Free Writing Books

Just had to let you all know about a few books on writing that are being offered as free e-books today at Amazon.com.

This one I  own in paperback:

How to Be a Writer: Building Your Creative Skills Through Practice and Play - Barbara Baig

Product Description (source: Amazon.com)
Athletes practice. Musicians practice. As a writer you need to do the same. Whether you have dreams of writing a novel or a memoir or a collection of poems, or you simply want to improve your everyday writing, this innovative book will show you how to build your skills by way of practice. Through playful and purposeful exercises, you'll develop your natural aptitude for communication, strengthening your ability to come up with things to say, and your ability to get those things into the minds (and the hearts) of readers. You'll learn to: 1. Train and develop your writer's powers—creativity, memory, observation, imagination, curiosity, and the subconscious2. Understand the true nature of the relationship between you and your readers 3. Find your writer's voice4. Get required writing projects done so you have more time for the writing you want to do5. And much moreEmpowering and down-to-earth, How to Be a Writer gives you the tools you need, and tells you what (and how) to practice so that you can become the writer you want to be.Praise for How to Be a WriterThis is a wise, humane and practical book for anyone who wants to write; it guides the novice and re-awakens the veteran to processes and practices which can bring out the best writing in all of us.—Emma Darwin, author of A Secret Alchemy

About the Author (source: Amazon.com)
Writer and self-described "maverick educator" Barbara Baig has been helping adults and college students learn how to write since 1984. Barbara's real-world writing experience, combined with her passion for teaching, has enabled her to develop an approach that is innovative, practical, and empowering, helpful to amateur and professional writers alike.

Getting the Words Right - Theodore Cheney

Product Description (source: Amazon.com)
The Secret to Good WritingWhen asked by the Paris Review what compelled him to rewrite the ending of A Farewell to Arms 39 times, Ernest Hemingway replied, "Getting the words right." His answer echoes what every successful writer knows: The secret to all good writing is revision.For more than twenty years, Getting the Words Right has helped writers from all professions rewrite, revise, and refine their writing. In this new edition, author Theodore Cheney offers 39 targeted ways you can improve your writing, including how to:create smooth transitions between paragraphscorrect the invisible faults of inconsistency, incoherence, and imbalanceovercome problems of shifting point of view and styleexpress your ideas clearly by trimming away weak or extra wordsYou'll strengthen existing pieces and every future work by applying the three simple principles—reduce, rearrange, and reword. Once the secrets of revision are yours, you'll be able to follow Hemingway's lead—and get the words right!

About the Author (source: Amazon.com)
A longtime University professor, Theodore A Rees Cheney is also the author of Writing Creative Nonfiction.

The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book - Marilyn Ross

Product Description (source: Amazon.com)
Take Control of Your Destiny!Bottom line: You want to get published. You want to control the future of your manuscript and your writing career.Best-selling author Marilyn Ross and publishing expert Sue Collier show you how to make your own success—whether you're a published author, entrepreneur, corporation, professional, or absolute newcomer to writing. In this expanded and completely revised 5th edition of the "bible" of self-publishing (over 100,000 copies sold), they empower you to publish your own work with minimal risk and maximum profits. You'll find:Complete step-by-step guidance on publishing and marketing a bookWays to leverage social media marketing to build your platform and make yourself stand out from the crowd A thorough explanation of the difference between POD self-publishing, subsidy publishing, and true self-publishing—and how to decide which is the best option for youPractical advice on making the decision between offset printing and print-on-demandHow to leverage the Internet to create "buzz" and promote your book with killer PRThe latest information on e-publishing A detailed marketing plan and timetable to keep you on trackProven marketing strategies to get free publicity, reach nontraditional buyers, and sell booksInformation-packed appendices with marketing contacts, organizations, and vendors, complete with names, addresses, and websitesValuable case studies and examples of how other publishers excelAn in-depth discussion of exclusive distributors, plus coverage of the most recent changes in bookstores and the book-selling industryThirty-one creative ideas for generating capital to launch your publishing companyThe Complete Guide to Self-Publishing is the one book you need to take control of your writing career. Read it. Believe it. Do it. Your future depends on it.

