Links of Interest to Writers

For those in the United States, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Here are a few articles to read while digesting all that food! (Those living outside the U.S. can just eat a lot of food and enjoy the articles without having to put up with all those family members.)

• The Business of Being an Author:  How Hard Will You Work to Fulfill Your Dream? by Marquita Herald

• The Narrative Breakdown (Podcast):  Storytelling in Front of a Live Audience with Melanie Hamlett

• The Write Conversation : Tips to Adjust Your Writing Schedule and Enjoy the Holidays 

• WUSF:  What Children's Authors Make of Common Core & Education Policy by Sammy Mack
• Book Riot:  Common Core:  What it Means for Fiction in Schools by Josh Corman

• Flavorwire:  The Greatest Monsters in Children's Literature by Alison Nastasi

• The New York Times Sunday Book Review:  100 Notable Books of 2013

Links of Interest to Writers

Here are today's offerings. Writing stuff I found on the Internet:

• The Kill Zone:  Crafting an Effective Opening  by Clare Langley-Hawthorne 

• Mental Floss:  Famous Novelists on Symbolism in Their Work & Whether It Was Intentional by Lucas Reilly

• Kirkus:  Best Children's Books of 2013

• Publishing Crawl: Twisting Your Plot by Marie Lu 

• Stavros Halvatzis:  How to Choose Character Names

• The Bane of Your Resistance:  No Time to Write -- Really?  by Rosanne Bane

Links of Interest to Writers

Spent a great four days at a Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators retreat at Silver Falls State Park near Silverton, Oregon. What fun to be in the company of other writers and talk writing, walk writing, and sleep writing! Inspiring and motivating. A similar feeling happens when I read blog posts with great writing advice like these:

• Lauren Sapala:  The One Thing You're Doing to Block Your Writing Success

• Mystery Writing is Murder:  The Ability to Single-Task by Elizabeth S. Craig

• Writers Helping Writers:  Mystery Writing Basics:  Characters & Plot by Staci Troilo

• An Intense Life:  The Elusive Search for Balance by Christine Fonseca

• Slate:  A Textual Analysis of The Hunger Games:  Suzanne Collins' favorite adjectives, adverbs, & ways of starting a sentence. By Ben Blatt

• The New York Times Sunday Review:  Art Makes You Smart by Brian Kisida, Jay P. Greene, & Daniel H. Bowen

Links of Interest to Writers

Here are some writing articles full of great advice!

• W.I.P It:  8 Benefits of Writing by Lynda R. Young

• Angela Booth's Writing Blog:  Flow:  The Ideal Writing Mind State

• From the Write Angle:  A Case for "Nicer" Villains by R. C. Lewis

• Babbles from Scott Eagan:  What Makes Your Story Stand Out?

• Jamie Gold:  Using Conflict to Understand Our Characters

• Judy Lee Dunn:  Can You Name 99 Things You Love in 10 Minutes?

• Writer's First Aid:  Thinking:  First Backward and Then Forward

Links of Interest to Writers

Here are a few articles about writing you might find useful.

• Writers Helping Writers:  Conflict vs Tension by Becca Puglisi

• The Write Practice:  What is an Idiom? Funny Examples by Liz Bureman
• Wikipedia:  List of English-language Idioms

• Poets & Writers:  Literary Magazine Database

• Ploughshares:  14 Ways to Tick Off a Writer by Rebecca Makkai

• Buffer:  What Storytelling Does to Our Brains

• Brian Klem's Writer's Digest Blog:  How to Make Your Setting a Character

Links of Interest to Writers

Learn something new about writing!

• Adventures in YA Publishing:  Inspired Openings:  Write to Discover by Todd Mitchell

• All Write - Fiction Advice:  How to Write Dramatic Dialogue

• Brain Pickings:  How Hans Christian Andersen Revolutionized Storytelling, Plus the Best Illustrations from 150 Years of His Beloved Fairy Tales

• Anne R. Allen's Blog:  Are Your Family & Friends Sabotaging Your Writing Dreams?

