Condiments for the Writer

Lately, hubby and I have been sharing a car. This means I'm without a car during the day while he goes to work. He just started a new retail business and his days off are few and far between. He leaves at 8 AM and comes back around 10 PM, so regular grocery shopping has been out of the question. For the past couple of weeks, I've been out of condiments--you know, the usual stuff like mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup. Talk about dry sandwiches!

Even worse, my new intern had to forgo hand soap when going to the restroom. After she'd come out, I'd be holding a bottle of Palmolive dish washing liquid and say, "Would you like some of this to wash your hands? Sorry, we're out of...well, everything."

So when I finally got the car, I did some major shopping, and condiments were first on my list. You don't miss the simple things like mayo on bread until you don't have them! The same goes with writing. Without some handy "condiments" it's hard to produce quality writing. It's those little things we take for granted like:

• A Dictionary
• Thesaurus
• Microsoft Word
• Spell check
• Our favorite style guides: Chicago Manual of Style, AP Stylebook
• Our favorite must-have writing books: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, On Writing Well, The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters that Rock
• A comfy office chair

Those are some of my must-haves. Without some of them, my writing would be rather dry (like those sandwiches). So, what are your favorite writing condiments?