve been there. Google Earth has probably been there much sooner. Viewing your route with it will jog your dusty memories and give new life to your writing.

Lastly, learn from experience. You experience new things every day. Some of them are so small that you don’t pay much attention to them. But everyone has some major experiences. Learn from them by viewing and analyzing them as a writer. Learn first, then put what you’ve learned into words.

Boy, Have Times—and Technology—Changed

NOTE: Normally, I write this blog in the second person to connect directly with you, the writers who need help in getting started with your careers and those who need any tips they can get to prolong theirs. But this week I’m writing about a situation that I’m going through at the moment that has a lot to do with both my professional life and my office.

When I started out writing nearly 40 years ago (I’m not that ancient, really), I began in a world without computers, without email, without tablets, FIOS, and an Internet that has brought the world into my life. I didn’t realize just how different that all was and how it affected me until I discovered that I had a major structural problem with the floor of my office back in May and would need to deconstruct the last 30 years of my full-time career.

As writers, we’re so intent on moving forwards that we seldom look backwards. Even later in life, I don’t dwell on the past. But deconstructing my office bit by tiny bit has shown me just how much I’ve accomplished in the last 30 years.

Assembling my office began when I started freelancing fulltime. Until then, I worked in various rooms of wherever I happened to be living at the time. But even then I began accumulating informational materials, books, and files that would stay with me until now. Believe me, you don’t realize just how much you’ll accumulate as a writer until you have to go through it all.

I haven’t moved since I started freelancing fulltime. And while being in one place has its advantages, it also has its disadvantages. One project led to another and to another, each with its own set of notes, files, and reference books. When I began writing books in earnest, that all got bumped up a couple of notches.

The reason I’m telling you all this is to strongly advise you to review what you’re accumulating from time to time. While some of you may naturally do this and not save much, others, like me, save everything. And rightly so.

By saving notes and references, I’ve made thousands of extra dollars spinning off material from many projects. As a non-fiction writer, I often created new articles from parts of main ones and from sidebars. I’ve sold many a piece as a reprint, bringing in extra money for practically no work. And the wealth of material gathered in writing 15 books has given me information to spin off into any number of other projects.

One of the ways I chose to add to my income was by teaching adult evening classes and giving lectures. The material for over 75 courses and lectures came from my articles and books and from my knowledge of writing, specifically for my writing classes. But I also created courses based on my specialty of writing about antiques, for which I also wrote two books.

Another facet of my work has been in photography. From the beginning, I’ve always billed myself as a writer/photographer. For the most part, I’ve illustrated most of my articles and several of my books. This, in itself, created a whole other section of my office. Notebooks filled with negatives, boxes of slides, and a complete darkroom filled over half the space. With the advent of digital photography, I store my photos—over 30,000 digital images alone—in my computer. But I still have several thousand slides and negatives that are still useful and can be digitized.

My advice to you all, based on what I’m going through right now, is to plan ahead. Plan your office for efficiency and make an effort to review and cull through your files and other materials periodically to keep from getting overwhelmed later. I teach my students in my digital photography classes to start an organizational scheme right away before they accumulate so many images that they won’t be able to find what they’re looking for.

Even with the best planned file system, the shear volume of files can prevent you from using them as efficiently as possible.

In my next blog, I’ll discuss what you need to keep and what you can safely throw away. Since my office will be completely torn apart in August, I’ll do my best to post a blog or two, but I won’t be able to do one a week until most likely mid-September. 

Setting the Tone

Most writers get so involved with their writing that they aren’t aware of the tone they impart to it. In fact, it isn’t until a third party, someone like an editor, reads what you’ve written that you’re made aware of the tone or lack of it in your writing. Tone can create interest or just the opposite.

So what is tone anyway? Some say it’s the style of the piece. Others say it’s mood. And still others say it’s the author’s voice. Of the three, those who say voice are the closest. But it’s not the author’s voice but his or her attitude toward his subject—something that’s often hidden deep within the piece. Words used to describe tone might be authoritative, intimate, amusing, or aggravated.

Perhaps it might be easier for you to visualize tone. Photographers give mood to their work using light, either natural or artificial. It’s the way they choose to light their subject. The mood they create using light translates into tone. For heightened drama, they light their subject from the side. To increase horror, they light from below. For romance, they use soft candlelight. In films, directors convey the tone of a scene through its background music. Showing a person being pursued by a vicious dog wouldn’t be half as frightening without the ominous music that accompanies it.

But writers don’t have light or music. Theirs is a world of words. So creating the right tone, for the most part, involves using the right words, arranged in a particular way, for the effect you want. When a person speaks, it’s the volume of his or her speech that conveys the tone. But writing is silent. And that’s the challenge.

