Want to know if that lovely little writing book calling to you from the shelves of your local bookstore is worth it? Desperate to find the resource for your specific writing and creative questions/situations/issues? That’s why I’m here, dearies. Let an obsessive book collector pick the best and present them to you for your edification and edumacation.

Picture this, my faithful readers. You are an expert in all areas of freelancing (naturally). You are well paid, completely satisfied, and never procrastinate. Life is grand. But then comes the day in which you decide to branch out, to parlay that growing fame and experience into a book, or to transform your scintillating life into a screenplay. You have questions. You need answers.

Many of you might be screaming at the screen, “look online, jackass!” Good suggestion. But what happens when, horror upon horrors, only frustrating searches result? What if, shockingly, there can be no concrete answers found in the land of Wikipedia?? It’s time for plan B. It’s time to find a text that offers frequently or occasionally asked questions about writing, read it and glory in the answers you so desire, refer to it over time, then leave it on the shelf for awhile, return to it and discover how you’ve been doing something wrong, cry, then read it again. And that could be your story with The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book.

The Gist

First and foremost, this book is for the thousands of aspiring writers who feel they have a book inside them but don’t know what to do with it…This book is also for writers who have found some success either as freelance writers or creative writers…who have mastery in one area but beginner questions in another area. While this book can’t cover every topic in-depth, it can ground you in the fundamentals and show you reliable sources to find out more.

This book sets out to the be a good general resource book, a source for freelance virgins and for those rode hard and put away wet (ah, thanks Grandma Jody, for that expression that never fails to work in any situation). I bought the text because I had specific questions about nonfiction and fiction book writing, and every quarter or so, I flip through to find what questions are relevant to me at that time, and what answers can trigger some unique business thinking.

The beauty of this book is in its organization, and its frank discussion of differing opinions. The first third of the book covers writing fundamentals: why and how to write freelance or creatively, how to conduct interviews and research, how to set up a freelance business, and more. The second third covers specific considerations and concerns about book and magazine freelancing. The book finishes with overviews of different areas, including poetry writing, script writing, children’s writing, and more. Within each section, the answers are clear when they can be, and wishy-washy when they need to be. What this means is writers are given clear direction on which rules are inviolable and which are undecided, and how to break all of them.

Some sections in which I found answers to my questions:

• Page 33: What do They Mean When They Say…? An entire chapter devoted to deciphering publishing and freelancing lingo.
• Page 54, 122: Structure and Process of Novel Queries. Sure, there are whole books written on the query process. But this gives a nice overview and summary of all the conflicting and complementary information out there, and is nicely accompanied by more helpful information in the Appendices.
• Page 258: Ghostwriting and Writing for Hire. Direct answers to many of my questions during the brief period when I thought I was going to ghostwrite a memoir. Until he turned out to be an asshat.
• Page 341: Appendix I. Extremely useful lists of novel genres, word counts, formatting guidelines, and sample queries.

Bottom Line
Writing a book, or writing for magazines? Have lots of questions? Get this book.

To Learn More
Order The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book

Dig The Beginning Writer’s Answer Book? Skeptical? Incensed? Tell us about it in the comments!

Dear children, you simply must subscribe to QRW. Writers Who Matter! Resource Reviews! Freelance Reality Doses! Writer Profiles! Sign up today, and never miss another rebellious moment.

Want to know if that lovely little writing book calling to you from the shelves of your local bookstore is worth it? Desperate to find the resource for your specific writing and creative questions/situations/issues? That’s why I’m here, dearies. Let an obsessive book collector pick the best and present them to you for your edification and edumacation.

Survive a couple years as a freelancer, nay, thrive for a few years, and you get to feeling like you done knows it all. I don’t need no stinking general resource book on freelancing! I’m a freakin freelancer already, aren’t I? I make the cash money to pay my mortgage and keep my kitty fed – don’t I know enough?

Ah, hubris. Thankfully every one of us freelancers has weak moments at the bookstore when a book just looks too good to pass up. Because then some actual learning and even some, say, growing of the business, can commence. That’s what happened when I picked up the ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing.

