Science Fiction & Fantasy author
I have posted about many of the books I consider useful. So this post is sort of a gathering of those posts in one place. Now you don’t have to search about for them.
Grammar and revision:
Eats, Shoots and Leaves
A Writer’s Reference
Spell Friendly Dictionaries
Creative inspiration:
A Writer’s Book of Days
Lu Chi’s Wen Fu
Lu Chi’s Wen Fu 2
The Worst Case Scenario
Good books to read:
The Catcher in the Rye
Tale of Two Cities
You’ve Got to Read This
Every writer’s frustration is getting the grammar and punctuation
correct. Without it, our readers can’t follow the road we have prepared
for them. Even a grammarian/English teacher needs to check her work
regularly and review rules. One of the best books for assisting both
the conscientious beginner and the experienced writer is a text that was
on the recommended list for a college class I took: Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference. I have returned to college several times picking up
different certifications and degrees, but this is the best writing reference text I came
across over the years.
This is a compact
text, about 6 1/2 x 8 inches, held together by a comb binding, so it
travels well and lays flat. Cost is a bit steep, ($50.00+ on average),
but grammar evolves quite slowly, so you have time to wear it out. So
dictionary (or word book: see my previous post on spell friendly dictionaries, July 11, 2012), thesaurus, A Writer’s Reference, if you
write anything and care about writing well, have them in easy reach.
Every writer, whether he or she is a writer of fiction or non-fiction, journalist or reviewer, must spell correctly. As a teacher I am routinely asked by my students how to spell a word they want to use in their writing. I always point at the dictionary. I do understand the issue of getting a big book of words and sifting through it for the correct spelling and that they find this tedious, especially when they know I can spell the word for them much quicker.
This is why I thoroughly recommend every writer, from student to pseudo-professional to professional consider having a Webster’s Instant Word Guide or The Word Book III from Houghton Mifflin. They do not contain definitions but are directed at spelling alone. The majority of people who want to spell a word are not confused about its meaning. So a speller’s word book, such as the two listed above, is ideal. And they are small, roughly 4″ x 5 1/2″.
They are compact, to the point, easy to navigate, and they supply one crucial component: If there could be a chance of confusion with another word, both are supplied with an extremely short definition (usually one word) next to the confused alternative, so the writer can make an informed decision about which is the correct one to use and spell appropriately.
Just to add useful to convenient and the critical low “overwhelming” factor, both these books also offer conversion tables for weights and measures, spelling rules, punctuation and abbreviations sections.
I actually have both of these books. One I keep at school on my desk and the other at home. I introduce my new students to them every year. And though it is never a majority, many of them do inform me at some point in the year that they have purchased one.
Last word on this: spelling is crucial in any public writing forum. This is a non-tedious, easy-to-use fix for the problem. It is even quicker than an iPhone dictionary ap and does the one thing wordprocessing program dictionaries don’t do: provide you with the option of the “other word.”