Article Dumping: Writer's Block Edition

A new week!

Monday:

• Cheryl Reif Writes: What’s Weighing You Down: Improving one aspect of your life can help improve everything else.
• Help! I Need a Publisher!: Publishers are in it to make money - get over it: And you want food on the table too.
• TalkToYoUniverse: What's in a "strong female character"?: Patience, consideration for others, and persistence.
• Mystery Writing is Murder: Why One Traditionally-Published Author is Now Choosing Self-Publishing—by Jessica Park: An actually thoughtful post of an author who New York screwed over.

edited 30th Apr '12 5:58:27 PM by chihuahua0

Tuesday:

• edittorent: Want to be an editor when you grow up? :): It requires more than a knack at editing.
• YA Indie: My Experience with BookRooster, a book review service: Looks expensive, but it might be worth looking at the other side of it.
• The Other Side of the Story: Guest Author Sherry Thomas: The Writing of Boys: Only four points, but those points are effective.
• Rebecca Kiel: Is your character stressed?: With a list of most stressful to less stressful.

Wednesday:

• Rachelle Gardner: Are Agents Running Scared?: They shouldn't be—if they're staying with the times.
• Courage 2 Create: The Obsessed Writer’s Guide To Crawling Your Way Back To Sanity: This is also an useful post for writers with the opposite problem.
• YA Indie: You know you're a self-publisher when ...: An oldie, but an amusing one.
• Kristen Lamb's Blog: Big Six Publishing is Dead–Welcome the Massive Three: One person's thoughts on why traditional publishing is going to bite the dust soon.

edited 3rd May '12 3:07:35 PM by chihuahua0

Thursday:

• Suite T: Writing for Kids from a Faith-Based Perspective: An interesting look into religious fiction.
• The Write Practice: 5 Tips to Trap Your Characters: A guest post by me who likes digging a hole, shoving your character into it, and watching them climb out.

edited 3rd May '12 4:02:44 PM by chihuahua0

The problem with the whole "physical publishing is DOOOOMED" narrative, I feel, is twofold: It fails to take into account either the potential of small publishing houses (particularly specialist publishers) to fill the void left by larger conglomerates or the power of the physical medium as a sensory experience. The latter is especially important, in that by assuming that the words are the sole thing that matter, we miss the fact that reading a book is very much a tactile experience, one influenced by the size, shape and other physical qualities of the volume in hand. There's also the fact that a word might catch your eye on a page where it wouldn't on a screen, and how the flipping of pages allows for serendipity in the exploration of certain kinds of book. All in all, while I doubt that electronic media is going to die out in publishing, I don't think that the book as a medium is anywhere close to dead.

New week, new articles!

"Fun" fact: I opened so many tabs for this one, I crashed the browser. Also, the computer fan was wheezing. Guess I should be more careful tomorrow:

Monday:

• NA Alley: May I tell you something about NEW ADULT writing?: A great post on an emerging demographic.
• Jeff Goins: Writer: When We Stop Believing the Stories We Tell: Grown cynical? Follow the advice of the wise Flo Machina: "Shake it out!"
• The Write Practice: The Dramatic Question and Suspense in Fiction: Poise a question, set some obsta­cles.
• A Life Bound By Books: Guest Post: from my BFF & fellow blogger - Jessica from Confessions of a Bookaholic: Four quirks involving books.

I guess I'm a New Adult fantasy writer. Hopefully, by the time I'm ready to publish, the genre will be more popular.

I actually thought of you while reading about the topic, in fact. You keep talking about your novel's strange position in terms of audience.

Putting Wilhelm in college and not having Bianca in school at all freed up their schedules a bit, making it more plausible for them to keep up with the things that they do. I don't regret it, even if I might get a flood of rejection letters. I can always write something else in the meantime :P

edited 7th May '12 5:38:18 PM by SnowyFoxes

Tuesday:

• YA Highway: How to Make a Series Bible (Guest Post by Michelle Schusterman): The power of color-coding and organization in eight steps.
• The Writers Alley: Creating the Lie: A concept similar to the "dramatic question".
• Jami Gold, Paranormal Author: Does Every Scene Need a Goal?: I need to get back to this, since scene-sequel is a concept that sort of confuses me.
• YA Indie: Life into Fiction: Why you shouldn't be afraid to write about your experiences.

