Hi all! It’s the first Wednesday of the month and you know what that means? It’s time for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group (#IWSG) to meet. I have been doing really well in the writing department over the past month. In July, I published 30 blog posts, including some creative writing. I didn’t write everyday, at least not intentionally, but on the days I did write, I more than made up for this.
I have truly felt my creative juices flowing over the past month, not just with respect to writing, but crafting too. Whether this is due to my new psychiatric medication or not, I do not know. I can only hope that it will last for a long time still to come.
Now on to this month’s optional question. This month, we’re asked to write about our favorite writing craft books. Those books that, each time we open them, we learn something new or are inspired to write or try a new technique.
Well, I am not a big fan of writing “manuals” so to speak. I tried the book Diy Mfa and didn’t get beyond the first chapter. I prefer to just write and not be told how I should be doing it.
That being said, I do have a ton of go-to writing craft books. They are, however, collections of writing prompts. When I’m uninspired, I love to open one of those and see where the muse leads me. Most of these, of course, deal with journaling, as that’s my primary method of writing. Examples of books I love include The Year of You by Hannah Braeme, the eBook collection Journaling with Lisa Shea and 412 Journaling Exercises and Prompts for Personal Growth by Meredith Lane.
One series of books dealing with creative writing I love though is the Adventures in Writing series by Melissa Donovan. One of the books in the series is a collection of writing prompts. Another offers 101 more general writing exercises. The last one, Ready, Set, Write is more of a traditional “manual”. I like that one. I really think this series would be my go-to book series for inspiration that moves me out of my comfort zone.
A Multitude of Musings 
You did a good job with that tough question.
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Thank you. 🙂
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If writing prompts work for you, that’s the kind of writing books you need.
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Thank you. Yes, they usually work for me. Then again, I’ve hardly ever tried anything else.
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I hear great things about journaling but somehow I can’t make myself do it. *sigh* Someday. Thanks for the recommendations!
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Thank you for commenting. I don’t journal in private either, at least not regularly. I mean, I do have a diary app in which I have several journals, for example for freewrites, a general diaary, etc. However, I mostly write on this blog.
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Ooo. I’ve recently just discovered William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, and it surprised me just how much information is on there. I’d even go so far as to say that I prefer it over the well-touted On Writing by Stephen King.
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Thanks for sharing. I’ve never heard of that book, but it sounds interesting.
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Thirty blog posts within one month??!! As for your answer to this month’s question, I agree with you on the topic of most writing craft books. I love the ones that I can pick and choose what I want to read from them based on what I have questions about.
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Thank you for sharing. Yes, I really did publish 30 posts.
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Prompts can be good for sending you in a direction you didn’t expect and doing something a bit different. Those sound like good tips.
Sounds like you had an amazing July for writing. Hope you can keep it up.
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Thanks for stopping by. Yes, I love writing prompts for that reason indeed. August isn’t off to as good a start as July was, but I’m still doing okay.
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Glad to have these recommendations. I have a few how-to-write-a-children’s-book books but haven’t been successful!! Losing interest in trying to write a children’s book now. But maybe these books you mention would at least get me back to writing something!!
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I hope they will. I want to let you know though, you’re still writing on your blog and that counts as “writing something”.
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