Article Dumping: Writer's Block Edition

Tuesday:

• This guide on premise was more extensive than I thought it would be. Nifty.
• Breaking News! Writer Hijacks Blog to Discuss Press Releases!

edited 9th Oct '12 4:44:18 AM by chihuahua0

I don't remember if this was added before, but it's done far more to help me develop voice then it had any right to do.

I think it was, but there's no harm in repeating good stuff.

Maybe, but it doesn't look familiar. Maybe someone else linked it?

In any case...

Wednesday:

• Two writing prompts: "I remember", and putting your iPod on shuffle. Oh, and comment on the article for the chance to win a critique!
• Read through this checklist to catch some of the most common writing mistakes.
• The winner of the Show Off Contest definitely earned it with a story of the South and religious infidelity.

By the way, what do you think of this slightly changed format? I'm not longer spending a lot of time on them, and it seems to be going smoothly.

edited 10th Oct '12 2:36:11 PM by chihuahua0

Thursday:

• A guest author describes one way to get unstuck when writing a story: a panel of characters.

I posted this Live Journal entry a few days ago: Some thoughts on writing about other cultures. And a joke. In the second paragraph I bring up something I've discovered while writing CL.

edited 11th Oct '12 3:23:23 PM by MorwenEdhelwen

That has to be one of the stupidest ways of getting past writer's block I've ever seen proposed.

I'll have to try it sometime.

Maybe I should too, but I'm not sure who I can populate my panel with.

Starting next week, I'm considering adding links you guys add here to my round-ups. Is that okay?

Friday:

• A post about how important it is to meet with an editor in-person.
• Stuck with what to do next? Here you go!

It's a new week! A new we~ek!

Monday:

• Here's a bundle of tips of both the practical and the general. Oh, and life it a two-way tweet.
• The audiobook industry is more of a goldmine than you thought it was.

edited 16th Oct '12 5:12:42 PM by chihuahua0

Tuesday:

• This guest poster laments the lack of a good (English) book dedicated to verbs.
• Doing NaNoWriMo? Use the opportunity to gain more exposure!
• The Princess Bride is used as an example how bad guys committing bad acts can be framed as good.
• Can you imagine not being a writer?

edited 16th Oct '12 5:39:03 PM by chihuahua0

Thursday:

• Tiffany Reisz returns to explain how to write an anti-hero.
• The Magic Violinist also returns to explain how to lock away your inner editor—literally. Well, a drawing of it, literally.

It's a new week, week, week! It's a new week, week, we~we~ek!

Monday:

• Let me hook you with a post on hooks.
• A reminder on the importance of body language.
• A strategy to selling books by selling free stories!
• This is related to the whole "YA is not a genre" point.
• Don't forget to check out these hashtags!
• One more thing: Here's a neat way to test for passive voice.

edited 22nd Oct '12 4:41:57 PM by chihuahua0

Tuesday:

• A "show, not tell" activity with a point.
• Is this theory on plotting and pantsing true?

Wednesday:

• Help this writer get through the holidays by buying her services!
• A reminder that we don't own most of our ebooks.

Thursday:

• Don't be like this publisher and contrict yourself.
• Try out one of these creative tricks! One involves three jars.
• Writing a serial killer? Some of these characteristics might help you write a realistic case.
• Oh, how we can get embarrassed by our own writings.
• In a writing rut? Take some advice from a best-selling author!

edited 25th Oct '12 6:31:21 PM by chihuahua0

This Halloween, Halloween...week. Oh, and Na No Wri Mo.

Ahem.

Monday:

• Sometimes, the oldies, like silent films, can still teach a few lessons.
• Ebook full of typos? Two reasons why that might be the case.
• For the freelancers, this is why how you can use the low-paying market to your advantage.
• With Hurricane Sandy coming around, here's how you can use setting as a "character".

Tuesday:

• TV Tropes gets namedropped here multiple times.
• Epilogues rarely get any love.
• In blogging matters, here's how you can squash your "competition".
• Scrivener is giving a free trial for Na No Wri Mo!!!

I'm amused they basically rejected "Mary Sue does not exist" out of hand.

Remember, the discussion that we had in this forum was about how "the term Mary Sue is meaningless", not "Mary Sue does not exist".

Wednesday:

• Choose one of these places to recharge your muse at.
• Do you agree with this writer's opinion about the direction of the English language?
• Blog-wise, here're some tips to spice up your posts.

It's the sort of purely conceptual entity that derives existence only from meaning — the two are functionally equivalent.

Let me bring up something I said during the discussion:

I said on my blog that "Mary Sue" is useless as a critique term, but that doesn't mean that characters that embody the spirit of the concept aren't running around.

Also, I talked about in the discussion how I think writing "Mary Sue/bad characters" is apart of the learning process. Many of us have confessed of writing such characters, even if the term "Mary Sue" isn't the best one.

One more thing: I slipped back into the term. Verdict: Mary Sue can serve as a shorthand, once everyone else in the discussion is on the same page, but it doesn't serve as a general criticism, only as a broad stroke phrase.

I disagree. I honestly believe that the term "Mary Sue" needs to be killed dead. Not just merely given a common definition (which will never happen on more than a local scale), but utterly expunged from the writing dictionary. Virtually all of its possible meanings, except maybe "I don't like this character" are real, but using Mary Sue to refer to any of them does more harm than good.

I also disagree on the learning process thing - everyone makes mistakes, but they're not the same kind. The closest I've ever come to the classic overpowered self-insert (as I think I've mentioned once before) was a toy knight I played with when I was ten or so. I've written awful characters in the past, but they weren't what's generally considered Mary Sues and I don't think it hurt me that they weren't.

It's a new Na No Wri Mo week! It's a, it's a, it's another writing week!

Monday:

• Are shorter novels the answers to readers' changing needs?
• One bestselling author's method of revising by using problem-solution methods.
• This blogging method worked out with me.

edited 5th Nov '12 3:29:55 PM by chihuahua0

While I like that the first suggests a resurgence in two of my favourite forms—the short novel and the novella—I find the whole "I don't have the time to read long books" thing distressing for all number of reasons. Maybe it has to do with how using the Internet and various electronic, screen-based devices reduces attention span for the short term, or more worryingly, is indicative of how relentless modern American work schedules are compared to the rest of the world (a big issue for me), but I can't be certain.