Writing Prompts #3 a & b

3a) What was the first book you read seriously about writing once you decided that you were, in fact, a writer? Can be about craft, the business, or even the writing life. Was it helpful? Why or why not?

3b) Write a simile or metaphor that you have NEVER used before for each of the following colors, and, which one was hardest to come up with something for?

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Purple
Pink
White
Black
Grey
Brown


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Here’s mine:

3a) The first book I read once I decided that I was a Writer was “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Your Romance Published”, no lie.

I found it EXTREMELY helpful! It did two things for me. 1) got me started thinking about romance as a specific genre, with specific needs and requirements. This in turn started me thinking about the romance novel I wanted to write. 2) it gave me what I felt was a VERY realistic view of the odds of getting published, and the reality of how much money published authors don’t make. I have always written toward the goal of publication, and I feel that this started me off on the right foot. It didn’t give me a fairly tale version of a writer’s life. It laid out clearly (in general terms) how advances, taxes, contracts and other paperwork bits really worked. What I learned from reading the book has only been confirmed and expounded on since then. It was a great place for me to start.


3b)

Red as the inside of a dragon’s mouth
Orange as a car on fire
Yellow as a smoker’s once white walls
Green as five week old bread
Bluer than your fingers after a bag full of cotton candy
Purple as the Revenant Chestpiece (ok, that one failed >.< )
Pink as an unfortunate bridesmaid’s dress
White as a skunk’s stripe
Black as Halloween nail polish
Grey as the snow in boston
Brown as twisted sourdough pretzel

And purple was my hardest. Red I wrote first.