My Favorite Writing Resources

Posted by Jenny Rae Armstrong in

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I've spent the last few months staring at the mountain of books that used to be my desk (and side table, and chair, and floor...), mumbling something about needing either a bigger office or more bookshelves. Ordering my schoolbooks for the semester pushed me over the edge--I finally bit the bullet and picked up four ginormous pressboard wonders from Wal-Mart, desperate to beat the Fed-Ex man's Amazon avalanche.

This means that I've spent the last few hours in the delicious task of going through my books, thinning out the collection I keep in my tiny 8x8 office, and banishing the rest to the new bookshelves. This process has made me very aware of my go-to books, the ones I grab on a regular basis, toss in my purse before heading out the door, or flip through when I need answers. So I thought I'd share them. Here are some of my favorite writing resources, books and otherwise.

Books:

Writer Mama by Christina Katz tops my list as the most useful, relevant, and likely-to-get-your-byline-in-print books. It worked for me--I pre-ordered Writer Mama based on the glowing reports of early reviewers, and sent out my first successful query letter before had I closed the back flap. I don't care if you're a mama, a daddy, a college kid, or an alien who crash landed in the Gobi desert--if you're a writer, and you want to get published in magazines, you need this book.

Another Christina Katz book, Get Known Before the Book Deal, is getting the most wear and tear of any of my writing books right now. There's a 50% chance that if you stopped me on the street, you would find it on my person. It's that good.

Sally Stuart's Christian Writers' Market Guide is another book that I couldn't live without, although I'm embarrassed to say I had never heard of it until a few months ago. I used to rely on writersmarket.com to get information about magazines and find new markets, but Sally Stuart's guide simply has more of the publications in my niche, and is better organized.

Classes:

I love, love, love MediaBistro's online classes. They're very similar to college journalism classes I've taken--if your professor happened to be a former editor from Cosmo or Family Circle, and your classmates and critique partners were by-in-large media professionals with extensive real-world knowledge and experience. I'd read scores of books about writing, and published a few articles, but things really began to click during my first MediaBistro course. Sometimes, you just need someone to show you how it's done. And show you they do. MediaBistro courses are pricey, but way cheaper than college tuition, and well worth the investment if you're serious about making a living as a writer--or in any media profession, for that matter.

There's more, but it's late, and bed is sounding awfully good! I'll have to continue my list later. Stay tuned!