Read What You Write

In order to be a good writer, I had to start reading like one. I have two reading modes–one for pleasure and information and the other for writing technique. In the first, I sit at my desk or in a comfy chair and read for entertainment or knowledge without paying much attention to how the writer wrote the text. But in the second, I read for technique, carefully paying attention to structure, grammar, and English usage.

Many writers never read their work once they finish it. In fact, too many beginning writers never look at what they write beyond their first draft. Writing takes on a life of its own and only after it has “settled” a bit can I really see the problems and the mistakes.

Writing on a computer has lots of advantages, but the one big disadvantage is that I find myself being hypnotized by the print on the screen–so much so, that I often don’t see simple mistakes right in front of me. To avoid this problem, I print out each draft of what I write–yea, I know it isn’t good for the trees–and put it aside to read later. Later can be the next hour, the next few hours, or the next day. Just the act of getting away from that particular piece of writing helps me to get a new perspective on it. Also, I usually read it somewhere else, say in that comfy chair with a nice cup of coffee, just the way I would read any other material.

In this process, my mind forgets for a while what I wrote and sees it as if it’s something new. This, alone, helps me to see the flaws in my writing, so that I can act as my own editor. In effect, I’m not only reading it as a reader but also reading it as a writer.

Please check out my Web site, Writing at Its Best, for some example of my work over the last 35 years. Also, to see a highly developed online magazine on antiques, which I launched in 2015, go to The Antiques Almanac.

Beware of the Elephant in the Room

Today, you often hear the phrase “the elephant in the room.” No, it has nothing to do with elephants. But it usually means there’s a subject present that no one wants to talk about. For writers, that subject is whether you’re a writer or an author.

What is it about our society that reveres authors more than writers. Aren’t writers and authors the same? Don’t they both communicate with words? Actually, not all writers are authors and some would say that some authors certainly aren’t good writers.

Beginning writers seem to think if they write a book that they’ll be recognized as a writer. What drives so many beginning writers to write a book when they haven’t written much else? Perhaps the idea goes back to when they were in school.

Everyone learns to read by reading books. Yes they’re short—most have one sentence to a page—but they’re still books. How many first graders are out there reading articles and short stories? None. As they progress through the grades, they read more and more books until, before they know it, they’re sitting in English classes studying literature.

Do you see yourself as a writer? To succeed at writing, you better. If you only see yourself as an author, that lofty ambition may get you into trouble, and you may never ever get your writing career off the ground.

Most writers have to work in a variety of formats to be successful. Books take a long time to prepare, write, and market, compared to articles and short stories. Unfortunately, the reading public doesn’t associate writers with articles or short stories. When was the last time you recalled the name of the writer of an article you’ve read? And perhaps that’s the problem, for when you market a book, you market yourself as well.

A lot goes into writing a book. It’s not just the writing, it’s the research, the organization, the energy. Writing a book is like having a baby elephant—it takes 22 months for the little guy to grow inside it’s mother. That’s just about how long it takes to create a book—getting the idea, marketing the idea, researching the idea, organize the idea, writing the idea, and rewriting the idea. Oh, and let’s not forget promoting the idea.

Articles and short stories take much less effort. And they can be sold over and over again, either reprinted as is or reworked. Once you publish a book, you cannot publish it again. And many books end up in on discount tables and sites or go out of print—that is, die—altogether. This, of course, has to do with copyright laws. And while shorter pieces of writing are also copyrighted, they’re done so for individual periodicals. Once a book is copyrighted, that’s it.

So while you may bask in the glow of book publication, that light may only shine briefly. Writing in a variety of formats not only gives your writing career a good foundation but will also pay off in the long run.

 Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page. And be sure to visit my Writer's Corner for articles about freelance writing and writing in general.

Do You Have a Book in You?

Beginning writers often say they have a book inside them. Well, if they ever expect it to get published, they had better get it out. For many people, the epitome of being a writer is writing books. And although aspiring to be an author is a noble pursuit, it’s not all there is to a writing career.

