It’s spring-cleaning time, and I’ve gone through my files and bookshelves to update resources for those who write from personal experience.  Here is Part I of my annotated list of resources, including books, journals and websites:

Books on How to Write Essays and How To Find Subjects from Your Experience for All Your Writing

The Situation and the Story by Vivian Gornick strives to answer the essayist’s question, “How does one pull from one’s own boring, agitated self the reliable narrator who will tell the story that needs to be told?” Using memoirs and essays of the past hundred years, Gornick traces the changing idea of self and demonstrates the truth speaker in essays while teaching how to hear the truth in our own and others’ essays.

Tell It Slant: Writing and Shaping Creative Non-Fiction by Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola offers descriptions and samples of “varietal” personal essays and digs into one particular form, the lyric essay, quite extensively.  An accompanying website, www.mhhe.com/tellitslant, has useful essay samples, publishing information, and exercises.

The Art of Creative Non-Fiction: Writing and Selling the Literature of Reality, by Lee Guttkind contains a true insider’s knowledge on choosing topics, the nuts-and-bolts of technique, the intricacies of marketing, and the ethical and legal issues of “truth.”

Write From Life: Turning Your Personal Experiences Into Compelling Stories by essayist, fiction writer, and poet, Meg Files, teaches writers how to transform their raw experiences into finished pieces so they can identify story-worthy material, conquer fears associated with personal exposure, determine a story’s focus, and shape the material into a cohesive whole, then edit and revise as needed.

Write Your Heart Out by Rebecca McClanahan is a mixture of direct instruction, writing exercises and prompts, examples from published and unpublished texts, and personal reflections on the writing process.” Through explorations of journal writing, memoir, writing about joy and sorrow, letter writing, and collaborative writing, McClanahan encourages those who want to write.

Unsent Letters by Lauren B. Smith offers help to those who want to use letter writing as a tool to attain the peace that comes from resolving issues of conflict, love, worry, and devotion.   Although the book is not about writing for publication, writing unsent letters can help writers free themselves up to approach difficult but important work that leads to essays.

Becoming Whole by Linda Joy Myers, PhD is a guide to writing life stories to transform trauma into healing, mastery and wisdom. Myers’ chapters include thoughtful exercises and writing samples.  In addition, the book contains helpful information about organizing memoir and using techniques of fiction.

Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art by Judith Barrington is almost a classic for memoir writers.  Vivian Gornick calls it a “wise, pragmatic, and confiding book, “ and says that,  “One hears on every page the voice of an intelligent and responsive teacher, with years of thinking about memoir behind her.”

 To find many more books of interest on writing memoir, essays, fiction and poetry, visit The Writer’s and Teachers Collaborative, a New York State organization, at their website, www.twc.org).

Books and Web Resources for Help with Grammar and Style

From Strunk and White’s famous Elements of Style to the many Modern Language Association’s (MLA) style guides by every major publisher of college texts, there is so much out there on editing that you could well spend all of your writing time sorting out resources and information on grammar and presentation.  Luckily, you don’t need to become a professional copyeditor or English instructor to get your work accepted; all you have to do is write prose that adheres to style conventions in spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, with phrasing that reads smoothly and well.  But if that sounds like a lot, you might make good use of a few of my favorite sources on editing (which I like for their accessibility and the simplicity with which they impart information):

Grammatically Correct: The Writer’s Essential Guide to Punctuation, Spelling, Style, Usage and Grammar by Anne Stillman, Writers Digest Books.  This is an excellent resource, especially for information on  spelling and frequently misused words.

The Least You Should Know About English Writing Skills, by Teresa Ferster Glazier, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers, in many editions (the Form A Fifth Edition is my favorite in the series).  Glazier includes everything you every really needed to know about English spelling and grammar but your teachers made too complicated to figure out.  Even so, it is a slender volume, not that fat text and workbook you may remember.

“Avoid Common Grammar Pitfalls,” by Becky Ohlsen, Writer’s Digest Magazine, August 2002.  A professional copy editor distills the process of editing for “tight, lean prose devoid of errors with 22 tips” phrased so that you can use them and remember them.