About the Author (source: Amazon.com)
Marilyn Ross is an internationally acclaimed self-publishing authority who has helped thousands of authors sell millions of books. She has been quoted in a multitude of magazines including Publishers Weekly and Newsweek, and has appeared on scores of radio and TV shows, including NPR's All Things Considered. Sue Collier has an extensive background in writing and editing having ghost-written a half-dozen books and edited hundreds more. The two have been collaborating for the past 15 years on a myriad of projects, but most recently focused their efforts on Self-Publishing Resources, a writing, marketing, and publishing consulting firm that assists authors in surpassing their personal and professional publishing goals.

Hooked: Write Fiction That Grabs Readers at Page One & Never Lets Them Go - Les Edgerton

Product Description (source: Amazon.com)
The road to rejection is paved with bad beginnings. Agents and editors agree: Improper story beginnings are the single biggest barrier to publication. Why? If a novel or short story has a bad beginning, then no one will keep reading. It's just that simple.In Hooked, author Les Edgerton draws on his experience as a successful fiction writer and teacher to help you overcome the weak openings that lead to instant rejection by showing you how to successfully use the ten core components inherent to any great beginning. You'll find:Detailed instruction on how to develop your inciting incidentKeys for creating a cohesive story-worthy problemTips on how to avoid common opening gaffes like overusing backstoryA rundown on basics such as opening scene length and transitionsA comprehensive analysis of more than twenty great opening lines from novels and short storiesPlus, you'll discover exclusive insider advice from agents and acquiring editors on what they look for in a strong opening. With Hooked, you'll have all the information you need to craft a compelling beginning that lays the foundation for an irresistible story!

About the Author (source: Amazon.com)
Les Edgerton (MFA, Vermont College) is a novelist and author of Finding Your Voice. His short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories 2001, Kansas Quarterly, Arkansas Review, North Atlantic Review, Chiron Review, and many others. His honors include a Pushcart Prize nomination, Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination, and an Indiana Arts Commission Fellowship.

Guest Blogger, Alexis Leno: Writing vs. The Day Job

Alexis Leno is the newest, and I think it's safe to say youngest, author among our guest bloggers this week. She has just recently published her debut novel, Shifting Fate. I am one of the full-time mothers she refers to in her post below, and I relate to the dilemma she presents. I hope you will enjoy the following essay by Alexis Leno, and join me in wishing Alexis all the best in her writing career!

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Writing vs. The Day Job

Alexis Leno

I know that, for many of us, writing is not our main source of income. Akin to authors like Nicholas Sparks, we write AND work. And, I’m not just talking about those of us that physically go into work each day, but all of the full-time mothers out there and family caregivers. With all of these responsibilities, how do we find the time to sit down and practice our craft?

We make time. For me, there are those lonely hours at night where I can’t sleep that I find my computer calling to me. I am a full-time student, currently, and I generally spend my days setting time aside for actual homework. If I don’t, I will get distracted by the stories in my head and put off my other responsibilities.

For the past week, I have been on Spring Break and I am currently in the market looking for a full-time job. One of my offers is a really neat research opportunity. This week, I have been sitting in and watching them work their systems in an effort to become better acquainted with the work they are doing before I start. I never realized how exhausting it would be and how, at the end of the day, I wouldn’t feel like doing anything, not even writing. I just want to sit around and watch television, let the words go in one ear and out the other. My brain stops working.

So, I am asking those of you out there reading this: what do you do to find the time and get your brain working again? I found myself unable to sleep and wrote well into the night, but this is unrealistic. I can’t have two full-time jobs, writing and work. I will never sleep! My current solution is to just find the time each day, sit down and write some words. Any words will do.

Most authors recommend this, but have they ever had to juggle multiple responsibilities at once? Have they had to work, be a mother, a wife, and a writer? I find myself lucky to just be a student and a writer, but as I grow older, my responsibilities will grow. In all likelihood, the time I have to write will diminish. I am not writing for the fortune, but rather for the inherent need I have to get my stories out of my head on and the page.

The only thing I can say is that with my growing responsibilities will come greater knowledge in how the world works. This can only help my writing. I hope, that like others out there, I will continue to find the time to do what I love to do. I know that we all wish that writing were our full-time job. Even when it is, it isn’t.

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Alexis Leno has just recently published her debut novel, Shifting Fate, now available on Amazon.com. She is currently working on the sequel to Shifting Fate and a Master's Degree in Software Engineering. Alexis enjoys reading, writing, and cooking. You can learn more about Alexis by following her on her blog.