When writing a book, most writers begin by doing just that. They bury themselves in researching their topic or story and spend months, if not years, writing about it. Sounds logical, doesn’t it? But how many of them actually get their book published?

In general, most people feel they have something so important to say that every publisher will want to publish their book and every reader will run out to buy it. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

This attitude of self-importance originates way back in school—as far back as first grade. Most teachers don’t mean to instill this in their students, it sort of happens through a process of educational osmosis. The teachers had it instilled in them by their teachers in a never-ending educational process. So what is a book writer to do? Market research.



Whether you plan to write a non-fiction or fiction book, it pays to take a look at the market for your idea—not your book. Take a trip to a good bookstore and browse through the books on your topic. This will tell you what’s being sold. Remember, most of the books on the shop’s shelves originated at least two years prior to you seeing them. Now stroll over to the sale tables. The books on these tables are remainders—leftovers that didn’t sell during the book’s most recent run. Many may be terrific, but for some reason didn’t hit the mark. Take notes, being sure to nor publishers names.

Next surf on over to Amazon.com, the world’s greatest book depository. Search for books on your topic. Amazon has practically everything in print. Do the same at their competitor, Barnes and Noble’s Web site. Take more notes, again being careful to note the names of publishers.



After all this research, review your notes and draw some conclusions about how viable your topic really is. Generally, too many books on your topic means the market is overloaded. Too few often means not enough readers are interested or the topic hasn’t been explored to any great degree by writers.

Armed with your conclusions, you’re ready to proceed with your book, modifying the topic to reflect market trends. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t cater to your topic’s market but be driven by it. Doing so will greatly enhance your chance of publication.

And remember, it’s not the book that makes you a writer, but what you have to say in it.

Learn more about me on my Web site, Writing at Its Best, and on my Facebook Page.

So You’ve Decided to Retire, Now What?

For whatever reason, you’ve decided to retire from the daily grind of stress of freelance writing. Perhaps through no fault of your own. You’ve lost all your paying markets. Maybe, freelance writing has become too demanding. Maybe you just need a change. Whatever your reason, you’ve got to think ahead before making the leap, just like y oui did—or at least should have done—when you firest started freelancing.

Before doing anything else, you should take a look at your inventory, both your published work and the research you did to write it.

If you specialized in a particular subject, you may have enough information, or at least a good bit, to write a book on one aspect of your specialty. You may have been thinking about this for a while but never had the time to pursue it.

Opportunities for publishing go far beyond commercial publishers. While you could pursue the more traditional route, you can also look into self-publishing, either as a print-on-demand book or an ebook. Either of these will work well, if you already have a target audience.

You might also consider writing a blog. This shouldn’t be one in which you pour out your personal opinions, but a more professional one that appears online regularly and explores a particular subject.

Your blog could be based on your previous speciality or you could explore a subject is that is near and dear to your heart. The possibilities are endless.

And if you’re really ambitious you might try publishing a magazine—not one that will drain your financial resources but an online e-zine that mostly requires just time and energy. More and more people are reading about things online, whether through tablets like Kindles or Nooks or on their smartphones. An online magazine is just another extension of a blog.

You can pursue any of the above while still keeping your hand in commercial publishing, just not as much.

One thing you must do in order to enjoy your retirement years is to keep a flexible schedule, one that allows you to write at whatever level you wish but also allows you to pursue recreation and travel.
                           

Christmas for a Writer

Just because it's Christmas, I don't stop writing. In fact, for the last 20 years I've composed a special Christmas article that I enclose in a card with the same theme. Unlike the letters many people write, telling of their families trials and tribulations during the past year, my article is about some little-known fact about celebrating Christmas. It's not only a way of practicing my craft, but also a way of giving something tangible to my friends and family.

This year, the number of Christmas cards I have received has dwindled down to two.  Perhaps it’s the cost of postage that prevented many from sending holiday greetings. Or perhaps it’s that most people are just too busy. Whatever the reason, the days of sending Christmas greetings seem to be on the wane. But that hasn’t prevented me from writing my usual Christmas story. The only difference is that I’ve sent it out electronically by Email.

