Build Your Own Hall of Reference

Back in the Golden Age, when Borders was in business and paper books ruled all, I stalked the Reference section in pursuit of "How-To" books on the writing genre.  While I didn't doubt my skill, I figured that more knowledge was better than less.  And some of the titles were just perfect sucker bait.  They had how-to books on every element of writing inaginable: from how to write in a particular genre to how to market your first novel.  They even had how-to books on how to write how-to books!

These days, I've got a small friggin' arsenal of how-to books on my shelf.  And I've only read a few of them from cover-to-cover.  I know it's weird . . . but think of whose blog you're reading.  Anyway,  reading how-to books is about as boring as reading textbooks.  If you remember your days of academia, your teachers stuck you with X number of books per class and made you read selected chapters (basically, the ones that mattered).  Like textbooks, how-to books are dull, long-winded, and difficult to use - especially if some stubborn part of your psyche hates writing to someone else's tune. 

But amidst the "blah-blah-blah" of useless drivel are vital nuggets of wisdom which can aid you in the long-term writing game.  The bitch is that you've gotta find them. 

Every how-to writer has a different opinion on the how.  And I've yet to find an "Idiot's Guide" or an "All You'll Ever Need to Know . . ." book with all the answers.  You're probably better off camping out at your local library and/or compiling assorted wisdom from free articles/blogs on-line.  However, if you have money to throw away, I urge you to buy how-to books and keep them close.  Try to skim through the dull things, learn what you can, and apply their jigsaw wisdom. 

And if you're crazy enough to self-publish (like me), you really should explore how-to books related to non-writing fields: like how to incorporate, run a small business or do online marketing.  Also, consider how-to books which indirectly cover the writing process.  I've got books on forensics, character names, screenwriting, and even blogging (none of which I've fully read yet).  Yeah, I could go online and pull up neat little articles on these topics.

But at the end of the day, entire books trump little articles.  And having that knowledge at your fingertips is just plain smart.

Hope this was of use.