This week’s writing about writing post on webstuff4writers.com asks for book recommendations. The focus isn’t just on good writing however. It’s on good writing about writing. There are a lot of writing resource books out there: books about how to sell your poetry, how to be a freelance journalist, how to punctuate your sentences.

On visits to bookstores, I often skim the writing resources shelves but I haven’t actually sampled too many of those on offer. However, when I wrote the original question, there were three books I had in mind.

As a teenager, I loved John Marsden’s Everything I know about writing. John Marsden’s one of my favourite young adult authors, and this book gives insight into his writing process for some of his earlier novels, alongside prompts and exercises for your own writing projects.

Another book that’s particularly relevant at the moment is No Plot! No Problem, by Chris Baty. Chris is the founder of NaNoWriMo – the month long 50,000-word-novel writing extravaganza that starts tomorrow. However, his book has some useful tips about the human side of writing that apply no matter which month you write in. And his talk of rewards allowed me to justify the large quantities of M&Ms I consumed while writing Lessons to Learn.

Finally, I’d recommend Julia Cameron’s The Right to Write. There’s some great advice in there – from keeping morning pages (something I do every now and then when I find myself not writing regularly) to continuing to write while you’re waiting for a response to a submission. I’ve read this book so many times over the years, and yet, every time I finish it, I’m re-inspired to continue writing.

If there are any writing-related books you’d recommend, please leave a comment here, or on the entry at web stuff 4 writers.

This week’s topic over at web stuff 4 writers asks about the longest piece you’ve written.  For me, the answer is easy.  At approximately 57,000 words, Lessons to Learn is by far the longest piece I’ve written.

Of course, 57,000 words isn’t very long for a novel.  It’s no Shantaram or Edward Rutherfurd epic.  But for me it’s impressive.  Until I finished that first draft of Lessons to Learn, I considered myself predominantly a short story writer and a some-of-the-time poet.  Before then, my longest works were my failed NaNoWriMo attempt in 2004 (approximately 17,000 words) and the 12,000 word essay I wrote in my Human Communication paper in the first year of university.  The required word count for the latter was only 1,000 words I think, and I was most disappointed when I only got a B+.

I’m about 25,000 words into a new project now.  Will it be longer than Lessons to Learn?  I’m not sure at this stage.  For now, I’m just going to keep writing till I feel the story’s told. There’ll be time for editing and adding and taking out words, paragraphs, pages and whole sections, once that first draft is done.

It’s October, and the sign-ups for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) have begun.  For those of you who haven’t heard of it, NaNoWriMo is a challenge that’s been running for a few years now, where participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  That’s an average of 1,666 words a day!

I started NaNoWriMo in 2004.  Every night for a week and a half, I typed out thousands of waffling words of a novel about a girl who was travelling across Canada.  Every time I ran out of ideas, I had her move on to a new destination.  And by that stage, my hands ached so much that I was finding it difficult to get my work done for the 9-5 job.  So that was the end of my 2004 NaNoWriMo novel, and in truth, I haven’t looked at it since.  That said, I think it was useful to have that attempt at writing a novel.  In starting it, I began to learn the differences between writing a short story and a novel – differences that were going to be more and more significant over the next 12 months.

In November 2005, I had just finished writing the MA portfolio version of Lessons to Learn.  In November 2006, I was travelling around Europe.

This year, I’ve got a project that I’m already working on.  The rules of NaNoWriMo state that you need to start a new novel on the 1st of November, rather than work on an existing project.  So I won’t be an official participant, but I’m hoping that the knowledge that so many people, all around the world, are also writing, the conversations on the message boards and a large quantity of M&Ms will spur me on to complete the first draft.

If you’re also participating in NaNoWriMo this year, or working on another project to another deadline, let me know, and perhaps we can cheer each other on.