Saturday, June 20, 2009

Back with a book recommendation

First, I need to apologize for a lengthy lack of posts. I've been finishing a novel (now completed and hopefully about 90% edited) and I've also had a lot of chaos in my personal life. However, things are now at least somewhat back to normal--whatever normal may be for me. I sometimes suspect my normal is nowhere near everyone else's normal.

And while hopping back into blogging I want to recommend a book on writing that I came across and am very impressed with.

I don't often recommend books on writing but I recently read one by Ray Rhamey of the Flogging the Quill blog that very much impressed me.

The title is Flogging the Quill: Crafting a Novel that Sells and it is available on Amazon.

Ray divided his book into seven sections--Storytelling, Description, Dialogue, Technique, Words, Workouts, and Computer Tips--and each is full of invaluable information for the fiction writer. He does a great job of putting together insights and advice that are both effective and entertaining. It has many concrete examples so you're never in doubt about exactly what Ray is getting at.

Unlike many books on writing, I felt that this had almost as much in it for the experienced writer as for the beginner. I really do recommend it.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jeanne! That's great to see your 90% done! I'm not even a quarter done editing with just doing my enemy words!

Glad to see your ife is getting back to your norm, that's all that matters!

I will def. check up on this book, I could use some reference books to add to my personal collection.

Andi said...

Does the book have editing tips? That would be helpful. After all the books on writing I already ate, I still hope to find tricks of the editing trade.

J. R. Tomlin said...

Yes, Ray has some great editing tips. As an editor himself, that's his strongest point although much of his editing advice can also be applied to your first draft--makes editing easier. :)