Writing Resources
Twitter:
For those on Twitter, here’s the list of writers and agents I’ve found useful to follow:
Twitter List of Writers and Agents
Blogs:
Kidlit.com
Written by Mary Kole, an associate agent at the Andrea Brown Literary Agency and writer of Young Adult and Middle Grade fiction. She mixes writing advice with publishing industry advice, and takes questions from readers for future blog posts. Her articles are always informative and definitely a great resource for anyone aspiring to become a published author. Go subscribe to this blog. Now.
Favorite Posts:
- Querying with a Series and Series in General
- A Million Bad Words
- Manuscript Length
- Should I Send a Revision to Agents Looking at My Work?
- Tag, You’re It! How to Write Dialogue Tags
- The Name Game
- Impatience is a Writer’s Worst Enemy
- What Makes a Character?
- Fix Your Beginning
- Supertaunt Tension and Sizzling Stakes
- Writing a Hot Plot
- Brainstorms and Tips
- Writing Conferences: Should You or Shouldn’t You?
- Pitchcraft
- How to Layer Points of View
Query Shark
Query Shark is an essential read if you’re planning to send out queries at any point in the semi-near future. (It’s also a bit of a hilarious read. Reality TV for writers, complete with train wrecks and ‘oh no they didn’t's.)
Gabrielle Edits
Written by Gabrielle Harbowy, a professional editor for Dragon Moon Press. She provides excellent advice on how to improve your fiction, as well as insight into the publishing industry.
Favorite Posts:
PubRants
Written by an agent, Kristen. Her blog deals mostly with the publishing industry – queries, trends, the behind the scenes of writers’ contracts, and the like.
Favorite Posts:
BookEnds, LLC – A Literary Agency
Written by literary agent and cofounder of BookEnds, LLC, Jessica Faust. She answers questions and posts about the publishing industry and writing in general, including advice on editing, writing as a career, and how to attract an agent.
Scott Tracey
Scott is an author whose Witch Eyes series I am eagerly awaiting. His blog mixes writing advice, a writer’s perspective of the publishing industry, and some interesting randomness. I admit, 70% of the reason I follow this blog is for news of when Witch Eyes is out, but the advice found within has been more than worth reading.
Rants & Ramblings: On Life as a Literary Agent
Written by literary agent Rachelle Gardner. Her blog mostly covers the publishing industry – marketing, finances, and working with agents.
Favorite Posts:
- Four Major Marketing Principles Part 2
- Heard It Through the Grapevine
- Wake Up and Smell the Coffee?
- Top Ten Query Mistakes
- Keeping Money in Its Place
- Keeping Track of Things
Gail Carson Levine
Gail is the author of a number of Young Adult books including Ella Enchanted, Ever, and Fairest. She offers wonderful advice for aspiring authors.
Favorite Posts:
- Playing With Blocks
- Whose Eyes? Whose Voice?
- Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
- Everything Mattering
TERRIBLEMINDS
Written by Chuck Wendig, a freelance writer who’s done a lot of work for White Wolf Game Studio, as well as reaching into novels and screenplays. His advice is always humorously delivered and well worth the read, both for the informative content and the strangeness that his writing exudes.
Favorite Posts:
- Repeat After Me: “No Unitaskers”
- Souls For the Soulless: Advice on Characters in Fiction
- How to Write Horror: The Weirdo Argues With Himself
- The End of the Beginning: Now the Real Work Begins
- Crap Habits of a Highly Ineffective Professional Writer
- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Rewrite
- Strangling My Darlings in a Clawfoot Bathtub
- Writers Don’t Do That
- Conversations With Your Characters: On Building the Character Bible
- Characters Make Talky Talky: How to Write Dialogue That Doesn’t Suck
- Every Writer is a Baseball Card
Flat Out Rejected
For those of us that need the ego boost of realizing that we’re not the only ones who get rejection letters in the mail.
Articles About Writing (General):
- Writing in the Age of Distraction
- 13 Writing Tips From Chuck Palahniuk
- How Not to Write
- Annie Dillard and the Writing Life
- Writing Habits of Successful Authors
- Everyone Hates Their Job Sometimes
- Writer’s Block
- Embracing Inappropriate, Violent & Blasphemous: Three Writers Make Negative Reviews a Fashion Statement…
- Kiss of Death: The Renaissance Writer
- What the Heck is High Concept?
