Friday, November 11, 2011

Good advice for writers, at every corner.

Maybe because it's NaNo. Or, maybe it's because more aspiring writers are emerging. But lately, I've been noticing advice for writers is rampant right now, if you know where to look. (Or maybe this has always been true, and I haven't been looking properly.)

I found the first through an email newsletter I received through Writer's Digest. It's from Robert Lee Brewer, who writes a blog entitled My Name is Not Bob. He talks about 11 Tips for Writers and ways to build and maintain the momentum necessary for a professional writing career (with a particular focus on blogging).

On to Janice Hardy, author of The Healing Wars Trilogy, who always provides a wealth of good information about writing and getting published. Her latest post talks about what to do when your story stalls in the middle, and strides you can make to get it up and running again. If you're in the throes of revising, check out this piece about macro vs. micro editing. If your story is already finished, her tips on the submission process are also helpful.

If you find yourself being discouraged by the whole writing/publishing process, this guest post by Sara Zarr is a necessary read.

Now that we've heard from writers, what do agents have to say? One of the best places for this is BookEnds, LLC, an agent blog I mentioned in my last post. Check out their latest post about accepting criticism. Another good agent to follow is Janet Reid. She spells out exactly what she wants in a query and occasionally posts 100 word contests for blog commenters.

I think that covers most of the bases. Your mind swimming yet? I've found the best way to filter through the available information (especially information that's constantly updated) is to set up RSS feeds. As a refresher, an RSS feed is an alert you can set up in your internet toolbar to notify you when someone has updated their blog. If you are unsure about how to set up an RSS feed, I highly recommend the following video.

Happy Veterans' Day, everyone!

1 comment:

rae ng said...

thanks for the tips!

just an observation- it may not only be new writers emerging, but also more outlets for people to express themselves (ex. blogspot!)

xoxo,rae