• Writer's Circle:  Tech Tools for Writers:  Storyometer by Stephanie Ostroff

• Author Magazine:  An Interview with Andre Dubus III

Links of Interest to Writers

Here's to good reading and writing!

• Daily Writing Tips:  How Many Words in Your Vocabulary? by Maeve Maddox

• Shallee McArthur:  The Power of the First Draft

• Mark & Angel Hack Life:  10 Harsh Realities that Help You Grow

• Publisher's Weekly:  Best Books of 2013

• NPR Books:  How Cynthia Rylant Discovered The Poetry of Storytelling

• A. Victoria Mixon, Editor:  3 Vital Steps to Creating Your Protagonist for NaNoWriMo

Links of Interest to Writers

Here's some great advice on writing!

• AuthorCulture:  Revision Decisions by Jody Bailey Day

• Kayla Currie:  My Marketing Advice for Beginning Authors

• Huff Post Books:  Why Agents Reject 96% of Author Submissions by Heather Hummel

• Writer's Fun Zone:  Give Your Characters Tough Goals by Kay Keppler

• Matthew Schuler:  Why Creative People Sometimes Make No Sense

• Reece Ryan:  5 Ways Introverts Can Succeed Without Forcing Themselves to Become Extroverts

Links of Interest to Writers

Here's some great reading on writing!

• The Blood Red Pencil:  When Your Story Takes a Vacation - 5 Ways to Cope by Shon Bacon

• Writers Helping Writers:  Creative Book Launches That Command Attention

• The Character Therapist:  Time, Talent, & Treasure:  What It Reveals About Your Character

• Babbles from Scott Eagan:  Does Your Dialogue Match Your Character?

• The Virtual Author:  10 Tips for Authors. Getting The Most Value From Beta Readers

• Author, Jody Hedlund:  Author Marketing:  Having Multiple Strategies

Links of Interest to Writers

Read, read, read, write, write, write, revise, revise, revise - the cycle of life!

• File this under creative ways with books! Mental Floss:  13 Sculptures Made Out of Books

• PiBoldMo Day 12:  Elizabeth Rose Stanton Procrastidoodles

• Lauren Sapala:  Taking Emotions Risks in Your Writing

• Publisher's Weekly:  Best Children's Books of 2013

• PUB(Lishing) Crawl:  A Peek at an Editor's To-Do List by Jordan Hamessley London

• The League of Extraordinary Writers:  Building a Story From Atmosphere by Bethany Hagen

Links of interest to Writers

Here are some writing nuggets to inspire you.

• Writer's Fun Zone:  Want To Write a Novel? (But Don't Know How To Begin?) by Beth Barany

• Writability:  Why Do Your Characters Like Each Other?

• Time to Write:  Is This The formula for Creativity?

• Word Serve Water Cooler:  5 Writing Rules I've Learned from Pixar

• Wise Ink:  Our Favorite Online Resources for Writing Mechanics

• Nathan Bransford:  Favorite Writing Tips (from readers)

Links of Interest to Writers

Even if you're not participating in NaNoWriMo, you can still ride the energy and write as much as you can!

• Project Eve:  10 Tips to How to Stop Procrastinating by Danielle Boulton

• K. M. Weiland:  3 Signs You Should Give Up on Your Story

• Stavro Shalvatzis:  Positive & Negative Story Space

• QueryTracker:  Book Blogging for Fun & Profit  by Sarah Pinneo

• Brain Pickings:  20-Year-Old Hunter S. Thompson's Superb Advice on How to Find Your Purpose and Live a Meaningful Life by Maria Popova

• PUB(lishing) Crawl:  Simple Tricks to Unstick Your Story: The Domino Effect by Susan Dennard

• The Other Side of the Story:  Give It a Rest - Poetic Pauses in your Writing by Robyn Hood Black

Links of Interest to Writers

It's NaNoWriMo time! Write like a house on fire!

• Marion Dane Bauer:  Creating Characters

• YALSA - The Hub:  Dealing with Death in YA Lit

• Writer Unboxed:  Newton's Law for Novelists by Donald Maass

• Terrible Minds:  NaNoWriMo Dialogues:  "I Think I Suck and I'm Not a Real Writer" (A great flow chart to help you determine if you're a "real" writer!)