Another big difference in my holiday story is its format. In the beginning, I struggled with the technology to produce a rather crude one-page story with no illustrations. Today, my stories are three pages long with colorful illustrations—a true gift for my family and friends. And who cares if most of them don’t acknowledge my greeting. At least I’ve taken the time to create it.

To read this year's edition, go to my Web site  to read  my Christmas story for 2016, then click on the link "More Christmas Articles" at the bottom of that page and enjoy.

So while I may write about more mundane subjects throughout the year, it’s often Christmas that brings out the best in me. And while it may be too late to compose your own Christmas story for this year, there’s always 2017.

Here’s wishing you all a happy and joyful Christmas and a New Year filled with success.

What Does It Take to Create an Efficient Writer’s Office?

When you decided to become a writer, you probably didn’t think of what you’d need beyond your computer. But it takes more than a computer to make a writer. In fact, while your computer may be the heart of your writer’s office, it’s only one small part.

As anyone who works from home will tell you, there are some serious benefits. You can't beat the commute or the flexibility you have when it comes to structuring your day. But there are also drawbacks. Creating a makeshift office at the kitchen table could mean important documents end up with a coffee ring or worse, go missing.

Working full-time from home means that you’ll be in your office for long periods of time. It shouldn’t be a make-do situation. Thoughtful room design can make all the difference. From task lighting to functional storage, here are a few pointers for setting up an effective home office:

Lighting: Ensure you have both general and task lighting to prevent eyestrain. Ideally, office lighting should illuminate your work space without adding glare to your computer screen.

Ergonomics: Arrange your desk, chair and the computer screen so you're sitting in a neutral position while typing. Avoid any positions that require twisting or leaning forward, as both put a strain on your back. A good adjustable chair is a must. And that adjustment should be more than just up and down.

Cable Management: Computers are great but they and their peripherals require connecting cables—lots of them. Keeping them organized can be a challenge.  Keep control of cables with color-coded ties and clips. Identify each of them by taking an ordinary mailing label and folding it in half over the cable, then printing on it which device the cable connects to your computer. Don't forget to include a charging station for all of your electronic devices. Charging stations with multiple USB sockets are available online. Of course, you can always buy new wireless devices if you're on a broadband Internet network.

Aesthetics: Since you’re going to be spending a lot of your time in your writing space, you’ll want to make sure it looks good. Don’t just put your computer in an existing room, but design the space to make it pleasant in which to work.  Consider the view from your office window. If you don't have the luxury of overlooking a beautiful outdoor space, add decorative touches indoors.

Storage: Integrate functional storage into your office space. Plan for future storage, for if you’re in business for quite a while, you’ll need it. If space is at a premium, go vertical, adding storage boxes and file holders to shelves. Today, you have a wide variety of storage containers and units to choose from. But think out your storage first and don’t succumb to building your office like topsy.

There’s No Guarantee of Success

Someone once said that success is one of those things that’s often impossible to predict unless you know you have it in the bag. With success, there are no guarantees.

Before you can be successful, you have to figure out just what success is for you. How do you define it? As a writer, is it getting published? And after you’re published, then what? When you first started out in writing—or if you’re just starting out—your main goal was to get published. You probably thought that getting published would prove to others, and more importantly to yourself, that you had made it as a writer. Unfortunately, one article, one short story, or one book does not a writer make.

So to truly understand what it means to be successful as a writer, you first have to understand what it means to be a writer. When someone asks you what you do, can you confidently say you’re a writer? You can and should do that only if you have a volume of work under your belt. Too many beginning writers are more enamored at the thought of being a writer—perhaps to impress your friends and family—than of actually being a writer.

Success can be and often is fleeting. There are those big successes in life, such as obtaining a college degree or raising a family, and there are those little successes, such as finishing the first draft of a novel. All of them are accomplishments. So to get a true handle on success, you must take into consideration all of your accomplishments. There’s something to be said for being an accomplished writer. That’s a person who has written and published a variety of things often in more than one subject area.

