What to read on learning to how to write

For the past year, I've been struggling to improve my writing skills and I've gotten better, but I'm still not satisfied with the stories that I've written so far. When I wrote my first short story, a 40K YA romance, I didn't know anything and I hadn't read many books on the craft of writing. Months later, I've read a lot more more books and written thousands of words.

I have three drafts of romances: two contemporary and one YA. Another two unfinished drafts of about 16K each. I've read read approx. twenty-five random books on the craft of writing fiction. Most of them had some useful information. The books that I liked the best, at the moment, are:

• On Writing by Stephen King
• Revision and Self-Editing for Publication by James Scott Bell
• The Well-Crafted Sentence by Nora Bacon

What writing books have you new writers or authors found most helpful?

Back to writing or editing

It's been a long time but I'm getting back to posting once a week.

I haven't touched my story, Requited Love, in a month. Not sure if it'll ever see the light of day but I'm editing it this week. I did start another shorter story, a contemporary romance that I hope to send to an editor in two weeks. It's only about 30K.

Took most of the weekend off from writing much of anything. Back to watching Game of Thrones...

I wrote about a whopping 100 words last night. The snow just makes me want to watch a movie. I think that's what I'll do...

Well, it's been a few days since I posted. I intend posting every other day, for now. I've written very little, probably only a thousand words or so but I did read a good little book, Becoming a Writer by Dorethea Brande. One of the indie writers' blogs suggested it. It was definitely a good read. It's an oldie but still relevant and a very good pep talk for writers. I need a good technical book but it's hard to decide which one. I'm considering one of James Scott Bell's books on self-editing...

Writing too slowly

Well, over the past two days, I've only written about 1000 words. According to some statistics, I'm way behind the curve (Yeah, I know most statistics are questionable). I need to write at least 1K daily, at this point. I want the story to be about 40K, after the final draft. I think the next story will be a lot easier, if there is a next story. I'm pretty sure there will be. If you only knew me then you would know that it's a miracle that I've written over 30K, not much by most standards but huge for me.

You see, I'm a somewhat, almost completely reformed, procrastinator. I'm kinda enjoying it so far. So back to ywriter, my current, novel writing software to wrestle with my two young lovers, Lexie and Nick...

Hey, I'm Elly Loughlin and I'm just beginning my journey on becoming a writer, hence the title, Prebie/Newbie Writer. I'm currently employed in the IT industry and I really need a change. I've always loved to read fiction and non-fiction but in recent years I haven't read much except for technical IT books. I know it's a long shot but I would gladly never work in the IT industry again if I could write full-time. I don't know where this journey will take me but I'm ready to give it my all for the next year or two, after work and on the weekends.

To date, I've written an initial draft of ~ 32,000 words of a YA Romance  e-book with a tentative title of, "A Case of Requited Love".  This is all new to me but I'm excited to be doing something that I could potentially love. I hope to publish it in the next few months.