Guest Blogger, Andre Jute: Which small words do you hate most?

Today's guest blogger is Andre Jute, author of Iditarod a novel of The Greatest Race on Earth and The Larsson Scandal the Unauthorized Guerilla Critique of Stieg Larsson. I am currently working with André on two editing projects. He is a pleasure to work with, and I'm learning a lot from him. When it comes to the written word, André knows his stuff!

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Which small words do you hate most?

by Andre Jute

If you ask most people which word they hate most, they’ll probably choose the teenagers’ ubiquitous all-purpose “like”. If they’re teachers or parents of young adults, they are 95% certain to hate “like”. Me, I don’t object to “like” quite so much. It is a fad, a fashion, and like all fashions, it will pass and be forgotten. Better to wait it out than give it legitimacy by trying to suppress it. Who would now like to be "hip”? Most women would probably think anyone describing them as “hip” is calling them fat.

What I really hate are those hangers-on of lazy writers, got and had, two ugly little words that deface whole libraries like fungus. They rob sentences and paragraphs and whole books of their meaning, even of their urgency. Unless they are put on a strict diet, and their appearances rationed, they will cause the best stories to fall flat, and the most interesting characters to lose their fizz.

He got there by car. The word got has robbed that sentence of precision and all interest. Did he drive? Was he a passenger? Got has even made the sentence flabbier by 40% than it need be. He drove there. Or for the same wordage, let’s add something interesting that tells us something about the character. He drove there too fast. Or, if the author deliberately is just shifting furniture, perhaps as a contrast, how about the neutral but definitely less crude, and at least active, He arrived by car.

He’s got a ranch in Montana and a Gulfstream jet. He got them only for himself, like I got my car. Has he just bought a ranch in Montana? Or does he own a ranch, as he has like (couldn’t resist it!) forever, because he inherited it? Here, let my protégé Dakota Franklin fix a rich man in the reader’s mind in a single sentence: He keeps a ranch in Montana, and a Gulfstream jet, the way I keep a car solely for my own use. I trust everyone can see that got in place of kept would ruin that sentence. The second version is richer because it tells us something precise about the character that the grotesque first version doesn’t.

But if I hate got fiercely, for had I reserve a special contempt. It is much more common, much more ubiquitous and, because, unlike got, had has a good deal of legitimate utility, it is much harder to spot and root out, like a hardy all-seasons weed.

She had it coming. It looks legitimate, doesn’t it? It isn’t. It’s crisp and to the point, true. It is also a cliché, but we’ll pass over that lightly. That had screens the author’s meaning from us. It is a limp, meaningless word. Did she deserve what happened to her? Or did she bring disaster upon herself? Which?

He had eczema. Really? It’s passive, is it? He suffered eczema. Same three words, a world of itchy meaning away from had.

Had is not only limp, it can work actively against the writer’s intention when, from familiarity, he overlooks it. Rage, rage against the dying of the light, a burring voice said in his mind but he had neither strength nor will and let go. Nice work, but for one wretched detail. Surely, this poor fellow, dying, possessed neither strength nor will.  Or he could call forth neither strength nor will. Had in that place entirely drains the sentence of urgency, and with urgency of empathy from the reader for the character’s plight.

In some places the verb in place truly doesn’t need the grammarians’ stopgap had to help it out. Even the slime that had grown on the mud and stones of the bottom was gray. What is wrong with, Even the slime grown on the mud and stones of the bottom was gray. Except to grammarians, it is the same tense, it is an active sentence, and it is two words shorter.

This is such a common, and commonly overlooked, opportunity for tightening many, many sentences, that I give another example. …seemed somehow familiar, as if he had been there before. What is wrong with as if he passed there before. Or, if the tense needs to be preserved, or the author’s meaning is not passage but presence, what is wrong with as if he were there before.

The smart writer makes it part of his cutting and rewriting and copy-editing routines to search for and replace double spaces, had, got. That’s always a good start.

Copyright © Andre Jute 2011

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Andre Jute is the author of over forty books including best-selling novels and non-fiction. His most recent books are a reissue of his young adult adventure yarn Iditarod a novel of The Greatest Race on Earth, and a volume of literary criticism, The Larsson Scandal the Unauthorized Guerilla Critique of Stieg Larsson.