• Positive Writer:  Shattering the Myths about the Midas Touch and Success by Brian Hutchinson

• Plot Whisperer for Writers and Readers:  NaNoWriMo Plot and Writing Schedule & Resources for 11/13

• Paulo Coelho's Blog:  Ideal Conditions Don't Exist

Links of Interest to Writers

Here are some tips that may help motivate your writing.

• Writing for Kids While Raising Them: PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) Day 4:  Katie Davis Illustrates 30 Days of Inspiration

• Writability: Helpful NaNoWriMo Links

• Write it Sideways:  Use a Nonlinear Format to Grab Your Reader by the Eyeballs by Clayton Lindemuth

• Writers in the Storm Blog:  Why Writerly Words Are Not Your Friend by Shannon Donnelly

• Storyfix:  Elevate Your Storytelling Game by Larry Brooks

• Avi:  The Kindest Cut of All

• The Character Therapist:  How to Communicate Needs to Non-Writing Partners by Jeannie Campbell

Links of Interest to Writers

Are you serious about writing? Study and write - two important secrets!

• Emma Dryden:  Falling In Lust With Our First Draft (Or, What Not To Do On A First Date)

• A Writer's Journey:  Structured Descriptions by Nat Russo

• The New York Times Sunday Book Review:  Writing Bytes (Writers talk about what new technologies mean for storytelling.)

• Project Mayhem: Chris Eboch Writing Tip: How to Write Vivid Scenes

• Writing Forward:  Your Characters Aren't Your Children by Joshua Danton Boyd

• GalleyCat:  NaNoWriMo Tip #1:  Establish a Writing Schedule

• GalleyCat:  NaNoWriMo Tip #2:  Create an Outline

Links of Interest to Writers

Learn something new today!

• Adventures in Agentland:  Copyright Basics:  All You Ever Really Didn't Want to Know (and More) by Natalie Lakosil

• GalleyCat:  Can You Include Song Lyrics in Your Book? by Jason Boog

• YA Muses:  Finding Your Story's True North by Lia Keyes

• Harvard Business Review:  Why You Might Make a Better Decision After a Quick Game of Solitaire by Andrew O'Connell

• Write to Done:  5 Ways Your Journal Can Take You Deeper into Your Story by Claire DeBoer

• Amy Tan on Historical Research

• Writer Unboxed:  You Want to Write, or Do You Want to Be a Writer? by Julianna Baggott 

Links of Interest to Writers

Here are seven blog posts about writing I found informative.

• The Sharp Angle:  Defining the Potential for Conflict in Your Premise by Lydia Sharp 

• Publisher's Weekly:  A Conversation with Tomie dePaola

• Daily Writing Tips:  10 Pairs of Words and Their Useful Distinctions by Mark Nichol

• Gail Carson Levine:  Memorable MC (Main Character)

Here are some fun ways to keep track of your word counts:

• Sarah's Journal:  Stuff I've Learned:  Writing Log by Sarah Beth Durst

• Laini Taylor's Blog:  Word Count Calendar (of Cuteness)

• Justine Larbalestier:  Small Word Count Goals (& a way to use Scrivener to keep track)

Links of Interest to Writers

Read a little before diving into your writing.

• Writer's Digest:  10 Dos & Don'ts For the Aspiring Novelist by Chuck Sambuchino

• Mystic Scribes:  Achieving NaNo Success:  Schedules, Approaches, Top Tips

• QueryTracker:  Your Author Playlist by Sarah Pinneo

• Nathan Bransford:  How to Find a Writing Style That Works for You

• Institute of Children's Literature:  Don't Start This Way -- Unless it Works by Jan Fields

• Nick Daw's Writing Blog:  The Submission Grinder -- A Free Alternative to Duotrope

• Rebeca Schiller:  Tools for Writers Presentation (Scrivener, Aeon Timeline, Scapple, & Tinderbox)