The Gist

Few words conjure more romantic visions for any aspiring writer than “freelance”…Yet I often find myself warning [potential freelancers], not against the aspiration, but against the fantasy of a freelancer’s life…[This book] offers a degree course in the real world. This book doesn’t destroy the myth of the footloose freelancer…It tells you, in its precise and candid and canny way, how to transmute myth into reality.

Big balls and big purpose from the book’s editor, Timothy Harper. Featuring 26 articles from working freelancers on topics as varied as business plans, freelancer equipment, generating ideas, writing nonfiction books, interviewing techniques, specialization, nontraditional writing routes, and more, the book aims to be the “professional guide to the business, for nonfiction writers of all experience levels.”

Tackling the book in a couple sittings, there were sections I skipped, sections I read voraciously, and sections that were already a bit outdated from the publishing date of 2003. The book, just like the overall organization of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, is geared towards writers that focus their efforts on traditional consumer magazine writing and nonfiction books. But there is plenty for us nontraditional folks that focus on trade magazine writing, corporate and medical writing, and fiction.

The beauty of this book is in its contributors. Each person writing an article has created a career for themselves, often through carving a personalized, rule-bending path. Reading this book is like sitting in an insanely large but simultaneously intimate panel discussion, learning from some masters and up and comers.

Good Ideas:

Page 11: Defining the Business. In Erik Sherman’s chapter on “Planning A Writing Business,” he discusses how the big concept, writing a business plan, can be brought down to earth and made extremely powerful for writers. I know when I started out I wrote a business plan, but didn’t know what the fuck I was doing. Two and a half years later, I’ve got some ideas for how to rework and refocus my business strategies.

Page 21: Budgeting for Equipment. I’ve been subscribing to the notion of simply buying stuff when I need it, hitting up the nearby Staples and ogling all the pretty organizational porn. But here Samuel Greengard gave me a “duh” kind of idea: set forth a budget each year or each month for this business equipment, and reinvest properly into the business.

Page 35: The Mystery of Ideas. While I don’t work in the traditional magazine world, this chapter helps any writer looking for ideas for nonfiction or fiction. Good stuff as I plot my next novel.

Page 135: The Serendipity of Specialization. I’m building my business by honing my focus. Rather than try to be everything to everyone, I’m taking the gamble of picking a few key areas to write on and selling myself as an expert in them. This chapter by Claire Walter helps similarly inclined writers to figure out their specializations, and continue to build their expertise in the selected areas.

Page 189: Reprints and Reslants. I’ve heard for years about the benefits of selling completed articles to new markets, with a tweak or rewrite for that audience. This chapter by Kelly James-Enger cuts through the confusion and points the way for writers to do this. Heavy thinking time ahead.

Bottom Line
A great general resource book for freelance writing. There’s a little something for everyone in here, and I was surprised to see how many articles and parts of articles were relevant or thought provoking. Yes, my friends, I still have lots to learn.

To Learn More
Order The ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing
Visit the ASJA
See a full list of articles and authors

Dig the ASJA Guide? Skeptical? Incensed? Tell us about it in the comments!

Want more Resource Reviews? Subscribe to QRW to see a new review every Wednesday!

Last week I started this series with these (Astute! Insightful! Rollicking! Or something) thoughts:

Writing is tricky. It’s hard. On occasion, dental work, cleaning litter boxes, and gynecological exams are preferable to sitting down and finishing that article or other project. That’s why writing is the craft that occupies fifteen shelves of resource books at your bookstore. It’s intimidating trying to figure out if these tomes are worth their cash money. What’s really worth your time and money? That’s where the QRW comes in. For an honest peek into what books really help freelancers, writers and other creatives, we examine how useful and entertaining they are, as well as specific lessons that can be learned and put to use.

Big task, but lots o’ fun. It’s about time my bursting bookshelves get put to a purpose. Today we look at a title that made my brokeass jump for joy: The Portable MFA in Creative Writing.

The Gist

MFA workshops are, ahem, curious things. They can work, and they should, but from the accounts we’ve gathered over the years, many don’t. When I was in an MFA program – one of the most respected, highly touted, expensive, and therefore, one of the most flawed – structure was a dirty word and craft was something for carpenters…The education I received for over $30,000 can be condensed to eight easy-to-forget points, and I offer them all for the price of this book.

