Resource ideas for Writers

On By TomIn Uncategorized27 Comments

Who might benefit from this post?

Anyone who writes poetry, flash fiction, short stories, novels, articles, letters … well, you get the idea. If fellow readers and writers respond, we will all benefit.

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Why am I initiating this now?

I haven’t done a writing course. I learned through experience how to build my collection of resource, or reference books, and I’d like to help other writers by suggesting a simple list of books. It may be that some writers don’t feel they need them all, but having a proposed selection is always a good thing. After reading this post, you might like to join the team; let’s work together and help each other to succeed.

What is it about?

It’s about resource, or reference. Yes, of course we can all use the Internet. How about that occasion when the link is down, or you want to be away from the screen for a while. There is nothing quite like having an actual book, complete with bookmarks or page indexes at certain places. I’m going to start us off with my favourite list of reference material. No, not yet; it will come later in the post.

What can you do?

Take part. Leave an opinion if you wish on any of the ideas, or better still, if you have an idea that isn’t listed; share it with us, the writing community.

When can you respond?

Please feel free to respond immediately with a comment on this post. The more information we can get out there from within our community, the better it will work for all of us.

Where will the information go?

On any social link you want to place it. Personally I use Facebook, Twitter and Google +, but there many more. It’s going to be a team effort.

Why should anyone take part?

We are a community of like-minded people, and it’s good to share. The ‘pooling’ of knowledge is a mutually beneficial thing to do.

How will it work?

That will depend on you; writer, reader, or blogger. This post will feature my own favourites, and then we’ll take it from there. My next posts will spell out why I find particular books so useful. Some reasons might not be obvious by looking at the book title. My links are different colours, to help distinguish the titles. The final three are not linked, because they depend on personal preference or locality.

What are my favourite reference books?

English Dictionary and Thesaurus, Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, The Writer’s abc Checklist, Zodiac Types, Baby Names, Love Writing, Body Language, Road Atlas (UK), World Atlas, Yellow Pages or equivalent phonebook.

Now, it’s your turn. Let me know your opinion, or suggest a book to add to our list. If you want to see how big we can make this thing – add a link to your own blog. If your idea is unique, or fits in with the theme, I’ll add it to my list on my website.

Thank you for reading and taking part!

Writing … by the numbers

On By TomIn Achievement, Competitions, General, Insight, Novel, Poetry, Short Stories1 Comment
Do you know how to write your numbers?
Do you know how to write your numbers?

It doesn’t matter what you write; whether it be non-fiction, fiction, articles, reviews or simply readers’ letters occasionally – you will at some stage find yourself using numbers. Yes, we’re all very good at words … a few letters added together. How rapidly can you remember when a number should be spelt out as a word, or written as a figure? Is it two, or 2, forty, or 40?

Like many areas of writing, I rely on my military background for a description. Yes, it’s that old faithful; it’s a bloody minefield.

Before looking at the detail, let’s look at the circumstances. If you are writing for a magazine, newspaper, or any established publication, you have it sorted for you. Every publication has a ‘house style’ or ‘submission guidelines’ which will keep you in line. This is equally true of feature/article writing or non-fiction. Imagine you’re about to write a piece for ‘Young Scientist and Inventor’, or some similarly titled magazine – it will have its own rules.

Rather than make this post look like an algebra lesson, yes, that mathematics discipline that involves letters and numbers – I’m going to give an intro here, and a link to ‘Creative Writer and Artist’ which is one of my two websites. I have a comprehensive guide to using numbers within creative writing on that particular site.

* If the number is between one and ten, it should be spelt out. Anything from 11 upwards should be shown as figures. There are of course some exceptions.

* A sentence is best not started with a number, because it must be spelt out, so the easiest thing to do is avoid it; by restructuring the sentence. Enough said there.

* If the two different ‘categories’ of numbers are to appear in the same sentence, then a fair guide is to show both as spelt out – not one spelt out, and the other shown as a figure.

Now, be honest; how many of those three points were you confident about? Obviously, there are exceptions, as there are with any rules or guidelines. Think about such things as; dates, times, distances, temperatures, measurements … getting the point? 

At this point I’d like to express my thanks to Lorraine Mace and Maureen Vincent-Northam for covering this topic so well in their joint venture; ‘THE WRITER’S abc CHECKLIST’. I’ve learned about writing numbers from various sources, but the aforementioned book is my bible on the matter. If you haven’t got a copy – get one! It’s available from various sources, including; Amazon and Accent Press.

Unless you’re one of those clever-clogs writers that already has this area sorted in your mind, please feel free to use the link below and see a more detailed explanation, and as always; thank you for reading my blog.

http://www.tom-benson.co.uk/writing and numbers 

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