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How to Write a Damn Good Novel

How to Write a Damn Good Novel and How to Write a Damn Good Novel, II By James N. Frey St. Martin’s Press, 1987 and 1994 These two books are absolutely brilliant. As a non-fiction author I am still learning about fiction writing and these two books alone have vastly improved my understanding of the [...]

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Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done The Art of Stress-Free Productivity By David Allen Penguin, 2001 ISBN 0-670-89924-0 (hardback) ISBN 0 14 20.0028 0 (paperback) We are all overwhelmed by all the things that we have to do. There have been many self-help, get organized and get your life in control books and even more calendars, planners, electronic [...]

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Keeping Organized, Part 1 – To Do Lists

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; } Writing of any type is partly an exercise in organization. You need to keep track of deadlines, research, contacts, trips, websites, characters, locations, timelines, etc. All of these activities can be well tracked on paper. But [...]

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Learning to Write and the Evils of Spell Checkers

Writing well is a combination of art and craft. Art because it is highly creative and expressive, craft because there are underlying processes and principles that you need to work with to be effective. These are true for both fiction and non-fiction, and even the technical writing that I have spent so long doing. Just [...]

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My Interest in Writing Fiction

After so many years of writing and editing non-fiction, and technical non-fiction at that, why am I interested in writing fiction? I guess there are multiple answers to that question. One is that as an avid reader it is natural to consider writing some yourself. Another is that I feel I have something to say [...]

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On writing horror, a book review

On writing horror Revised edition A Handbook by The Horror Writers Association Edited by Mort Castle Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, 2007 ISBN 1-58297-420-9 ISBN 978-1-58297-420-0 If you are interested in writing horror, this 260-page book is essential. In fact there is a lot of good stuff in here for people interested in writing any type [...]

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On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft By Stephen King Pocket Books, Simon & Schuster, 2000 (Hardcover by Scribner, 2000) ISBN-13 978-0-7434-5596-1 ISBN-10 0-7434-5596-7 Whatever you may think of Stephen King’s writing, there is no denying his huge presence over at least the US and really the English-speaking world’s writing.  This book as an interesting [...]

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Setting Targets

Writing a book is a very substantial task. If you are going to get it done you will need discipline and defined targets. There are two key quantifiable targets when it comes to book writing: word count and time. Word count is perhaps the easiest to work out. If you have a target size for [...]

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The First Five Pages

The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile By Noah Lukeman A Fireside Book, Published by Simon & Schuster, 2000 ISBN 978-0-684-85743-5 ISBN 0-684-85743-X Noah Lukeman is a New York literary agent. He has represented many best selling and award winning authors and has been in a position to [...]

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