I would stay in school indefinitely if I was rich. I’d go back and get my MFA, PhD, maybe even throw in an RN and MEd and every other acronym I could collect. But that’s not the way things are. So I was pretty effing jazzed about this book, which promised the lessons learned from the New York Writers Workshop and its collective of impressive names.

This book is refreshing in its tone and approach, cutting past the bullshit and the automatic adulation for MFAs. The writers lament the pretension, the god-complex teachers, the canon bias, and the overall psychosocial damage a MFA program can inflict. On the other hand, the writers acknowledge that there are things to learn about writing creatively that these programs can give. They also provide students the gift of time, community, connections, and the doors that open with the degree itself. It’s a tradeoff, but one that becomes a little more fair with this kind of text.

The writers of the book are learned but not intimidating, personal and interesting but not blowhards. Spending time with the book feels like talking and listening to a mentor who tells it like it is.

The book is organized into key areas, for writers of fiction, personal essays/memoirs, magazine articles, poetry, and plays. My focus was Fiction. I wrote a novel, and my only formal training was what I gleaned from voracious reading and my coursework in literature analysis. So my techniques and tactics were fairly ad hoc. Reading the section on fiction helped hone some of my gut instincts and provide ideas for future writing steps.

Lessons Learned:

• Page 21: Strategies for Opening a Story. We all know the first pages of a novel or the first paragraphs of a story are critical for capturing readers and potential agents/publishers. Reading this section reinforced a lot of what I loved about my favorite books and their beginnings, and provided some ideas for editing my current novel and starting my new one.
• Page 43: Making Your Characters Believable. We know what we like about good, real characters, but achieving that is tricky. A great quote here: “Beginning writers often think that characters are what the narrator tells us about them…and what they say about themselves…Characters are the choices they make and the actions they take.”
• Page 56: Description. What a delicate art. Some very tangible and doable recommendations here to render a place and person effectively, and bring readers into the narrative.
• Page 66: Revision in Four Parts. By far the hardest part of my novel writing experience is the revision. The unending, unrelenting, unfathomable art of revision. The authors here make it simple and achievable.

Bottom Line:
Writing or have written a novel? I found this book tremendously helpful for perspective as well as tactics. I plan to next dive into the sections on personal essays and magazine articles, and hope to find the same usefulness.

To Learn More:
Order The Portable MFA
Visit the New York Writers Workshop

Dig The Portable MFA? Skeptical? Incensed? Tell us about it in the comments!

Want more Resource Reviews? Subscribe to QRW to stay in the know!

Writing is tricky. It’s hard. On occasion, dental work, cleaning litter boxes, and gynecological exams are preferable to sitting down and finishing that article or other project.

That’s why writing is the craft that occupies fifteen shelves of resource books at your bookstore. It’s intimidating trying to figure out if these tomes are worth their cash money. What’s really worth your time and money? That’s where the QRW comes in.

For an honest peek into what books really help freelancers, writers and other creatives, our Resource Review series examines these books, delving deep to determine how useful and entertaining they are in theory and practice.

First up, we start with a gem from another rebel writer: The Renegade Writer.

The Gist

The only rule is that there are no rules when it comes to success…We’ve used simultaneous submissions, ditched the SASE, called editors, sent queries via e-mail, and even queried magazines we have never read, and we know scores of other writers who have had success doing the same.

The beauty of The Renegade Writer is its ability to show how many writing rules, particularly those about freelance writing, are silly and pointless. The authors recognize that our career is tough and uncertain, but blind devotion to rules won’t get you anywhere. There’s nothing to lose by trying something new, something that could be directly in opposition to what others swear by. We’re going to suck and fuck up. But we can also find tremendous success.

The book keeps it light and funny, setting forth all the rules we should break about starting out as writers, generating ideas, querying magazines, setting up contracts, and the research and writing process. The authors profile real writers with rule-breaking experience. Along the way the authors routinely contradict themselves and encourage us to break even these nonrules about what we should do, reminding us that it’s up to us to forge our own path.

