By contrast, Dorothea Brandes book is awesome because it is so simple. Anyone that can read, can be a writer. Skill is something that can be developed with practice. While a lot of us will never reach the heights of some of the greats, there is little stopping us from being moderately successful. Developing the habit of writing is absolutely critical.

I am really glad that you have had some use out of that toolbox page. My aim was to put all the stuff that I had found useful on one page, so if someone asked for a recommendation I could just link that page. Guess it has served its purpose, although it does need some additions and changes as I have learned a bit more. The problem these days is that I write a lot, but little of it gets back onto my personal blog. It is all over the internet instead.

Speaking of Dorothea Brande’s book, I recently ordered it per your recommendation as well. I’m really excited for it to come in the mail and I definitely plan on doing each exercise available. I’ve been trying to do that with Bell’s and it really helps to reinforce what I learn. That and it is actually making me write stuff for a book idea that I’ve been playing with!

No matter what, I’m going to stick to this and see it through. Your posts, believe it not, have helped me a lot and you already know that I’m checking out the books in your toolbox. Great stuff.

You are most welcome. I only review books on this site that I have actually found useful – this one was a gem, at least to me.

Yes, I have read other books in the “Write Great Fiction” series and I am a fan of Writers Digest books generally. Looking at my bookshelf in this room I can see five from this series on the shelf including Mr Bell’s other book on Self Editing. They are all pretty good, except one which shall remain nameless.

Scheduling is an issue for me too. I think many writers suffer with this and it stops them achieving as much as they should.

Have a read of Dorothea Brande’s book – “Becoming a Writer“. Developing the habit of writing will help you more than anything else and Dorothea’s work is probably the single best book on the subject – but only if you do the exercises she suggests. It helped me change from a 400 word a month wannabee into a 4-5,000 word a day semi-pro. (My grammar and proofreading skills still suck. I just write more rubbish these days!)