So if you use the wrong tone in a piece, it can ruin it for your readers. You’ll turn them off before they get half way through.

Unfortunately, it’s nearly impossible to hear the tone in a piece of writing while you’re working on it. It’s only after you’ve been away from it for a while that you’ll notice the tone. And it may surprise you. One way to make yourself more aware of the tone of a piece of writing is to read it aloud. Or even better, read it into a digital audio recorder, then listen to it as if you’re listening to a book on tape. You’ll hear the tone of the piece, whether good or bad.

The primary rule when working with tone is to keep it consistent from beginning to end. Establish your tone in the first sentence. Stay on track and don’t change tones within a piece. Look for places in your piece where the tone fades or shifts and focus your revision there.

Be wary of off-topic tangents. Don’t let your writing ramble. That will destroy the tone more than anything. Stick to your subject.

Depending on what you’re writing, you need to be aware of your voice, but don’t let it set the wrong tone. If the type of writing you do involves your opinion, don’t pussy-foot around. Express them. Take a stand. The worse thing is for you to try to avoid conflict with your readers. Don’t be polite just because you don’t want to offend your readers.

You can improve the tone of a piece by adding specific details. These draw the reader in and make them feel as if they’re part of the story or article. In fiction, this can help establish a character’s mood. In non-fiction, it adds depth and credibility.

However, working with tone can present problems. When bad things happen to people, some react by writing a book about the experience. Usually, it’s a bad book about all the horrible things that happened to the author. It presents little hope to the reader. This is common with people who have had a bad medical experience, feel strongly about controversial issues, or are angry about other people’s behavior.

To fix the tone, you have to fix the way you think about a given subject. You have to back off, calm down, see other points of view, maybe even take some responsibility for whatever happened. When writing about delicate subjects, you mustn’t let a negative tone take over the piece.

Develop Your Own Vision

“Develop your own vision, trust in it, and it will eventually reward you beyond your imagination.” Jeremy Horner

That quote is from a professional travel photographer. But it can also apply to you as a writer. Although with writing, depending on what type of writing you do, developing a vision all your own can be a challenge.

In the beginning, it’s hard to imagine where you want to go with your writing.  Perhaps you may get in a quandary over whether to write non-fiction or fiction. Most writers decide this early in their careers. It’s a natural passion that comes from deep inside you. Some writers start out writing non-fiction, for example—maybe working in the newsroom of their local paper—but soon tire of constantly having to dig up facts. For them, creating life on paper is more of a challenge.

It’s also possible that you may go in both directions. If you’re a good writer, you should be able to write just about anything, once you know the format of what you want to write. But in the beginning, it’s best to not to waffle back and forth. Pick one direction—fiction or non-fiction—and stick with it.

Beyond that general direction, developing a personal vision is tough. As it turns out, fiction writers have a better chance of doing that. Successful ones usually have a vision of what they want to produce and stick to that path.

But if you’re a non-fiction writer, your work is tied more to the style of each publication for which you’re writing. Each publication has its own reader demographics. To be a successful non-fiction writer, you have to target the readers of each publication, so your writing will constantly have to change to adapt to each group of readers.  While fiction writers also have to write for  their readers, they do so to a much broader group that’s enjoys reading a particular genre of writing—science fiction, mysteries, westerns, romance, etc.

Don’t confuse vision with style. Style is how you express yourself on a particular subject. It takes in not only vocabulary, but sentence structure, punctuation, and general form. As a writer, you will eventually develop your own style. It takes years of practice before that begins to appear. And besides practice, you’ll study other writers that you admire for technique.

Vision, on the other hand, is about how you want others to perceive you as a writer. It encompasses not only the type of writing you do, but how that writing affects your readers. For instance, let’s say you’re a natural teacher. Then your writing may seek to inform readers, in which case, you’ll probably become a successful non-fiction writer or journalist. But if you imagine that your writing will spark the imaginations of your readers, then fiction will probably be for you.

In the case of Jeremy Horner, the photographer quoted above who specializes in travel photography, vision is all about how he interprets the world he sees on his travels—it’s landscapes, its landmarks, its people. How you interpret the world through your writing is your vision. If you enjoy making the past come alive, then recreating history is your vision.

And just like style, vision takes a while to develop. It won’t come to you in an instant but will smolder in your work. But then the light bulb will flash on, and you’ll have an “ah ha” moment. That’s when you’ll begin to see how you want to make your mark on the writing world.

The Three W's of Writing

Everyone can write. Well, actually just about everyone can put words on paper. But not everyone can be or wants to be a writer. And this is where the three “W’s”—why, what, where—fit in.

