 |
| Scalzi on the Writing Life |
"You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop" .....
Scalzi on Writing
If you are a novelist, or someone aspiring to write your first novel, it is more than likely that you have read a few books on writing. John Scalzi's take on the writing life that prefaces this article has been described as "Worthwhile for aspiring writers and nosy folks". Now, as a writer I imagine you have to be nosy and incidentally, if you haven't read this funny and engaging book, it does not claim to teach you how to write a novel, only how to manage "The business of writing. The day-to-day existence of a professional writer - the writing life" I chose to begin with mention of this funny book because whether you choose to take your laptop to the coffee shop or to write at home, the fact is that most writers today have to do their writing on a computer, and being nosy folks means we will always want to find shortcuts to writing a novel, hence novel writing software.
Writing is hard work, as John Scalzi and others have observed. I have made the case In this other article for using novel writing software for ironing shortfalls in your knowledge base, especially concerning how to structure a novel, how to create engaging and memorable characters, how to polish your story idea or how to generate story writing ideas from scratch, etc. But since writing that article I met up with a friend of mine from way back who made the argument that he has all the fiction writing resources he needs to learn how to write (and none of that writing software stuff, thank you!). The resources in question in his case were half a dozen or so hard copies of the best books on writing lying on a shelf in a bookcase, and some DRM digital editions on his PC that I couldn’t borrow (they couldn’t be read on another computer except his, unfortunately).
This naturally got me thinking. The last such book I
remember reading, avidly, I might add, was the autobiographical take on the
subject of writing novels, On Writing-A Memoir
of the Craft by Stephen King. It probably isn’t your typical book in this
category (writing how to books) but for purposes of this article it will do. Stephen
King is a no-nonsense writer and in the second foreword to this 278-page book (I
refer from the edition of 2000) he writes that he decided to write a short book
because most books on writing are filled
with ‘bullshit’, and that fiction writers, himself included, do not understand very
much about the craft of writing fiction and thus never know, when it works, why
it is good; and why it’s bad when it doesn’t. “I figure the shorter the book,
the less the bullshit,” he added.
Kind of contrary, don’t you think? But don’t get me
wrong. In fact, if you haven’t read this book I highly recommend you read it.
Simply knowing that even a hugely successful contemporary
novelist of Stephen King’s caliber also went through the grind and suffered the
same headaches and heartaches as you at some point in his writing career can
only boost your self-confidence those times you find yourself asking yourself
why you thought you could write! We all get them, apparently. (As a side note,
though, Stephen King in this book recommends as one of the best books about
writing, and a must read for aspiring novelists, The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B White).
Where does this leave us, you may ask?
Well, you heard it from the supremo himself: some of
the best books about writing can teach you a lot about the craft, except he
doesn’t seem to think there are many of those! Plus, the book he recommended is
even shorter than his own (only 85 pages!).
If you have read my previous posts you will know by
now my views about the use of writing tools for teaching you the basics about
the craft of fiction, and also for speeding up this learning process; so I will
not repeat the arguments here. But since my title suggests a contest of sorts
let me sum up with this bullet-point checklist. This isn’t an either/ or sort
of choice – there is a place for both novel writing software and a book or
books on writing for anybody seeking to hone their fiction writing skills and
improve efficiency. I will leave it to you to decide for yourself where to put
the emphasis.
The best books on writing can help you in these
areas:
- Sentence structure and style how-to tips and examples.
- Do’s and Don’ts for plotting, character development, storytelling, etc, as well as detailed commentary/advice on work habits, attitude, networking, getting published and so on.
- Self-discipline and stamina prep-ups and pep-ups (or pep talk). Anybody can use a bit of that, you know.
Novel writing software on the other hand will help you in these areas:
- You learn by doing, therefore a fast-track skills acquisition process for beginners especially: how to structure a novel, checklists for developing well-rounded characters, timelines, brainstorming tools, sometimes even tools to manage your submissions for publishing a book – all at the click of a mouse.
- Built-in help systems for Story management and story development, best practice and technique, are especially handy, if, like most modern novelists, you do your writing on a PC.
- Outlining your story, which has traditionally been a headache for most novelists, becomes a snap, as you will be working in a template, the story engine giving you writing prompts all the way.
The Bottom
line is this: In most cases you may need only one writing program to see you
through the process of learning how to write, how to craft good fiction, as opposed
to a half dozen books on writing (to say nothing about the time to read them),
but, depending on your frame of mind and your level of experience at the outset,
a good fiction writing how-to book can usually spur you into action and point
you in the right direction by helping to highlight your strengths and
weaknesses, thus giving you your ‘point of attack’, whether you then chose to
work with writing software or not.
"Scrivener is the writer’s friend. Maybe the writer’s best friend."
Scrivener is a great story management tool and has been described as:
"A Must-Have Tool for Serious Writers at a Ridiculously Low Price..." Read the full review here
These other articles may be of interest:
Novel writing Ideas: How Novel Writing Software Can Help You
Scrivener is a great story management tool and has been described as:
"A Must-Have Tool for Serious Writers at a Ridiculously Low Price..." Read the full review here
These other articles may be of interest:
Write A Novel With New Novelist Software
A Plain Text Editor
ReplyDeletePlain Text files
That's right, if you're writer on a budget, you don't need to spend any money buying expensive writing software or apps. Instead, you can use the text editor that comes free with your operating system.
Just open up Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on a Mac. I like plain text editors for writing something short quickly and easily, without thinking much about it. I wrote a blog post about the benefits of using plain text editors as writing software.
Use for: writing whatever, wherever