BEEsy Writer: The Art of War for Writers by James Scott Bell

"Sun Tzu wrote: 'He wins a battle by making no mistakes.' My hope is that this manual will help you avoid the mistakes and write stronger books and win the battle to get and stay published."

~James Scott Bell in The Art of War for Writers~

In his most recent book on writing, James Scott Bell shares with writers what he has learned in his 20 plus years as a fiction writer. The Art of War for Writers consists of 77 short chapters organized under the following three sections:

Part I:Reconnaissance focuses on the mental game of writing.

Part II: Tactics offers tactics and techniques on the craft that help "you go deeper, to do things that will set you apart from the vanilla slush that's poured into the offices of tired editors and agents."

Part III: Strategy includes advice on the publishing business.

This compact red book surprised me with the abundance of wise and practical advice it offers to writers. I particularly found the "Reconnaissance" section helpful as it addresses many of the mental battles we writers face on our journeys. Some of the chapters included in this section include:

• The writer must understand the essentials of success for a long-term writing career, and count the cost accordingly.
• A foundation in discipline is always the first step toward victory.
• "Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain."
• Status, worry, and comparisons are the ways to madness, not victory.
  
• Stay hungry so your determination will not flag.
• Finish your novel, because you learn more that way than any other.

I highly recommend this book to all writers, especially beginning writers. I've placed this book near my computer and plan to refer to it often as I continue on my journey as a writer.

BEEsy Writer: Editing Fiction Course

A lesson I'm learning early on my journey as a writer is to continually seek ways to improve my craft. During the last year, I've enroll in several online writing classes and webinars. Last summer, I stumbled upon the Web site for The Christian Proofreaders and Editors Network (PEN) and discovered this organization offers courses beneficial to not only proofreaders and editors, but also writers.

I'd like to share information about one of the classes I took last year--Editing Fiction. This class, taught by freelance editor Jeanne Marie Leach, teaches participants about the fundamental techniques of good fiction writing, including opening hooks, Point of View (POV), plot development, character development and emotions, proper dialogue, showing vs. telling, active vs. passive writing, and overused words.

As part of this five-week class, participants receive weekly lessons and are assigned homework, which they submit to the instructor and other participants for review. I particularly found the homework assignments to be one of the most valuable parts of the class. These assignments allowed me to apply what I learned during the week's lesson, and the feedback I received from the instructor helped me identify my strengths and weaknesses with each of the techniques explored. In addition, the discussions among the participants and the instructor expanded my understanding of these techniques.

I would highly recommend this class for beginning writers.

The Christian PEN is offering this class from July 19 to August 16. Cost for the class varies depending upon your membership status, ranging from $60 to $90. For more information, please see the course description on The Christian PEN's Web site.

BEEsy Writer: A New Column on BEEsy Mama

Several months ago, I began a new blog called BEEsy Writer. I had hoped to share my experiences as a new writer on this blog. After careful consideration, I have decided to merge BEEsy Writer with the BEEsy Mama blog.

Next Wednesday, I will introduce here a new column called BEEsy Writer. In this column, I will share my experiences about my writing journey, resources and classes for writers, writing book recommendations, and writing quotes. If you are interested in writing, please stop by and check out this column on Wednesdays.

Please be assured that I am still committed to writing about the adventures of being a mama. Thanks so much for your support of this blog. I greatly appreciate it!

BEEginnings: A New Blog

About two months ago, I entered the blogging world with this blog--BEEsy Mama. I never realized how much I would enjoy blogging. And so I decided to create a second blog--BEEsy Writer.

As you may know, I'm an aspiring writer. Currently I am working on my first novel, a historical fiction that takes place during World War II.

With BEEsy Writer, I hope to chronicle my journey as a writer, with a focus on what I'm learning and the valuable advice I've received along the way. Please visit BEEsy Writer at http://www.BEEsyWriter.blogspot.com.

Of course, I'm still devoted to this blog and my readers and will periodically post articles about being a BEEsy Mama! :-)