Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, September 13-19, 2015

I can barely contain myself! This week’s Writerly Goodness is so . . . GOOD.

So, first Lorraine Devon Wilke publishes this article in The Huffington Post: Dear self-published author, do not write four books a year.

Then all this happened:

Larry Correia dissected and lampooned the article.

Chuck Wendig responded with, Dear any-kind-of-published author: write as much as you want.

And even John Scalzi felt compelled to post, how many books you should write in a year.

</Rant on>It all comes down to the individual. Write as much, or as little, as you want/need to. It was an interesting controversy, however, and worth the read. Wendig mentions the Stephen King article I shared a few weeks ago along with a few others on the topic. Never lose sight of your goals and don’t let stuff like this distract you. Read it and take what you need from it. The rest is noise. Interesting noise, but noise, nonetheless. </Rant off>


K.M. Weiland shares eight paragraph mistakes you may not know you’re making. These are good 🙂

How the poor choice of your character’s goal can kill your novel. Katie’s Friday vlog. Yes, she changed her schedule, like, a month ago, and I’m just getting used to it now . . . Make of that what you will.

Jane Friedman gets back to basics: writing the synopsis.

Bonnie Randall posts on Janice Hardy’s Fiction University about rejection and how to deal with it. I love this, because it’s basically my take on the experience.

Our fractured days: Steven Pressfield offers advice about staying on schedule when life (or other things) happens.

Gwen Hernandez joins Writer Unboxed with this post: Nine (or more) things I love about Scrivener.

Kameron Hurley asks what will you sacrifice and offers a review of The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

Later in the week, Kameron tackled cold publishing equations.

Porter Anderson weighs in on the latest Authors Earnings Report.

Mira Jacob writes about her experience with diversity (or lack thereof) in American publishing for Buzzfeed.

Usually, VSauce would appear on the Thoughty Thursday roundup, but this week, Michael was talking about language, linguistics, and math. IT’S AWESOME!

And the poetry of The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is back. Here are two lovely entires:

This is part of why I stopped at getting my MA (and still, in many ways regret going that far). The shit graduate studies asks you to vomit out in the name of “higher” education. Tickld.

Ursula K. Le Guin speaks to myth, modernism, and why she’s suspicious of the MFA. Salon.

Margaret Atwood waxes political and literary on the topic of our (un)freedom. The Guardian.

Aja Romano of the Daily Dot presents “dreadpunk” as a new subgenre. It seems like good ole Gothic to me. Do we really have to redefine these things? What do you think?

Electric Lit shares this poster about yoga for writers.

Buzzfeed presents 21 signs that prove booksellers are clever 🙂

Dogs and books! Two of my favourite things together! The cute! Bustle.

Eeee! Wasn’t this a tasty week? Yes. I equate writing craft and book porn to consumables 🙂 Nom. Nom. Nom.

See you Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, August 2-8, 2015

This was the big controversy this week: Homme de Plume (now in convenient hashtag #hommedeplume). One woman author queries using a male name and gets more requests for partials and fulls than when using her name.

Canadian author, Marie Bilodeau responds.

Kameron Hurley offers a reality check on the necessity and nature of writing with a day job.

Then Chuck Wendig posted this: Starving is a terrible condition for making art.

Most common writing mistakes, part 43: Too many exclamation points! K.M. Weiland, Helping writers become authors.

Show, don’t tell, matters in foreshadowing, too. Katie’s Wednesday vlog.

Christine Frazier looks at five kinds of societies for your novel on The Better Novel Project.

Donald Maass discusses how to write about unnameable emotions on Writer Unboxed.

Elizabeth Stephens introduces us to the #weneeddiversebooks hashtag on Writer Unboxed.

Veronica Sicoe writes about how perfectionism is murdering your muse.

Stephen King shares 22 lessons on how to be a great writer on The Business Insider.

John Scalzi shares his creative process on lifehacker.

Catherine Ryan Howard answers the question, how many drafts did you do?

Chris Winkle discusses the process of troubleshooting when you’re stuck. Mythcreants.

Can a virtuous character be interesting? The New York Times.

22 authors, including K.M. Weiland and Roz Morris, share their greatest writing challenges. Become a Writer Today.

A genre takes flight: Science Fiction. The Library Journal. The good news: epic fantasy still sells. The bad news: the dark stuff, not so much . . .

Tor.com shares 20 time travel classics.

Ten Old English insults that could be band names. Anglophenia.

Geekster Ink Shares twenty images of women in practical armour.

Tipsday

The Red Band Deadpool trailer is def NSFW.

Tipsday will be beck next Tuesday with more Writerly Goodness.

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, June 14-20, 2015

Another wonderful week for Writerly Goodness!

