4 Essential Books for Writers of Fiction and Non-Fiction

 I love books. Probably a little too much.

My partner and my close friends know that, if I'm curious about a topic, or if I feel like I need to educate myself, I head to the library first, Google second.

There's just something about having the time and space to flip through a book, to hold it in your hands, bookmark some important pages, come back to it later . . . I loves me some books.*

Having said that, I wanted to share several of the books that I have found useful to the pursuit of developing myself as a writer, both in fiction and nonfiction. Although the following selections lean more toward the realm of nonfiction, I'll be sure to post some of my fiction writing favorites in a subsequent post.

Developing Your Platform & Promoting Your Work

I don't care who you are - Even if only part of your gig is getting people to notice your writing, you need to do three things:

1) Establish an online social media presence,

2) make your work accessible to people beyond bookshelves, academic journals, and trade magazines,

and 3) give people the opportunity understand and connect with who you are as a professional beyond the work that you have published.

Blogging for Writers
In this fabulously illustrated 176-page how-to for blogging, Robin Houghton provides several examples of how writers have successfully maintained blogs and, as a result, have enjoyed writing success beyond selling individual pieces. While the book focuses on building blogs on Wordpress and Blogger, the tips for how to design your blog, what to post, and how to grow an audience apply to all platforms.

Create Your Writer Platform
What I love about this how-to book by Chuck Sambuchino is that the author includes, not only the necessary steps to developing a platform, but descriptions of what a platform is, why it's necessary, and how successful authors have built their own platforms. (In case you were wondering, your platform is "your visibility as an author.") Seriously, find this book and, if you're skeptical, just start reading the third chapter, "The 12 Fundamental Principles of Platform." You'll be hooked, I guarantee.

"Oh, but Jennifer, I'm a graduate student. All I need is a well-put together professional website that contains links to my Twitter feed and LinkedIn profile, a place where people can view my CV and read about my current projects."

My friends, what you have is the beginnings of a professional platform. If you want to slam-dunk your academic job interviews and applications, demonstrate that you have a following, that you are engaged in work that is not just "unique," but that is useful and necessary, and if you do decide to venture into the realm of praxis, you will be well-equipped to make the change. Future employers love a one-stop shop for preliminary vetting.

 For Those Graduate Student Types

I have two publications that each and every one of you should have in your arsenal.

Authoring a PhD: How to Plan, Draft, Write & Finish a Doctoral Thesis or Dissertation
This book changed the way I thought about my dissertation and my entire PhD experience. I bought it after I had passed my final qualifying exams. I was experiencing a phenomenon that I've heard other PhD students discuss: the emotional intersection between having completed all purely didactic requirements and beginning the dissertation phase of the degree. Depression, anxiety, and exhaustion, peppered with a few existential crises . . . such is the rite of passage, it would seem, for all doctoral students.

Fear not! This surprisingly humorous and well-organized book by Dr. Patrick Dunleavy (a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science) should be the first thing you read before you begin your dissertation (indeed, before you begin your prospectus). Dunleavy goes into great detail of how to approach each section of your dissertation and how to organize the entire document in such a way that your committee will have an easier time evaluating your work, and you will be proud to put your name on it.

But seriously, you have to pick up a copy. Open to any page, read a couple paragraphs, and then stop kidding yourself and buy a it. Mine is dog-eared, highlighted, written over, and nearly broken in half at the spine. You'll want your own copy, trust me.

Writing Your Journal Article in 12 Weeks: A Guide to Academic Publishing Success
This is not so much of a book as a 350-page academic writers' workshop that you can come back to time and time again for free. Dr. Wendy Laura Belcher (a Professor of African literature at Princeton) not only outlines the steps necessary to write and submit a successful article in a 12-week period, but she helps the reader develop their writing style and habit, something with which young scholars often struggle. The book is flush with worksheets to plan, organize, and revise your writing. There are also helpful tips regarding how to target your audience and select appropriate publications for submission. Unless you're one of the fortunate souls to have attended Dr. Belcher's courses on academic writing, I highly suggest giving this book a try.


I hope these brief reviews are useful in providing some preliminary resources for your writing life. It is my intention to continue to post similar reviews of the resources that I have found helpful. If you have any questions about these publications, or if you would like suggestions for books regarding other aspects of writing, please let me know. I would be happy to help if I am able.

Happy writing!

*Let it be known that, here, I'm referring to my love of non-fiction books. But do not misunderstand. I have read (and own!) every book that Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. ever wrote. I also love classic English and American literature, poetry, and literature from the African continent. Books are just the best!

For Fiction to Work, You Must Know Your Truth

I have helped many middle school and high school students hone their fiction writing skills through private tutoring and supplemental educational programs. Fiction writing was, for many of them, a struggle. Many viewed this practice as antithetical to the pursuit of education, given what they understood as the nature of fiction writing.

