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Top 5 Writing Resources

Whether you write a blog regularly or your writing life is limited to work e-mails and an annual holiday letter,  we all could use a little help. Here are my top 5 writing resources to help cure writer’s block and improve your skills. I receive no kickbacks for recommending these books. All links go to the author’s website instead of an Amazon page, hoping you will support your local independent bookstore when purchasing these fantastic resources.

Here we go!

Everybody Writes by Anne Handley

This book is known as the “essential guide to becoming a masterful marketer, writer, and storyteller. If you are someone who falls asleep at the thought of grammar and sentence structure, this is the book for you. This author is known for her wit as well as her wisdom. She provides excellent strategies for planning in her chapter “Think Before You Ink” and “How to Hate Writing Less.” Handley teaches you how to develop your brand, avoid cliches, and write engaging copy.

No matter what topic you write about, you want your writing to connect with your audience. This is your book.

Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi

During the pandemic, I decided to get a professional certificate in digital marketing. My first class was on content marketing, and this was the textbook. Fortune Magazine calls it “one of the top business books of the year.” If you are responsible for generating content for your business or employer, this author talks about how to develop content and then recycle that content for different platforms, from e-mail to social media. Want to grow your audience? There is a section dedicated to expanding your reach through your content. I learned so much from this book. He just came out with a second edition, which, admittedly, I haven’t purchased yet. I already have the original, which cost me nearly $30. I’m glad I have it on my shelf, and I’m a little jealous of the people who don’t have this book yet. You get to buy the most recent edition, while mine is ten years old.

Totally worth it!

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

For those of us who are struggling bestseller novelists or memoirists who fight imposter syndrome and writer’s block, this book is my gift to you. She writes an inspiring and often humorous guide to the writer’s world. It’s my survivor guide for when I’m feeling like I don’t have an ounce of creativity left in me. She inspires me to write many shitty first drafts and reassures me that my voice deserves to be heard.

Perfect English Grammar, Grant Barrett

Gather up all of your grammar and punctuation questions and find the answers in this little manual. From spelling and formatting to abbreviations and pronouns, you will want to consult this guide before you hit send on that e-mail, publish that paper, or put out that press release.

Finally, I will get my geek on and tell you about my favorite resource.

How to Tell Fate from Destiny and Other Skillful Word Distinctions by Charles Harrington Elster

As an avid reader and writer, I’m a huge lover of the written word. While a thesaurus will provide 20 different words for convince, this book looks into the deeper meaning of those words to help you decide which words to use in what context. For instance, he writes, “to convince” means to “make someone believe something,” while “to persuade” means “to make someone take action.”

Isn’t that so cool?! No? Okay, I’m weird. I know. But if you are a word nerd like me, this is a must-have for your resource shelf.

Whether you enjoy writing or are required to write for your job and don’t know where to begin, I hope there is something on this list to help you. Good luck!

XO,
Elisa

Reading Slump and Writers Block

What happens when you can’t decide on a book to read or a topic to write about? My worst nightmare. A reading slump and writer’s block. Okay, it’s not a nightmare, but it’s so frustrating.

Let’s start with my reading life. January started out decent. I read two books and liked them both fine. Then, I DNF’d book number three — “Overdue,” a behind-the-scenes look at the public library system. It sounded good when I heard the author give an interview. In reality, I didn’t want to learn anything that would ruin fond childhood memories of storytimes and reading clubs. Then, I chose two different personal essay collections. Both were national bestsellers; neither held my interest. I switched to fiction and picked up a novel I had put down because I was bored with it. I read two more chapters and put the book at the bottom of my TBR pile.

I took a week off from reading and threw myself into work projects, reorganizing closets, and watching The Bachelor. Today, I pulled out two bestsellers that have been on every “Best of 2022″ list I’ve seen—Carrie Soto is Back” by Taylor Jenkins Reid on Audible and  “Verity” by Colleen Hoover. Fingers crossed.

As far as writing goes, I’ve been doing plenty of it. I compose emails and catchy subject lines, edit videos and website copy, take notes in meetings, brainstorm story ideas, and make lists. Someone once told me that if I wanted to be a successful writer, my day job should have nothing to do with writing. Too late for that! If you ask my bosses, I’ve been very productive. But it isn’t the same as working on my book or finishing a blog writing challenge. All of my good habits, like waking up early, reading for inspiration, and sitting down in the chair to put pen to paper, have failed me lately.

But I’m not quitting. I’m starting over, not from scratch, but from experience, which is where I left off.

XO,

Elisa

Such A Good Day

The rarest and most precious of weekends are those when I have no plans and can spend the entire day however I please. Take today, for instance.

I woke up at 8:30 am and stayed in bed until 9. I sunk into my favorite spot on the living room couch, savored my coffee, and enjoyed the view from my bay window. It was cold outside, but I was nice and warm indoors, sporting my best flannel pajamas. I am about a week behind on the Ultimate Blog Challenge because I had COVID and then a three-day work retreat out of town. I’m sure I won’t catch up to everyone else in the challenge, but I’ll do my best.

With that thought in mind, I sat down at my laptop with my second cup of coffee and started writing seven pages of total crap. Okay – not total crap, but nothing worth posting yet. 🙂

I walked away from those pages and opened another document. I’m taking a writing workshop and wanted to finish providing feedback on another person’s manuscript. After that, I completed my submission for the workshop and sent it out to the group. Needing a little more feedback, I sent my piece to my sister and two good friends for honest reactions and extra support.

Then, I went on to my next writing project—my Trader Joe’s shopping list. Butter chicken and Naan. Sesame seed bagels and lox with the Everything Bagel seasoning. And Hold a Cone ice cream for dessert. It was probably the best thing I wrote all day.

And then, I returned from food shopping with the full intention of getting back to writing. But I cleaned out my email inbox instead. I’m a loyal subscriber to a few dozen newsletters, but I’m no help to their open rate. I ignore so many of their emails that are chock-full of the inspiration and motivation I need to keep going. I dove into my inbox and drowned myself in writing advice.

Now, it is two hours later, and I haven’t written anything else today (except this blog post), but I’m feeling recharged and focused on the tasks at hand. I should really get moving. But I have dinner plans tonight. So stay tuned for another blog post and much more where that came from starting tomorrow. 🙂

I hope you enjoyed your Saturday. 🙂

XO,

Elisa

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