I present your informal writerly learnings for the week:

K.M. Weiland offers five tips for organizing sub-plots. Helping Writers Become Authors

Later in the week, Amber Massey guest posts on Kate’s blog: five tips for creating believable fictional languages.

Susan Wolfe wonders, if you write a book that nobody reads, are you still a writer? Writer Unboxed

Annie Neugebauer offers a pragmatist’s guide to easing the ugh (AKA learning to wait well). Writer Unboxed

Lydia Kang helps you prepare your research to-do list. Writer Unboxed

Jennie Nash visits the Writers Helping Writers coaching corner: fast draft writing for NaNoWriMo—and every other month.

Later in the week, Kristen Lamb stops by to talk about flashbacks.

Gabriela Pereira stops by Writer’s Digest to explain how to build your email list.

Terri Frank lists six writing books librarians recommend. DIY MFA

Catherine Schaff-Stump (one of the lovely writerly types I met through the Writing Excuses Retreat) shares her favourite bit of The Vessel of Ra on Mary Robinette Kowal’s blog.

Sarah Laskow finds 30 lost English words that deserve a comeback. Atlas Obscura

Angela Chen is the last Chinese-American woman writer who hadn’t read Maxine Hong Kingston. Electric Lit

Deji Bryce Olukotun imagines the future of Nigeria through science fiction. Literary Hub

Eliza Anyangwe counts Nnedi Okorafor’s “so many different kinds of strange” and how she’s changing the face of science fiction. The Guardian

Mark Medley reports: three first-time authors (including one genre writer) make Giller Prize longlist. The Globe and Mail

Oh, yum! James Whitbrook gives us our first look at David Tennant and Michael Sheen in Good Omens. i09

Be well until Thursday, my friends.