I have a theory about fiction. For fiction to work, you must know your truth.

When reading and critiquing students' work, I would often sit down with them, one-on-one, and ask them how the story they wrote conveys their truth. Not surprisingly, this inquiry would often provoke questioning and confused looks from the student.

To clarify, I would ask, "What is it about this story that is truthful?"

"I don't know, it's fiction. I made it up."

"There's nothing about this story that speaks to something that you know to be true, either through experience or education?"

"What does that matter. It's fiction."

What these students didn't realize was that fiction is a form of truth-telling. The storyline, the characters, the setting - these may all be fictitious in the sense that they have not or do not exist in the world as we know it, but ask any author and they will tell you from whence these fictitious elements came.

The fiction of authors comes from a place of personal truth, a yearning to tell a story so that these kernels of truth can be shared in a way that is both entertaining and evocative. 

And why, you may ask, do I use phrases such as "personal truth" and "what you know to be true," rather than "facts?" The answer is that each and every one of us experiences the world differently. Facts are facts, these are not subject to interpretation. But how we perceive the world, the value we add to what we observe, these behaviors create a personal truth about the world for every individual.

Sharing your personal truth and relating to the truth of others is part of the craft of being a writer. But first, you must know yourself and you must know your truth.

In Kabale, Uganda. As a researcher, I am humbled to have the opportunity to hear others' personal truths.

I use these three tactics for finding my personal truth:

1) Journal Pick a thought or action that is particularly interesting to at the moment. Maybe it's something that happened that day, maybe it's something you've been thinking about for a while. Hash it out in your journal. Your thoughts on paper may surprise you.

2) Make Lists Choose a category and simply write the first 20 things that come to mind. Your category may be serious ("Things of Which I Am Terrified") or light-hearted ("Things That Always Make Me Smile"). The point is to reach into places in yourself that have not been called upon to speak up.

3) Practice Honesty This is not a writing exercise, but rather a challenge to be mindful of your truth in everyday activities and decision-making. Why do you make the decisions you do? Would you have made a different decision under different circumstances? How does your decision affect you? Others?

Try these out for a while and see how your writing changes as you learn more about yourself. Infuse your writing with your truth and you'll notice how much more interesting and magnetic your writing
feels.

The #1 Mistake That Novice Writers Make

What is the one thing that I have found sets successful, veteran writers apart from the rest?

They research well before they write. 

I have been a member of several writers groups in states and cities all over the U.S., including Colorado Springs, Indianapolis, and Albuquerque. As I became familiar with the various personalities and habits of my fellow writers, I wondered what really set those whom I saw as "successful" apart from those who seemed to be stuck in a holding pattern.

Part of my "research wall" for my historical fiction novel.

The answer wasn't that some had published more than others or that some wrote more than others or that some were more disciplined than others. These characteristics, I concluded, weren't measuring the quality of the writing. 

The writers that captured their audiences and left them wanting more, the writers who were excited to sit down and begin writing day after day, and the writers that seemed to have a much better time of making a living from their writing all had one thing in common.

They took the time to research their topic, subject, storyline in one way or another.

For example, two of my writer friends are science fiction authors. Writer A appears much more confident in discussing his projects, has very little difficulty sitting down and writing, is much more disciplined in his writing, and has a talent for making his science fiction believable. I'm not a science fiction person, but the detail and strength of what Writer A produces is enough to draw me in and keep me there.

Writer B, on the other hand, struggled for years to produce a book that could sell. He wrote all the time. But he appeared frustrated with the process, was often at a loss for where to take his stories, and his writing suffered from a lack of depth. While I liked the work that this writer produced, I didn't feel a need to keep reading, nor did I wait impatiently for the next installment.

During one of our meetings, Writer B finally asked Writer A what his secret was. Writer A asked how much research Writer B had done prior to writing. 

"As much as I needed to," was the answer from Writer B.

Writer A responded with, "Unless you're in the library or on a search engine, interviewing people, going to places and observing, unless you've collected a college course's worth of information, you may not be ready to write."

Then, Writer A pulled out a mechanic's book and a physics textbook from his bag.

"These," he said, "are references I always refer to when I write. Because so much of my storyline involves science and technology, I try to be as accurate as possible."

"But you write science fiction," Writer B replied.

"If you can't write science, you can't write fiction."

I believe this advice goes for writers of all genres. I'm a political scientist and a public health professional (not to mention a caped crusader by night), so I am well aware of the need for research in order to make writing rich and believable. But I had no idea how valuable my research skills would be until I started writing a full-length historical fiction novel.

Part of my own library - only three of the books on these shelves are fiction.

Subsequent posts will go through some of my processes of research for writing, but for now, remember these three tips for researching your story before you write.

Be organized.

Be thorough.

Be curious.

Now, get thee to the library!