The Writer's Confidant Blog

While Googling for my pen name - something I do occasionally to make sure that no one is misusing my name or my work - I came across a mention of my blog (Swan's Blog). I didn't recognize the source, a blog called the Writer's Confidant Blog, so I decided to take a look.

I was pretty impressed by what I read. The Writer's Confidant Blog is a lot like my own Swan's Blog, commenting on pertinent writing issues and recording the writer's personal experiences. I read posts about everything from the Freelance Work Exchange scam - something I blogged about myself - to the differences between a "real job" and freelancing. It's an excellent place to get another point of view about the life of a writer!

A quote for writers

I decided that writing-related quotes qualifies as "reading for writers." Just very brief reading.

Behold:

A good many young writers make the mistake of enclosing a stamped, self-addressed envelope, big enough for the manuscript to come back in. This is too much of a temptation to the editor.

--Ring Lardner, How to Write Short Stories

The quote certainly seems all too true. I've manuscripts returned without even a note - like the editor opened my package, saw the manuscript and return envelope, thought, "Oh, okay," and mailed it right back to me.

The quote intrigued me, so I looked up a little information on How to Write Short Stories. Lardner's book was published in 1924, with the help of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Perhaps this book should be the focus of a future post!

Yet ANOTHER Boy Bly book on copywriting

It's almost laughable: when I recently checked out a bunch of library books on copywriting, three of the books were by Robert Bly! Before we left for our vacation, I grabbed a few books to take with me, and one of them happened to be The Elements of Copywriting, the third book by Robert Bly that I've read on the subject. (This particular book is also co-authored by Gary Blake.)

Having read three books by Bly, almost right in a row, I've noticed many similarities between them. Certainly an aspiring copywriter shouldn't have to read all three. My favorite was the last book I reviewed, The Copywriter's Handbook, but The Online Copywriter's Handbook is useful too - just a little more outdated.

The Elements of Copywriting is also a tad bit outdated - it was published in 1997, almost a decade ago. The chapter about the internet is the most noticeably outdated.

The biggest benefit of The Elements of Copywriting is that it is more condensed than the other books - so if you just need to know the basics, you might prefer a slightly shorter book. However, I still prefer The Copywriter's Handbook, which contains some very helpful information for Internet copywriters.