Plumb Design’s visual online thesaurus.  Although I believe writers should be careful about using a thesaurus and substituting one word for another word without looking at the whole emotional sound of a piece of writing, I think a visit to this fun-to-use site is worthwhile.  Watching the visual thesaurus move about on your computer screen, you will realize that unless you are repeating a word for emotional impact, there are many accessible words that are precise for your specific meaning and by using them, you sound informed and insightful.

Thesaurus.com has a load of grammar tips. This site is worth browsing from time to time to sharpen your self-editing skills. You will find pearls of practical wisdom that will inform your writing.

McGraw-Hill’s Write Links includes links to dictionaries, thesauri, grammar guides, writing sites, language sites, and more.  Jack Lynch’s Guide to Grammar and Style is well organized and very easy to use.

The Chicago Public Schools maintains a reference website for its English teachers.  This website that is site is part of the extensive Gutenberg project, which is attempting to connect many studies of the English language. The links on this page include ones to a grammar site, a site about speeches and how to document them, and an MLA style guide site good for those using research in their essays.

Magazines for Help in Writing Essays

Poets and Writer’s Magazine is a quarterly publication well known for its articles about authors, presses, and publishing as well as for each issue’s information on writing programs, workshops, contests and manuscripts wanted.

Joining the Associated Writing Programs and receiving their magazine, The AWP Chronicle, is also a good way to regularly read in-depth articles by writers who teach.

The Writer Magazine offers writing advice from famous authors as does Writer’s Digest Magazine.

The smaller press publication ByLine Magazine presents articles on the craft or business of writing, including regular columns on writing poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children’s literature and publishes short stories and poetry, with a special feature for student writers.

Directories for Publishing Information

These books should be available at library reference desks and bookstores. Some of them are also searchable on line.

Writer’s Digest’s Writer’s Market offers up-to-date comprehensive lists of magazines and publishers seeking manuscripts.

Writer’s Guidelines:  A Compilation of Information for Freelancers from More than 1,400 Magazine Editors and Book Publishers, Quill Driver Books is easy to read and use for locating markets for essays and articles.

The International Directory of Little Magazines & Small Presses from Dustbooks lists over 4,000 markets in the small press niche.

Also, Poets and Writer’s Magazine has a well-known and well-used manuscripts-wanted section.  Reading the “seeking submissions” listings there often helps you find editors to send your work to, because many of them advertise there for specific-theme anthologies.

The Writer Magazine and Writer’s Digest Magazine include market listings in each issue.  ByLine Magazine sponsors contests.

Magazines for Libraries, usually only at library reference desks, includes information on the editorial slant and financial backing of hundreds of publications. Reading this guide can help you decide if and how your essays match a specific magazine’s mission as well as help you discover more topic areas for your writing.

Online Markets for Writers:  How to Make Money by Selling Your Writing on the Internet, by Anthony Tedesco and Paul Tedesco, offers a thorough description of the on-line market and explains its background and development.

Guerilla Marketing for Writers by Jay Conrad Levinson, Rick Frishman, and Michael Larsen, also from Writer’s Digest Books, his useful for those who want to gain recognition for their published writing.  Chapter 12, “Weapons Made Possible by Your Ability to Write,” concerns op-ed essays and book reviews and is, I think, a must read for anyone wanting to write them as a way of publishing.

Finding Agents

When you are searching for an agent, you want to be sure they are reputable, have sold work for quality writers, and handle the kind of material you write.  The listings in the resources below will include this information.

If you have a book or book proposal, choose agents who consider your kind of work and inquire appropriately (the listings will tell you whether email or phone calls are acceptable as well as US mail inquiries) about their willingness to read your manuscript to consider for representation.  You can send it to several agents at a time if more than one request to see it.  When an agent agrees to represent your material, they may ask for exclusive rights to do so for a specified amount of time.  When you send your inquiry, you will want to explain why you think the agent will be interested in representing your work, what it is about and why you are the right person to write it.  When you send the manuscript, be sure to send a good looking copy and a cover letter that thanks the agent for her interest as well as reminds the agent of anything spoken or written between you vis a vis her interest in your work.

Writer’s Digest’s The Writer’s Market includes listings of agents and literary agencies as well as example over letters and information.

The Writer’s Guide to Book Editors, Publishers, and Literary Agents, Prima Publishing, is another useful resource.

Visit http://www.aar-online.org/ for useful information from The Association of Author’s Representatives, including information about ethics and lists of member agents.