And that’s the power I took to heart. I got this book thinking I was going to go down the traditional magazine route as an addition to my business, utilizing the query-query-query-and-keep-querying-until-you-pay-dirt-or-go-insane model. But I hated it. I decided that although I wanted to write for magazines it didn’t have to be this traditional method. That’s how I gravitated towards trade magazine writing, decidedly less glamorous but infinitely rewarding in its own right.

In Practice
Other rules I broke after reading the book:

• Page 23: You Need Connections. Most writers are like me, starting out with a definite lack of names to leverage and connected friends to call on. So as a result we shouldn’t be afraid to do something unique to get on an editor’s/client’s radar, even if it’s a simple introduction and invitation to check out clips. I’ve got quite a bit of business this way.
• Page 37: Don’t Steal Ideas. Ideas for writing are everywhere. While stealing copy is heinous and should be punished with fingernail extraction, stealing ideas to create your own spin is something that can yield big steps forward.
• Page 178: Take Every Assignment An Editor Throws Your Way. That’s just frakking wrong. While it’s scary to turn down work, it actually frees you up for the better paying, more rewarding work that can be found.
• Page 188: You Can’t Do Magazine Writing and Business Writing. That’s how mama pays the bills, ya’ll.

Bottom Line
For freelancers yearning to break into magazine writing, this book is a must. For other writers, those who write for corporate clients, non-profits, associations, trade magazines, and more, the lessons here are also easily transferable. Overall, it’s a terrific resource on your bookshelf.

To Learn More

• Order The Renegade Writer
• Visit the Renegade Writer Blog
• Take Renegade Writer Classes

Dig The Renegade Writer? Tell us about it in the comments!

Want more Resource Reviews? Subscribe to QRW to stay in the know!

And…we’re back.

QRW is now returning to its regularly scheduled program, but with a few enhancements, improvements and otherwise niftiness! Check out our new design and features. Read about Quiet Rebel Writer and what this whole hubbub is about. View some greatest hits. And get ready for more righteous, rockin’ rebellion on our way to being the best damn writers and creatives ever. Ever, I say!

Wondering what’s coming up? Oh my dears. Here’s just a taste:

Monday: One way to inspire, impress and otherwise push us to keep writing is by looking at the masters. They are Writers that Matter, and they should be on your bookshelves. Today we’ll look at Cormac McCarthy, he of the “Quotation marks? I defy thee!” philosophy, as well as the “Blood? Check. Cannibals? Check. Heartbreaking emotion? Damn effing right, check” game.

Tuesday: Freelance writing is awesome. But it can also blow goats. If you want to learn how to make it really, really blow goats and ewes and rams, then our weekly Freelance Reality Dose is for you. This week: “How to Be a Freelancer and Hate Every Minute of It.”

Wednesday: Writing is tricky. It’s hard. That’s why it’s the craft that occupies fifteen shelves of resource books at your bookstore. What’s worth your time and money? For Resource Review, we figure it out. Today we look at one gem from another rebel, The Renegade Writer.

Thursday: Another way to inspire, impress and otherwise push us to keep writing? Learning about living, breathing, and eating freelancers like you and me, folks that have made their own paths, effed up and learned from it, and are making it happen. They’re our peers, our office buddies without offices, and our daily encouragement. Today we talk with Elizabeth McQuern, blogger, writer, and comedy producer in Chicago.

Friday: And how about that writing? To end the week we turn to Creative Life&Links, where we look at the best kickass examples of writing in the “famous” world, in the bloggy world, and here in the QRW empire.

But oh – there’s more my friends! QRW now has sister blogs, and you simply must check them out. First up is a little concept you might recognize, now given its very own individual home in the interwebs: Word Porn. This week, we discover weird words and stories for yokels, violent dissolution of empires, hatred, and those powerful benies that make us whore ourselves out. Don’t want to miss a day? Subscribe for your daily dose!

And coming very soon is a place to recognize and celebrate those rebellious lasses that we find in history, in books, in popular culture, and in our everyday world. What Would Octavia Do? presents females and feminist heroes that break rules and make our world better because of it.

Exciting stuff. And you’re a part of it. These blogs are where you need to be.