Even if you’re one of those lucky writers who publishes a book the first time out of the gate, having the book published, in essence printed, is no guarantee of success. In this case, your success amounts to how many copies of that book sold. And, even more important, how many copies have been read. Unfortunately, statistics only exist for how many copies sold, enabling you to get on a bestseller list. But a best-read list just doesn’t exist.

That said, you shouldn’t define your success as a writer by how many books you’ve written and perhaps published. Books are only part of the broader writing picture. Successful writers publish an assortment of pieces throughout their careers.

Some writers see awards as a gauge to success, collecting them at every opportunity. They figure that if someone chooses to give them an award, that they have made it as a writer. But the afterglow from an award often lasts shorter than a sunset. Once you’ve been applauded, everyone seems to forget, unless you constantly remind them.

To get an idea of just how successful you are as a writer, periodically list your accomplishments. Once a year or even every six months is often enough. You’ll be amazed at just how successful you’ve become. Remember, don’t count only the big successes in your career. Count the little ones, too. They all add up. 

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.

What's the Rush?

Everyone today seems to be in a rush to do everything. And that includes writers. The trend over the last several years seems to be to write a book, namely a novel, in just 30 days. While that may not be impossible, is it good for the book or the writer? The answer is probably not.

Books like Write Your Novel in a Month and 90 Days to Your Novel from Writer’s Digest Books say something about the world we live in.

Many beginning writers look at a book as their ticket to fame. Sure, a few fine writers have achieved fame from their books but only because they were really good writers in the first place who thought out their books carefully.

This all began in 1999 with National Novel Writing Month, abbreviated to NaNoWriMo, an annual Internet-based creative writing project that takes place during November of each year. It challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel from November 1st until the deadline at 11:59 P.M. on November 30th. Supposedly, the goal of NaNoWriMo is to get people writing, who might not otherwise do so, and keep them motivated throughout the process.

To ensure this, the project tries to make writing seem like a fun, community activity.  And while it can be fun, writing, itself is a solitary activity. The Web site does provides participants with tips for combating writer's block, lists of local places where writers participating in the project meet, and an online support through forums.

NaNoWriMo focuses on completion instead of perfection. It emphasizes the length of a book rather than the quality, encouraging writers to finish their first draft so that it can later be edited by the author.  Encouraging creativity worldwide, the project began with  21 participants and now boasts a participation of over 200,000 – writing a total of over 2.8 billion words. That’s a lot of words, but do they mean anything.  Of the thousands of participants completing thousands of novels or parts of novels, only 100 have been published by traditional book publishers. Even taking into consideration others which have been self-published, that’s still not a great percentage for the number of would-be writers involved.

While finishing a novel in 30 days may seem like an achievement, it’s no more one than running in one of those 10K races for some charity. NaNoWriMo is essentially a race against time. And while it’s intentions are admirable, too many wannabee writers have begun to think that they should rush to get their novel done in a certain amount of time.  This is probably because they lack the long-term motivation to see a book to its completion. And in many cases, their writing skills aren’t up to writing a project of a book’s magnitude.

What many beginning writers fail to see is that what they write is a very rough draft that will need hours and hours of work to get it to the polished, published stage. The best novels and non-fiction books out there takes months, sometimes years, to write. They take careful planning and, in the case of novels, plotting. “Off and running” just won’t do.

Looking Ahead

As another year passes into history, it’s time to reflect on your writing career. If you just started out in 2013, then you’ve got your whole career ahead of you. If you’ve been at this a while, then maybe it’s time to take stock of what you’ve accomplished and make some plans for the future.

Let’s say you’ve just begun to work as a freelance writer. Did you find it hard to place your work in the marketplace? Did the process seem frustrating? Do you think you’ve exhausted every avenue?

If you answered “yes” to the above questions, then you have most likely haven’t followed the path of least resistance. Most beginners start out by sending their work to top publications. That’s your first mistake. Remember, you’re a beginner. You haven’t been in the marketplace long enough to establish credentials. So maybe you ought to plan ahead for 2014 so that you can get at least one piece—and hopefully many more—published.