Why do you want to write? Before all else you must have a reason for writing—a purpose. If you want to become a successful writer, you’ve got to decide what drives you to write. There are loads of other professions to which you can devote your time and energy, so why chose writing?

Perhaps you love words—the sound of them, they way they’re used in sentences, the idea of creating images with them. Your love affair with words may have developed out of a love of reading. However this came about, it will be the driving force behind your writing.

Or perhaps you feel a compelling need to communicate with others. You may have strong feelings on a particular subject and wish to relay them to others. For instance, you may feel strongly about climate change or spousal abuse or any number of other trendy topics.

But why choose writing? Why not take up photography or videography? Each is a powerful communication medium in its own right. And that brings us to the next “W”—what.

What do you want to write? Whatever you decide to write begins with you. This is the subject matter not the format. If you ask yourself if you should write non-fiction books or novels, articles or short stories, plays or film scripts, you may find it hard to choose. But once you know which subject you’ll be writing about, the best format will become apparent.

What you write about depends a lot on your personal interests. Perhaps you’ve been interested in animals since your first trip to the zoo at a very early age. You may feel strongly about the plight of some creatures on the endangered list and write about them to make your readers more aware of their dire situations. Or maybe you feel in love with traveling after your first flight and want to share with your readers the wonders of the world.

Maybe you like to present challenges and puzzles to your readers through mysteries or adventure stories. Whatever you choose to write about should begin with you. And that takes us to the third and final “W”—where.

Where does writing fit into your life? Most people aren’t born to be writers. They become writers over time through a variety of circumstances.

Some realize early on that they love to write while still in elementary school. But for countless others, the need and passion to write doesn’t appear until much later in life. Perhaps it comes from the encouragement of a teacher along the way or the inspiration brought about my reading the works of a famous writer. However, if the urge to write seizes you later in life, you’ve most likely been pursuing another career path—one to which you feel equally passionate and attached.

The good thing about writing is that it can be done while you’re engaged in another career. For many, it begins as a pastime. But then the urge becomes so strong that they feel the need to break away and devote the rest of their lives to writing. Which is it going to be for you?










                               

The Business Side of Photos for Freelancers

Adding photography to the list of talents you offer editors will greatly increase your odds at getting published. After you purchase a digital camera and get some instruction in using it, you’re almost ready. Before you start taking photos to accompany your articles, there are a couple of things you should know about.

The kind of photos you take of your family and on your vacations just won’t do. These more then likely are snapshots, quick shots you take on the fly without much thinking. To create good photographs, you’ll need to know what you need to illustrate your work.

Before you begin taking your own photos, study the photos used with articles in the magazines or other publications in which you want to be published. Notice how many people are in them, what information they convey to the reader, and whether they’re in horizontal (landscape) or vertical (portrait) format. Search for the listings for these periodicals in Writer’s Digest’s Writer’s Market or some other market directory. Read what the editors require in photos or contact them to get a copy of their publication’s photo guidelines.

While you’re at it, check to see what they’re looking for in cover photos. Photographers working regularly with these periodicals usually do the covers, but it doesn’t hurt to check. Remember, cover shots are always in portrait format. Be sure to leave an area clear of objects and such at the top for the magazine’s title. Keep cover shots simple, especially if the publication places other text on it. Again, check back issues of whatever periodical you plan to shoot a cover shot for to see what they’ve done in the past. A good way to increase your odds here is to include several good cover shots in the selection you send along with your article. If the editor places your article in a prominent place in the magazine, chances are good that he or she might choose to use one of your cover shots to lead readers to it.

When composing your shots, be sure to get in close. Always imagine that your photo will be printed no longer than a quarter of a page. If it’s that small, the closer you are to your subject the better. Also avoid crowds of people. Unless the art director—the person who ultimately lays out your article and photos—decides to make one or more of your shots double-page spreads, readers will be barely able to see the people in the crowd.

Art directors of today’s periodicals like their photos to be bold and graphic. They’ve learned from the pages on the Web and want to make their pages stand out, too.

Good exposure is paramount. If you can’t figure out how to refine your exposure or are just starting out, shot everything on AUTO. No one will know. It’s the end photograph that counts. If it’s a good one, you’ve succeeded, no matter how you got there.

Another photo selling point is to give editors a good selection of photos. Let them choose which ones they want to use. How many photos you send along depends on the length of the article and status of the magazine. For short pieces in lower-paying markets, three or four photos might do, but for longer pieces in higher-paying markets, you might send up to 20.