What’s the key event and how is it different from the inciting incident and the first plot point? I know I still forget the distinctions. K.M. Weiland’s Helping Writers Become Authors.

And here’s Katie’s Wednesday vlog: How to write a riveting characteristic moment.

Roz Morris shares her experience with repetitive stress injury (RSI).

Kassandra Lamb guests on Jami Gold’s blog: Nine psychology myths you need to avoid.

Tips on picking up the pace from Rebecca LuElla Miller.

Learn about the magic systems of Brandon Sanderson. Tor.com.

Five ways first contact could turn into an epic fail. Veronica Sicoe.

Neil Gaiman offers his thoughts on why stories last. (w/ Podcast) BrainPickings.

Liz Bourke ponders how we speak of strong female characters. This post refers to others I’ve shared in past weeks and takes it in a slightly different direction. Very interesting. Tor.com.

How can you keep readers from hating your characters? Jody Hedlund.

Beth Revis posts on Janice Hardy’s Fiction University: How do you know you’re ready to publish? Agent Carly Watters of P.S. Literary wrote on the same topic last week 🙂

Dave King explores our motivations for writing. Writer Unboxed.

Kameron Hurley asks, why are we self-publishing? Locus.

Porter Anderson takes a look at Hugh Howey’s promotion of self-publishing and what it really means in the context of the continually evolving publishing industry. Thought Catalog.

Related: Nielsen Book’s latest results indicate that self-publishing is more like traditional publishing. Publishing perspectives.

Amazon changes its terms for KDP select. The Digital Reader.

Why I teach diverse literature. The Toast.

What librarians wish we knew about how to use a library. i09.

Authors share the places that inspire them. FlavorWire.

Ten books you should read before you see the movie. The Huffington Post.

Mark Twain’s advice to little girls. BrainPickings.

This is fun 🙂 Classic novels with clickbait titles. BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed shares 22 book-themed gifts for readers.

Watch the Scooby Doo crew’s fashion evolve through the last century. i09.

The first set photos of the new all-female Ghostbusters! i09.

Mike Hale states that Game of Thrones the series is going the way of Lost . . . What do you think? The New York Times.

Here are Charlie Jane Anders’s suggestions about how to fix Game of Thrones. Is it even possible? i09.

How Terry Dresbach’s costumes bring history to life on Outlander. Variety.

Orphan Black’s season finale: history yet to be written. It was awesome (IMO). The Wall Street Journal.

See you Thursday 🙂

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, June 7-13, 2015

Yeehaw! It’s another great week for Writerly Goodness 🙂

So this was a thing: Irene Gallo, a Tor employee made a personal statement in the comments of her personal Facebook account about the Sad Puppies (if you don’t know who they are, Google it) and was given a public scolding by her employer.

Here are some reactions:

Kameron Hurley.

Chuck Wendig.

Maureen Johnson and Holly Black defend their writerly friends.

A little local literary news about Wordstock. The Sudbury Star. It’s happening this weekend 🙂

Anna Lovind wrote this absolutely amazing post: A letter from the psych ward. The Blog.

Allison M. Dickson blogs about generalized anxiety, or, when your brain makes you think you’re dying. Because writing.

K.M. Weiland posted another in her most common writing mistakes series. Part 41: Inferring non-POV characters’ thoughts.

The only thing you need to know about writing strong, female characters. Katie’s Wednesday vlog.

Bruce Holsinger wrote this great post for Writer Unboxed on how to find you mythic theme.

Jefferson Smith, the creativity hacker, explains why readers bail on books (so we won’t make the same mistakes).

Though Extra Credits is a gaming channel on YouTube, the “awesome-per-second” rule is definitely Writerly Goodness!

Here’s part two of Mary Robinette Kowal’s interview on Adventures in SF Publishing. Told you I’d share 🙂

Sword and Laser interviews Beth Cato.

Check out these summer reads by award-winning SF women from Glamour (who knew?).

Stephen L. Carter responds to Ursula K. LeGuin’s anti-Amazon article (you may remember, I shared it last week). Bloomberg Review.

Anne Roiphe: A life 50 years in the writing. Publishers Weekly.

How Canadian writers changed The New Yorker. The National Post.

Wayson Choy talks about life, death, and the hallucinations that saved him. CBC.

You may have to turn up the volume a bit for this one, but it’s well worth it. Sheila from Dala (she’s the la) performs an intimate arrangement of W.B. Yeats’s “When you are old.”

Caitlin McDonald shared this cool thing of the day: The Last Bookstore.

You know you’re a serious book collector when . . . The Antiquarian.

Look at these 29 book-inspired tattoos. Buzzfeed. Breathtaking? I dunno.