Here are a few tips to getting on track for 2014:

Write about what you know. The first mistake many beginning writers make is writing about subjects they know nothing about. Stick close to home. Write about subjects having to do with work or with a special interest of yours. Doing so will help build your confidence and give what’s called a “voice of authority” to your work. (More on voice of authority will appear in a later blog).

Keep your pieces relatively short. Another mistake beginners make is writing everything there is to know on a subject. It’s not really their fault, however, since the only type of writing they learned to do in school that had anything to do with research was term papers and reports.

Write to communicate. You’re not writing for a grade as you did in school. You’re writing to communicate information to a reader. Unlike your teachers, your readers want to learn about your subject and be somewhat entertained at the same time.

Start with small publications. Search for publications that work with beginning writers. The editors of top publications are too busy to fuss with the musings of beginners. They need writing that’s concise, accurate, and professional, leaving little for them to do but lay it out and print it.

Set some goals. Create some goals for yourself for the coming year and see to it that you achieve them. Check on them occasionally to make sure you’re on track. And if you get off track, get back on as soon as possible. Lots of things can knock you off your game—illness, even a cold, family emergencies, a death in the family, etc. Remind yourself to review your goals in six months to see if they’re still possible or if you have to adjust them to your present situation.

Good luck and make this blog part of your reading for the coming year.

Dealing With Rejection

Most beginning writers think that rejection is a part of the writing process. They get rejected so often that they become dejected and some lose all hope of getting published. It doesn’t have to be that way.

One writer got rejected for six years before he suddenly had an article published. He didn’t really know how it happened. It just happened. That was his first mistake. It was another six years before he got published again.

So let’s take a look at why your work may be rejected.

You could use the wrong format (more on formatting in a later blog)—how the writing looks on the page. You could have written about a topic the publication doesn’t like or use. You could have sent your piece in at the wrong time if it’s something more appropriate for a particular season. You could have made lots of mechanical errors—spelling, punctuation, etc. The list can go on and on.

So you see that most of the fault in rejection begins with you. But most beginning writers put the blame on editors or others involved in the publishing process. So what are some ways of dealing with rejection?

Don't take it personally. If you’re a beginning writer, editors won’t know you. You haven’t proven yourself, so why should they take a chance on you. If you don’t cross all your “t’s” and dot all the “i’s,” then you're surely asking to be rejected. Your work has to be perfect and look professional, even if it doesn’t sound professional. A good piece of writing can be edited into a very good piece, but a bad piece usually isn’t salvageable.

Get a second opinion. If you think that your work should have been accepted, or if it’s been rejected by a few editors, perhaps you should seek a second opinion. Get someone you trust that’s also a writer to take a look at it and offer their opinion. You may find that your writing wasn’t that good after all.

Discover what you can do to regain your confidence after a series of "no's." For a new writer, rejection really hits hard. Perhaps you’ve received enough rejection slips to paper the walls of your bathroom. Then maybe you should do just that. A little whimsy never hurt anyone. But seriously, write something that’s short and good and send it to an easy market—one that publishes a lot of material. One of the biggest mistakes beginning writers make is sending their work to top markets when their skills are not yet up to speed. And many of those markets buy only a few pieces per month, so competition is fierce.

 Find a way to turn your rejection into acceptances or positive experiences. What you need is feedback, and that’s something most editors just don’t have time to give. Read rejection notices carefully to see if there’s even a hint of feedback in them. There are editors out there who want you to succeed. You need to know what they want and then you need to give it to them.

Be creative while waiting. Too many beginning writers send off a piece of their work and then sit back and wait for an answer. Begin work on another piece while you're waiting. As far as you're concerned, the fate of your first piece is out of your hands anyway. Also, don’t wait for months for a reply. If you haven’t received a reply in say two or three weeks—a month at most—drop the editor a note asking if he or she has had time to consider your piece. Don’t be afraid of editors. Remember, they’re busy people, but people just the same.

