If you’re a freelance writer, a homeschooling parent or even just a word nerd, listen up: Week by week, Dr. Victoria Hay has been making chapters of her upcoming book available for free.
“The Complete Writer: The Ultimate Guide to Writing, Publishing and Living the Writer’s Life” is based on Hay’s considerable knowledge of the written word. For decades she has been making a living as a writer and editor, and also taught writing at Arizona State University.
Every Friday she posts a new work-in-progress chapter on her writing blog, Plain & Simple Press (“Independent fiction and nonfiction”). Currently she’s up to Chapter 9.
Here’s some of what you’ll be getting:
Chapter 1: The Essence of Good Writing
Chapter 2: Show, Don’t Tell: The Abstraction Ladder
Chapter 3: Verbs: Choose Your Weapon Carefully
Chapter 4: Overcapitalization
Chapter 5: Dogged Cliches
Chapter 6: The Importance of Revising and Editing
Chapter 7: Six Steps to Revising and Polishing
Chapter 8: Two Kinds of Revising
Chapter 9: Revising With Reader Feedback
Still to come are chapter topics like working with a professional editor, writing nonfiction, blogging, using a style manual, writing fiction, ethics and legality, publishers and self-publishers, the writing life and creative strategies.
The book, she says is for anyone who wants to write articles, blogs or books “at a professional level.” That includes freelance writers, would-be authors and business owners who need to write well in order to promote their products or services.
“Whatever you crave to do with your writing and publishing dreams, you must be able to write clearly. You need to understand what makes a publishable document, and you need to know how to edit and revise your work to make it publishable,” Hay says.
“Obviously, no book can answer all the questions or solve all the challenges that arise for every writer. But I hope this one will give you some insight into what you can expect if you decide to dive into the writing life, and how to go about it.”
Are you a writer? Go read these!
Want to be a writer? Ditto.
Got a business or project you need to market? What are you waiting for?
(Did I mention they’re free?)
And while you’re there, sign up to buy the finished product either as a PDF or a paperback.
Thanks Donna