Today, most digital cameras have rather high megapixel resolution. That means that the photos they produce are huge—too big to send along with your article text. Before you send your photos, you’ll need to resize them and change their resolution to 300 or 600 dpi (dots per inch). Make each photo 6x8 inches or 7.5x10 inches by 300 or 600. The higher the resolution number, the larger the image file size.

Freelance writers used to send their photos as slides or color prints. Today, almost all photography is done digitally and sent electronically. If you don’t know how to attach photos to your Email messages, you better learn fast. When you have a larger amount of images to send, send several messages, attaching three or four image files to each message. Most likely your editor will have high-speed Internet service, but even so it’s best to break up your photo group in case one or more of the messages drops into the black hole of cyberspace.

Some publications pay extra for photos while others include them in an article/photo package. If some of the periodicals you want to work with don’t pay very much, you might consider letting the editor know where he or she can obtain stock photos to use with your article. If you’re not getting paid extra for your photos—or at least enough for the package—you might want to forego taking your own in favor of using others that are readily available.

Learn how to use a digital camera and shoot photos with some imagination. Shots with different angles, shots with different lenses, shots with impact are the ones editors like.

Add Value to Your Writing With Photos

Today, we live in an iconographic world. Images bombard us from every angle. In the good ole days back in the early 20th century, photography was a new form of communication and for the most part stood by itself. As the century progressed, writing changed as photographs drew readers to articles and stories. Photos topped the front pages of newspapers and the covers of magazines. It was the photos that began to be the main selling point for periodicals.

Many freelance writers look at photography as a chore, an extra step that takes them away from their main purpose, writing. In fact, photography can enhance writing, adding a third dimension to an otherwise two-dimensional medium. But creating good photos is a skill, and one not easily learned until today.

Photographs add value to any piece of writing. Most editors want them included with articles. Some pay extra, others include them in the price of the package. So as a freelancer in today’s upside-down, inside-out world of publishing, it will pay you to take the time to learn some photo basics.

With the advent of digital photography, learning to take good photos just got easier. One of the big advantages to using a digital camera is that you can see your photographic mistakes right after you make them. Instead of waiting until after your film has been processed to see your results, you can see them instantly. This allows you to retake the photo if necessary to assure you that you have the image you want and need to complement your story.

However, not all digital cameras are created equal. Don’t fall into the trap of purchasing a cumbersome, extremely complicated DSLR—a digital Single Lens Reflex is a camera which has removable lenses. Just because a camera like this has all the bells and whistles doesn’t necessarily make it a good one for you. And while you’re at it, forget the photo vests and all the other pseudo-professional gear. A fancy camera and fancy gear won’t make you a good photographer. You’ll only look like one. What you need is a good basic camera that will enable you to capture what you need to enhance your writing package and make it more saleable.

With today’s high-resolution, high megapixel-sized digital cameras you can obtain good photos without much effort. In fact, you can operate the camera on the AUTO setting and get fine results. No one will ask you how you took the photo. They’ll only see that it works perfectly with your article or story.

But you will need to learn a few things. Check in your local area for a non-credit digital photography course. These run from 4 to 10 weeks and cover all the basics. Don’t worry if the course isn’t taught in a computer lab. Remember, you need to learn to use your camera, not a computer as such.

The best type of camera to start out with is a compact model. One like the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS8, which sells for less than $200. It includes loads of features, allowing you to take great photos without straining your brain or your budget. Learn to use this type of camera well, then consider moving up to a super-zoom.

A super-zoom digital camera has a powerful zoom lens that will enable you to take photos at an extreme wide angle for overall shots to a long telephoto of up to 600mm. The cameras weigh less than a pound, and everything is included—no extra lenses to buy or lug around. This helps with your budget and your back. But start off with a simpler camera first. The photos you get from it will work just fine with your writing.

NEXT WEEK: More on using photos to improve your odds at publishing.

Planning for the Future

All successful businesses start with a master plan. As a freelance writer, you need to know where you’re going and have a plan in place to take care of contingencies—those times when the markets you’ve been counting on disappear. Perhaps you’ve been putting it off while focusing on getting published. Before you get too far along in your freelance writing career, take some time to compile a more definitive plan.

With a good plan, you’ll be able to review your progress periodically. Doing so will allow you to discover  the need for a change in your direction when your original plan and your checkbook balance are at odds. Plus a clear, concise, well-thought-out business plan gives you a better opportunity to get a loan from your bank or a friend or family member when money is tight or you want to buy some new equipment. Few people, bank loan officers included, ever take freelance businesspeople seriously unless they have a plan in writing.

Your plan should be flexible, but it should keep you pointing—and moving—in the right direction.

A good business plan also keeps your eye on your long-term goals. It will detail priorities in a sequence that will save you valuable time and energy and help eliminate worry, which can be a major distraction to your writing.