Ok. I know this just marks me as a HUGE geek, but Reboot is coming back and it makes me #furiouslyhappy! The Huffington Post.

An Outlander wrap post, courtesy of Access Hollywood.

What do you think of the season two casting? Access Hollywood.

Whew! Gotta love the linkage 🙂

See you Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, March 8-14, 2015

Sir Terry Pratchett passed away last week.

Here’s Neil Gaiman’s very worthwhile talk at JCCSF. It basically turned into a tribute to his friend.

 

Here is BuzzFeed’s ranking of Pratchett’s Discworld novels.

Sir Terry will live on in the words of his books and in the hearts of his readers.


 

K.M. Weiland’s Sunday blog and podcast is dedicated to writers on the verge of writing spectacularly complex characters.

Why is your awesome protagonist boring readers to death? Katie’s Wednesday vlog.

Janice Hardy’s month-long novel revision workshop on Fiction University continues. Here’s day eight.

Jodie Renner guests on Anne R. Allen’s blog with this step-by-step guide to writing a prize-winning short story.

Therese Walsh explores multitasking further on Writer Unboxed. Snakes on a brain.

Veronica Sicoe posts on how to clean up your manuscript formatting in MS Word.

Kameron Hurley muses on the virtues of becoming a professional writer.

The second round of Jim C. Hines’s guest posts on representation in SFF begins with this post by LaShawn Wanak on false narratives.

Grammarly presents the strange origins of English idioms.

Grammarly (again) offers ten quotes from Winnie the Pooh that will make you smile.

BuzzFeed weighed in with these 31 quotes from children’s books.

Vanity Fair analyzes the Game of Thrones season 5 trailer.

And HBO is doing a 30-day countdown. Here’s the first instalment: Who are the sand snakes?

Tor.com shares 13 fantasies that are based on myths from the British Isles.

Lessons for writers from Bavarian Fairy Tales. The Take Away.

See you Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Feb 1-7, 2015

Most common writing mistakes, number 38: Irrelevant endings. K.M. Weiland. Helping Writers Become Authors.

Katie helps you create a more compelling backstory in three minutes 🙂

Roz Morris posts about what to do when feedback leads you astray.

Then Roz visited Jane Friedman’s blog to offer tips on how to recognize when backstory is sabotaging your novel.

Chuck Wendig shares the emotional milestones of writing a novel. Don’t think I ever left the sphincter-clenching panic stage 😛

How and why Marie Bilodeau made the leap to full time writer.

How Kameron Hurley hacked her writing process with 10,000 word-a-day marathons. I don’t think I could do this, but I find process to be endlessly fascinating.

Kameron, again, on how we can build a more pragmatic SF&F dialogue.

Why J.J. Marsh doesn’t want your free book.

Open Minds Quarterly answers the question, what makes a writing contest legitimate?

How Harper Lee’s long-lost sequel was found. The Atlantic.

15 thought-provoking SF films that are worth your time. Taste of cinema.

George R.R. Martin explains why The Winds of War isn’t on HarperCollins’ 2015 list (yet). The Daily Dot.

And here is the season 5 trailer for Game of Thrones:

 

I’m putting this in Tipsday because. My favourite song from the Fifth Element soundtrack. I had no idea it could be sung without electronic assistance O.O

 

See you on Thoughty Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Jan 25-31, 2015

February already? What the heck happened to January? 2014? Holy cow!

Publishers Weekly analyzed book sales by category for 2014. Interesting stuff (says the SF&F writer whose eyes popped at those numbers . . .).

K.M. Weiland’s podcast and post combo covers ways for lazy writers to identify and overcome their weaknesses. Lazy? I say smart 😉

With all the stuff you have to do in your opening pages, don’t forget to begin with your protagonist. Katie’s weekly vlog. I must admit, openings still kick my ass.

David Corbett discusses types, archetypes, and the occasional real person on Writer Unboxed.

Janice Hardy tackles the tricky topic of internal questions. When should your characters ask them and when shouldn’t they?

Kameron Hurley discloses her earnings and explains why she hasn’t quit her day job. True, but demoralizing for those of us aiming for that loft goal. I think it helps if you like your day job.

Gabriela Pereira interviews Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick for DIYMFA on social media for writers.

A.V. Club interviews Amber Benson (listed here because, among other things, she’s written the Calliope Reaper-Jones series).

This ticked me off: the Colleen McCullough obituary debacle. Back-handed compliment? Damning with faint praise? The Guardian.

I don’t know what you want to call it, but this response by The Washington Post’s Alexandra Petri certainly hit the spot.

Too fond of exclamation points? Here’s a handy infographic from Hubspot that will help you identify whether you really need one or not.

There. Now you can’t say I’ve never given you anything . . .

Hugs from Writerly Goodness.

Tipsday