In the meantime
This week I’m taking two bits of advice from the King. The first is distancing myself from my book. I want to open it, search for errors, extra words, etc., but I won’t do it. I promise. The second is reading The Elements of Style. It’s the seventh book on writing that I’ve tackled in the last three weeks, and it is referenced in most of the others, for good reason.
In King’s memoir I learned to express myself fully, and I also picked up some helpful hints about common mistakes beginning writers make. Some I had already rooted out myself, but a few needed to be applied to Sam and Millie. From Strunk I’m learning that I’ve come a long way. I’m only halfway through it, so I may be coming up on a dose of “don’t get ahead of yourself,” though.
On the subject of Sam and Millie, I am currently waiting on the last few beta readers to give me their input before beginning the querying process. I’ve started four new books and another re-write of Carousel since I wrapped it up—my brain doesn’t want to stop writing.
I’m still open to new beta readers, especially those familiar with Autism, so let me know if you’re interested.
Like this:
~ by rmcmahon411 on April 15, 2011.
Love On Writing. Strunk was a little hard for me. I’ve been reading Donald Maas’s book about writing the break out novel and I’ve also been reading The Forest for the Trees–I highly recommend that one if you haven’t read it yet. I’m really into stories about how famous writers write.
Strunk was a heavy read, so I’m glad it was short. But there were some gems in there. I think it was also a bit outdated. Maas’s book was the first of the eight that I’ve read in the last couple months, and I know I got a lot from it. I probably should have written it down, because they’re all starting to blend in my mind. I’ll look up the one you recommend. Thanks!