Above all, keep slugging away. Don’t give up. Eventually, something you’ve written will get published. But you have to guide it along the right path to get there.

Does One Book a Writer Make?

Several nights ago I watched two very special T.V. shows on my local PBS channel. Both were part of the series “American Masters.” Both dealt with two very—and I emphasize very—famous writers, Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee.  The first I knew about, the second I hadn’t heard of before.

Just about everyone knows that Margaret Mitchell wrote Gone With the Wind. But I bet there are a lot like me, especially older people, who didn’t know that Harper Lee wrote another famous book, To Kill a Mockingbird. In Mitchell’s case, I assumed she had written a shelf full of books and short stories. And in Lee’s case, I guess since she was a writer, she must have written other things. I was wrong on both counts.

Both writers each wrote one and only one book. Both books became runaway bestsellers. And not only that, Mitchell’s book has made more money than any other in U.S. history. So what happened to each of them? Why didn’t they produce more?

At the time both of them wrote their books, being a literary writer was the epitome of the art. Readers raised fiction authors up on pedestals a mile high for all to see. Non-fiction writers—notice the difference in terminology—they classified as “hacks.” Heaven for bid you made a living as a writer! To be deemed a success, you had to live in a one-room garret and struggle to make your rent.

Today, thanks to writers like Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, and John Updike, non-fiction writers have finally achieved their rightful place in the writers’ pantheon. But for Mitchell and Lee, the novel was king.

To understand why neither writer went on to write more, it’s important to look at what they wrote and how they wrote it.

Margaret Mitchell wanted to become a writer. In fact, she wanted to work for a living, something a woman of her social stature wasn’t supposed to do. She eventually got herself a job as a reporter with an Atlanta newspaper and was good at it. She enjoyed interviewing celebrities and working on gritty investigative journalism pieces. But in society’s eye, she wasn’t a writer. So she quit the paper and began writing a novel, a very long novel. The publisher of Lippincott Books of Philadelphia went to see her (Imagine that happening today?). But at first she told him she hadn’t written anything because she was embarrassed to show her manuscript to anyone. Eventually, she told him she had written a book but still refused to let him see it. Finally, she gave in because she figured a rejection from a top publisher would look good on her resume. He read part of the manuscript on the train on the way home. Although he loved the story, he said the manuscript was in very bad shape.

The important point about Mitchell was that she had quite a reputation as a person. The publisher came to see her and wanted to know if she had written anything. It’s like publishers today going after celebrities for books about them. What the publisher liked about Mitchell’s work was the story. So he signed her immediately and assigned an editor to work with her. After working for two years with the editor to get the book in shape, Mitchell finally had a book that was publishable.

A similar experience awaited Harper Lee. She had written several short stories but wasn’t getting anywhere. Then she wrote To Kill a Mocking Bird, her first and only book, and actually the last thing she wrote. After completing the manuscript, she sent it around to a dozen publishers, all of whom rejected it because of its edgy topic, civil rights, and relatively poor writing. As with Mitchell, the publisher that finally accepted it assigned an editor to work with Lee for the next several years, rewriting, and rewriting, and rewriting again.

It just so happened that Lee lived next door to Truman Capote. They grew up together and became close friends. However, Capote knew he wanted to be a great writer and worked hard at it. He became jealous of Lee when her first and only book received the Pulitzer Prize—an award that Mitchell also received—and gradually left her in the dust.

And while both Mitchell’s and Lee’s books did a lot to change how people perceived slavery and civil rights, they didn’t do much to change writing, itself. Capote’s works, on the other hand, helped to change the world’s perception of non-fiction, raising it to an art form equal to fiction in today’s world.

So why didn’t either Mitchell or Lee write anything else. Mitchell said the only way to go was down, plus her book made her wealthy enough not to worry about writing another.  Lee, on the other hand, worked hard on her book but couldn’t repeat the process. Could both books have been “happy accidents” (A term used in the art world to indicate something done once successfully but not able to be repeated.)?

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.