- Bigger Really is Better
- Overwriters Anonymous
- How to Make Your Novel a Page Turner
- A Few Words Every New Writer Should Know
- In Which I am the Bearer of Very Bad News
- Newbie Writers: A Warning on the Nature of Advice
- 12 Successful Sci-Fi Authors Who’ve Written Racy Fanfic
- O Fortune, Fortune!
- Elmore Leonard’s Ten Rules of Writing
- 100 Hacks to Help You Become a Better Writer
- Keeping Track of Details
Young Adult
Inspiration and Ideas:
- Stock Character Cliches
- Inspiration
- Avoiding the Overdone
- Are your characters falling through gaps in your writing?
- Outlining Your Novel: Why and How
Articles About Hooks and Openings:
- The Most Important Sentence: How to Write a Killer Opening
- Beginnings
- A Big Mistake to Avoid in Story Openings
Articles About Description and Dialogue:
- Writing Better Dialogue
- Rules of Three
- 7 Tips to Nail the Perfect Title for Your Novel
- Dialogue: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
- More on Descriptions: The When and Why
- On Descriptions and Breathing
Articles About Plot and Characterization:
- There’s Always Conflict
- Pace Charts
- Loving Your Characters Too Much
- Galumphing Towards Triumph
- Creating Storylines
- Revising Your Character
- Character Developing Thoughts (Fictional Characters That Is)
- Outline Level of Plot
- Giving my Characters Voice
- Romance From the Guy’s Perspective
- Voice: An Agent’s Perspective
- Cutting Characters You Love
- Definition of Plot for Writers
- The Series Bible
- Real People Have Real Flaws
- Why Subplot?
- How to Craft a Great Voice
Worldbuilding
Articles About Writing Sex:
Articles About Revision and Editing:
- Tips for First Drafting
- Scarf Weather Answers Part Eleven: Editing
- The End is Really the Beginning
- No Adverbs
- Beginners’ Four Faults
- How to Respond to a Manuscript Critique/Editorial Letter
- Self-Editing
- One-Pass Manuscript Revision
- Nine Tips to Productive Revision
- About Those Revise and Resubmits…
Articles About Agents and Querying:
- Acquiring an Agent
- Make Me a Match
- Yes, Virginia, You Need an Agent
- 7 Reasons Agents Stop Reading Your First Chapter
- What’s Not to Like?
- On Agent Responses
- One Page Summaries
- Why Your Story Was Rejected
- Overzealous is Your Middle Name
- What Not to Do When You Get a Rejection
- Why You Should Never Submit Unagented to Publishing Companies
- Dealing With Agents
- How to Sign With an Agent
- So You Can’t Seem to Land an Agent – Now what?
- Turn One Agent’s No Into Another Agent’s Yes
- Bad Blog! No Cookie For You
- Query Etiquette
Articles About Publishing and the Industry:
- On Word Counts and Novel Length
- The Best Way to Break Into Science Fiction Writing is Online Publishing
- Making a Case for Knowing Your Place
- Hard to Fly, Easy to Fall
- Attention Shoppers: Lessons Learned From a Book Signing Disaster
- 9 Tips for Successful Author Readings
- My Horrible New York Times Review
- The Publishing Lottery and Other Insults
- How a Book Gets Published
- The Process of Making a Book
- How to Complain About Your Publisher in Public
- Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Choosing to Leave a Publisher
Articles About Marketing and Publicity:
- Manifesto: I am Not a Brand
- Pimpin’ Your Book: What is Publicity & Marketing, Anyway?
- Pimpin’ Your Book: How to Work Effectively With Your Publicist
- Pre-Publicationg Book Marketing Activities
- Leave No Stone Unturned – Sell Through All Channels
- Defending Your Brand Online
- Online Platform Do’s and Don’ts
- Around the World ARC Tours
- The Great Big All You Can Stand Super Self-Promotion Post, Part 1