At the request of JHM: http://johnwiswell.blogspot.com/2012/04/dont-write-fantasy.html

A very interesting article I found.

edited 8th May '12 8:29:03 PM by Nightwire

* stands up and applauds *

Wednesday:

• From the Write Angle: Coming of Age: You don't just wake up when you turn eighteen.
• The Creative Penn: Is It Worth Being An Author? Truly?: Respect is priceless. Money is a bonus.
• Jane Friedman: What Can Stop Your Career From Ever Starting: Fear, and two ways to deal with it.
• YA Indie: Pirated ebooks; OMG I've been pirated!: It's more about the smashed window than the astray.
• Artzicarol Ramblings: 15 Things NOT to Blog About: For bloggers.

For some reason, this day has been quite profitable. Either that, or it just clicked in a different way. Opinions?

Thursday:

• I Am Only Myself: Really, America? More “Piracy is Wrong” Screens? Seriously?: Another reason why pirates have it easy.
• Jami Gold, Paranormal Author: Are Ebooks Ever Done?: Art is malleable, but it's no excuse for being lazy.
• 13 Reasons You Should Quit Writing: Or, signs of being a narcissistic Prima Donna.
• The Write Practice: Why You Should Read Peer Fiction: Check out the contest entries!
• Alexandra Sokoloff: Setpiece Scenes - the unlimited production budget: Won't be spoiled in book trailers!
• Victoria's Pages of Romance: Developing Intimacy In Romance Novels p.3: With a bonus Step 13.

It always makes me squee inside to find another author who understands and says this. ^_^

Character Body Language Cheat Sheet

I usually don't do these on the weekends, but:

Special Weekend Round-up:

• I Am Only Myself: u soock: Creator's Breakdown self-demonstrated.
• Let thoughts steep longer. Troper Bloghop #1: Meaningful Name: Harry Potter has a chockload of them.
• Cross-up: Look! The East is Burning Red!: Why hot-blooded characters work.
• The Rubbish Bin: Your Vampires Suck Sucks: An explanation one why poking at other people's vampires can get your bitten.
• Penmanship Olive Trees: A brief summary of a Trope: The Caligula: An monomaniacal ruler, to be frank.
• Jennifer Represents: ProTips for Published Authors pt 2: THE BOOKSTORE EVENT: One in your own town, one in your mother's.

Monday:

• The Passive Voice: Many authors are able to make a living with their writing with Harlequin: A response to a post by an agent. How does a 2.4 royalty rate sound?
• Rebecca Kiel: Make panic believeable: With a list that can work with general fear too.
• Rachelle Gardner: Keep Money in Its place: Your first book won't solve financial problems.
• The Creative Penn: Who Says Your Writing Dreams Have To Be Sensible Or Realistic?: Use it to fuel your goals!
• YA Indie: Seven Things I've Learned about Indie Publishing (so far)...: Great opinions on book bloggers and social media.
• NA Alley: May I tell you something about New Adult writing? : It's a response to agents and publishers.
• The Write Practice: 7 Tricks to Write More with Less Willpower: Your brain provides answers to questions that you ask.

Depends whats 2.4 royalty rate mean?

Tuesday:

• YA Confidential: Real Teen Answers: Highlight? The mixed opinions on dystopians.
• Copyblogger: How to be a World-Changing Writer: Be meaningful, sticky, and authentic.

Wednesday:

• Time to Write: Stuck on the story of your novel or screenplay? Play possible futures.: An exercise of various plot lines that I should try out one day.
• Jane Friedman: When Self-Publishing Is More Useful As a Marketing Tool: Business skills are required in self-pub.
• Roni Loren: Follow At Your Own Risk: Why My Social Media Shouldn't Have To Be G-Rated: An excellent post on why catering to your audience is better than lowering your bar for the sake of being wholesome.
• Writability: Do You Listen to Music While Writing?: The up and downsides of K-Pop.

Thursday:

• The Writers Alley: Just Tell Me, Already!: Skips through time or distance, helps pacing, have a "wowsers" moment.
• The Other Side of the Story: Did I Just Say That? When Characters Say Dumb Things: Where you're allowed to have mess ups.
• A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Exploited Writers in an Unfair Industry: Another mega-post on why traditional publishing needs to giddy-up.
• Time to Write: If you are what your read...what about what you write?: Writing and researching criminals can drive you crazy.
• YA Highway: 8 Things You Might Not Know About the New York Times Bestseller List: #2: It's on a week delay.

It occurs to me that I haven't mentioned how much I enjoy checking through the links you post here, chihuahua 0.

So I will.

Thank you.

I should check these out one of these days.

I agree with this statement.

Also I posted about this in daily as well but I really think people should check out Extra Credits it is techincally not an article and not really writing related but regardless they do often give out good writing/story telling related advice.