When you draft your plan, stick to facts, realities, and valid assumptions. Don't overlook the obvious pluses. Perhaps your spouse has a good, reliable job which won’t disappear overnight. Or you know that you'll be coming into some money in a couple of years.  Or, even better, you’ve been building up your expertise in a particular subject area which will allow you to eventually specialize in it, resulting in reliable assignments.

When compiling a business plan, keep daydreams to a minimum. You’ll only get frustrated if you write a plan based on wishful thinking. Deal in the here and now, not in what you hope will happen. Above all, don't overanalyze, or you'll drown in a sea of data you won't be able to use. Allow a certain amount of time for creating your business plan and then stop. You can always change it later.

If you’re dealing with several different types of markets or other related ventures, such as teaching or photography, you might want to compile some detailed sub-plans. These don’t have to be involved, but should include details for that particular venture to help you expand as you go. Once you have your plan in place, prepare a general To-Do List based on it that you can work into your daily routine.

Now that you know what a good business plan will do for you writing, let’s look at what it should include.

First and foremost, it should include a statement of purpose—what is the purpose of your writing business.

Second, a detailed description of your business, including a list of your specialties, the markets for them, and a paragraph on why you, above others, can give an editor or a client a unique angle.

Third, a discussion of what the market is like for your writing. Included in this section should be a list of opportunities, with specific details about current markets, names of publishers, publications, and editors, as well as other clients. Do the same for each of your specialties or other ventures.

Fourth, a plan for marketing your writing—how do you plan to promote it and yourself? 

Fifth, list your market objectives for one year, eighteen months, two years, and five years. These will help you outline your strategy—specific work you'd like to be able to cover in the year to come, research already available to you, what you'd need to research further, and probable places where you might find  information, plus the time and cost to get it.

And finally, a profit-and-loss statement or budget, including an estimate of your net worth, and a list of your office equipment with a projection of future items that could increase your productivity. This tells you and whoever is reading your plan where you are financially and where you plan to go.

Remember, the more flexible your plan, the more it will allow you to grow your freelance business.

Books, Books, and More Books

A writer cannot operate in a vacuum. Ideas come from everywhere. But after getting ideas, they have to be researched. And for that a writer needs a good reference library.

Over 30 years and hundreds of books later, I can truthfully say I’ve amassed a good reference library. Setting up a basic reference library needn’t be expensive. I found almanacs, dictionaries, directories of various kinds, thesauruses, and atlases in paperback. I had several dictionaries left over from my college days. And while they weren’t the most current, they worked fine when I was just starting out.

The focus of any writer’s reference library is the subject matter he or she writes about. I started out writing about travel, so from the start, I was on the lookout for travel guidebooks from countries and parts of the United States that I was interested in writing about. Back then, online booksellers such as Amazon.com didn’t exist. In fact, compared to today, that was the Stone Age (I kept my club in the closet and only used it to go hunting.). Over time, I gathered several hundred travel guides, mostly from library and used book sales. For my purposes, it didn’t matter if they were a year or two old. The basic information never changed.

Along the way, I began to write about antiques. This subject required its own specialized library of reference books. Again, I kept an eye out for antiques books—traditionally expensive—at local library sales. Some are small reference books on furniture styles, etc. while others are massive coffee-table-sized volumes with lots of photographs. Mixed in are a number of antiques encyclopedias for easy reference. As with my travel books, these soon grew to 100 or so.

Another of my specialties is writing about Mexico. One Mexico guidebook wasn’t enough. As a specialist, I needed detailed information. I acquired many books on trips to Mexico. Often, this was the only place I could find them. While there, I constantly looked for brochures, booklets, and maps that would give me detailed information not available to me once I headed north of the border.

Over the last five or six years, I’ve written a number of books. Each book required its own set of reference books—in fact, each has its own mini library.

Besides writing, I also teach it to adults in evening classes. As the number of courses grew over the years, I needed writing reference books as well. I’ve gathered 50 to 75 books on various types of writing and writing techniques to help myself and my students. Most of these I obtained through Writer’s Digest Book Club and still purchase the occasional volume through the Writer’s Digest Book Store online.

In also created my own photographs to illustrate my articles. My interest in photography developed before my writing, so I began with basic how-to books on photographic techniques. Over the years, I’ve used these many times. Today, I not only take digital photographs but teach others how to. This has necessitated starting a small library of digital photography books, used mostly to develop the courses I teach.

As you can see, my basic writing library has grown considerably. Most of the rooms in my house contain books. And while I can easily find information online on just about any subject, there’s still information I need to look up in my library.