In April comes the 25th Anniversary 4th Edition of his famous Writing a Thriller. He is the editor of the unified reissue of Andrew McCoy’s novels, and of his protégé Dakota Franklin’s Ruthless to Win series. He keeps a netsite at http://coolmainpress.com/andrejute.html and a blog, Kissing the Blarney.

Guest Blogger, Christopher Bunn: Moral Compass and Character

Today's guest blogger is Christopher Bunn, author of The Hawk And His Boy and The Shadow at the Gate, among other titles. If you haven't already, check out my review of the Hawk and His Boy and interview with Christopher. I think if Christopher were to write a full length novel based solely on the subject of lint, I would read it. His writing is that good.

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Moral Compass and Character
Christopher Bunn

As a writer, one of the many fascinating things about story for me is the issue of the moral compass. By moral compass, I mean the ethical framework that either guides a story, or the ethical framework that guides any individual character within a story. The larger overall moral compass of a story is an incredibly involved and potentially contentious topic, and I'll leave it for another time. For this piece, if you'll indulge me, I'd like to muse a bit on the idea of a character's moral compass and why that might be important for writers and, tangentially, for readers. I realize that this topic is almost as equally complicated, so I apologize in advance for the inadequacy of only a few paragraphs.

Whether you're reading Anna Karenina or Very Good, Jeeves, every character you come across has some sort of moral compass pointing to their respective North Star. Some are more easily detected, of course, while others necessitate detective work. The moral character of Levin from Anna Karenina, for example, is painted in sure, deft strokes as the story unfolds. It would be difficult to avoid understanding how his soul ticks by the time you're halfway through the book. Bertie Wooster, on the other hand, arguably possesses a more elusive moral compass than Levin. His compass certainly exists, but it takes a little thinking and digging in order to unearth it from beneath Wodehouse's airy social commentary and humor. Children's books, of course, are not immune to this. One could probably write a doctoral thesis on the moral compass of the Cat from Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat.

No one has ever written a character devoid of moral compass. It simply isn't possible. Even the most avowed nihilist, whether he's throwing bombs in one instant and then walking old ladies across the street in the next, still possesses a moral compass (and nihilists, I would argue, possess one of the more simplistic and dreary moral compasses available). Trying to write a character devoid of a moral compass is equivalent to trying to imagine nothing. If you try to imagine nothing, you will not be able to escape imagining something. It's the same with creating a character. His moral compass will assert itself, whether you want it or not.

Why is this issue important for writers? I would argue that there is a certain obligation to the reader here. Regardless of age, we are all influenced by whatever we come in contact with. Countless studies have been done on the relationship between peers, influence, and the effects on the individual. I would argue that, in a small way, books stand in for peers in matters of influence. The results can be infinitesimal or they can be profound. In either case, the reader is influenced for better or for worse. Therefore, no matter what the genre, I think a writer should be kind enough to give the reader a character they can hang onto in their story. To borrow from Louis L'Amour, give them a character they could ride the river with. It needn't be the main character. It might only be a side character who wanders through the scene every once in a while. What's important is that the reader is given someone with a moral compass that has something worthwhile to offer.

Here, I would guess (in addition to the previously mentioned idea of obligation), is where the discussion can become contentious, because this raises the issue of which sorts of moral compasses are better, healthier, or more valuable. That is not a comfortable topic in our age where tolerance has achieved the status of virtue. I'll leave that question for another time, or for your own private, internal discussion. However, I would say that if a reader can be ennobled in some way by a character, even a little way, then the writer has given them a good gift. We all walk in a certain amount of darkness and we will walk more surely if the stories we read contain characters whose moral compasses point to a bright and steady North Star.

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Here's an exerpt from Christopher Bunn's biography on Amazon.com:  
Christopher Bunn (1969-still alive) was born in California to parents of extra-terrestrial origin. After working a long and not-so-illustrious career that did not include a stint as a mule skinner, six months lost at sea on a life raft provisioned only with a crate of bananas, two years as a prize fighter, several shameful terms in Congress, nor a brief time spent in the circus as a lion tamer, he began writing novels in order to chronicle his life and the lives of other people who did not exist.

That Christopher is one funny guy! If you want to know what he's really been up to, check out his blog, Scribbles and Tunes.