Monday, March 12, 2012

The Tools of the Trade

Every craftsman has his own set of tools, whether they are necessary to his work or simply make it easier. In my own writing experience I’ve found several different books that I use as tools to make writing easier and which I refer to again and again. I am sure you are already familiar with most of these, but some may be new. I thought I would share them in the hope that those who read this list will find them useful.

1. The Dictionary
Arguably, this is the most important resource for the writer. Whether looking for correct spelling, precise definitions, or simply obscure and interesting words, you are likely to resort to the dictionary quite often in your writing career. If you are ever unsure about the exact meaning of a word, it is a good idea to look it up so you don’t use it incorrectly.
Besides the English dictionary there are other kinds of dictionaries that can be of service to the writer such as,
* Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary
This was one of the earliest dictionaries and was compiled by one man, Samuel Johnson, in 1755. It was the best dictionary to be had for many years and you will often hear it alluded to in old books. Dr. Johnson created some rather original and humorous definitions, such as the one for oats: “a grain which in England is given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people,” and “Monsieur: a term of reproach for a Frenchman.” (Regrettably, Johnson was prejudiced against the Scots and the French.) This dictionary is not used very much any more, but it still has great literary merit.
* Rhyming Dictionary
On the rare occasions that I am inspired to write poetry my rhyming dictionary becomes my bosom companion. This is also a very useful dictionary for learning correct pronunciations.
* English-Foreign Language Dictionaries
Of course this type is usually used when learning a foreign language or visiting a foreign country, but they can be useful when writing as well. For instance, an English-French dictionary is useful when you wish to use a French word and don’t want to look stupid. There are dictionaries for almost any language (I have found one for English-Scots Gaelic) and you may want to have a whole shelf of them to use in case you write a story with a Frenchman in it—or a German, or Swede, or Chinaman, or Russ...
* On-line Dictionaries
There are many of these, but Wiktionary and Dictionary.com are easy to use and exhaustive.

There are many other kinds of dictionaries, such as medical dictionaries, Bible dictionaries, scientific dictionaries, dictionaries of similes, dictionaries of quotations, etc. You may or may not find them useful to your writing.

2. The Encyclopaedia
I personally refer to the encyclopaedia even oftener than the dictionary. This is because I more frequently want to know precise information about an individual, country, or thing, rather than simply the definition of a word. And, of course, there are many different encyclopaedias, but here are my favourites.
* The Encyclopaedia Britannica
Some consider this prestigious work the greatest literary accomplishment in the English language and some, the sum of all knowledge. Though both opinions are debatable, this is certainly the most extensive, well-written, and famous set of encyclopaedias.
* The World Book Encyclopaedia
Our set was published in the 1960s so it lacks more recent data. Even so, although not a very good reference, I have found it useful and interesting reading.
* On-line Encyclopaedias
These have the advantage of containing reams of regularly updated information without taking up a whole bookshelf. Wikipedia is probably the most extensive of the on-line encyclopaedias. There is also an on-line version of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

3. The Thesaurus
This, I think, is the reference I use the most when writing. A thesaurus is a book of words grouped with other words that mean the same thing. It is very useful when you have a wonderful word in mind but can’t quite remember what it is, or when you discover that you have used the word “suddenly” in three consecutive paragraphs and want to change it for something less redundant. I am familiar primarily with Roget’s Thesaurus and the automatic thesaurus on Microsoft Word, which although it is convenient, is not as exhaustive. There are, as you likely expected, on-line thesauruses as well, such as Thesaurus.com.

The above are the most important tools for a writer and the ones that I personally use the most, but there are lots of others. I’ve included my favourites below, and perhaps they don’t entirely fit in this category, but as I have found them helpful I thought I would share them.

1. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature was published by John Bartlett in 1855. Since then there have been seventeen revisions of the book which is now commonly known as Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. It contains thousands of quotations from hundreds of authors, from Ptahhotep to Ronald Reagan, categorized chronologically by the authors’ birthdates. Some people recommend reading the dictionary or the encyclopaedia to broaden your general knowledge. This book will increase your knowledge of literature specifically and great people in general by perusal. If you want to know what Karl Marx, for instance, had to say (or Sigmund Freud, or Albert Einstein, or Calvin Coolidge...) you can read his section in Bartlett’s and have a fairly good idea without having to read one of his books or a biography on his life. The excerpts you read may also encourage you to read the books they are from. Our copy of Bartlett’s is the fourteenth edition published in 1968. It appears to be the last good revision and is the one I recommend.

2. Baby name books
I refer to these quite often when creating names for characters in fictional stories. This resource may not be necessary for every writer but I resort to it a lot. I also collect names that I like or think interesting in a note-book.

3. Reverso
This is an on-line translation site. There are others, but this is the one I use generally. It comes in handy when, as I mentioned before, you have a story with foreign characters in it, or if you simply enjoy using different languages in your writing. You must however be careful when translating lines from English to another language or vice versa. Automatic translations are often inaccurate and you must remember that figures of speech will be translated literally.

4. The Bible
This is another reference that one would not immediately associate with writing, but I find myself using it often enough to justify inclusion in this article. A large part of our conversation is made up of scriptural allusions—even that of people who don’t read the Bible! And, although this is certainly one of the least of its good uses, I have gotten a lot of good book and chapter titles from lines or expressions in the Bible.

5. The Atlas
This comes in very handy when creating the setting for a story.

6. The Belletrist
It is true that we have only published eight issues of the Belletrist so far, but we have included much useful information in them and you will probably refer to them often as you progress with your writing.[1]

Here, then, are my favourite writing tools. I hope they will prove as useful to others as they have to myself. -A.M.P

[1] The author appears to be employing a tone of facetiousness in this paragraph. –the editors

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