My Favourite Writing Resources - Kimberley Payne

About a year ago, my family packed up our home and moved an hour north. In the process, I had to say goodbye to my built-in bookshelves and reduce my personal library from seven full shelves to only three. As a writer getting rid of books felt like giving away a piece of myself. But it had to be done. I had to evaluate each book individually to determine if it would make the cut.

The most valuable books I kept included those written by authors I personally know including Ray Wiseman’s Write Better! A Writing Tip for Every Month of the Year and Marcia Laycock’s Abundant Rain – Inspiring Words for Writers of Faith. Of course, the benefit of ebooks is that I was able to keep Donna Fawcett’s Duke the Chihuahua Writes! A Tutorial for Beginning Writers, Melanie Fisher’s Ya…But How – Online Platform Building for the Very, Very Beginner! and Ruth Snyder’s books Learn Twitter. I’ve got a number of anthologies including As the Ink Flows – Devotions to Inspire Christian Writers and Speakers and 7 Essential Habits of Christian Writers (in which I have two pieces).

Books I’ve referenced a number of times include Stephen King’s On Writing – A Memoir of the Craft, and How to Take the Fog out of Writing by Robert Gunning and Douglas Mueller. Although I’m a non-fiction writer, I’ve returned time and again to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King.

Besides books, there are resources like blogs, podcasts, and webinars that are invaluable to writers. I’ve bookmarked websites from D’vorah Lansky (Book Marketing Made Easy) http://www.bookmarketingmadeeasy.com/, Karon Thackson (Marketing Words) https://www.marketingwords.com/ and Sandra Beckwith (Build Book Buzz) https://buildbookbuzz.com/.

I love to listen to podcasts as I putter around the house. The bonus is that they are free and can be listened to repeatedly. Podcasts I recommend include The Art of Work Conversations with Jeff Goins, This is Your Life with Michael Hyatt, The Creative Penn Podcast by Joanna Penn, and Author Audience: Helping you reach more people with your message with Shelley Hitz.

Although Facebook can be a time thief, there are worthwhile groups to join including Canadian Writers who are Christian and White Rose Writing – Spread God’s Word through Your Writing. I host a Facebook group called, Writer Helps, and post current information about upcoming writer’s contests, conferences, and books. If you’re on Facebook you’re invited to join and keep informed.

I also host a blog called Author Resources for Success at http://www.authorresources.wordpress.com. I’ve created specific tabs to cover such topics of interest as Amazon, articles, book tours, book covers, copywriting, fiction, marketing, podcasts, publishing, reviews, and more. 

Of course, conferences are invaluable to writers. I have personally attended Write Canada for the past 14 years and highly recommend it. For those living in western Canada, I’ve heard wonderful things about the Inscribe Conference. If you have opportunity to attend a one-day conference or workshop, it’s a great opportunity to learn and to meet like-minded individuals.

I’m always open to learn about new resources and I’d love to hear about your favourites.