Lisa Cron

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Dec 7-13, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Hachette wants to turn Twitter into a bookstore. I’m still not sure whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Bloomberg Businessweek.

Do agents Google potential clients? You bet your sweet bippy. Survey conducted by Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

The most common writing mistakes series, part 36: Too much introspection and not enough interaction. K.M. Weiland.

Blogging for authors: How to create a blog that will grow with your career. Anne R. Allen.

How to become a writer by Lisa Cron for Writer Unboxed. It takes time and patience, practice and persistence.

Last week, I shared a post about writing in your books. This week, I discovered that monks annotated their illuminations 😛 Catholic Memes.

Shakespeare’s Curtain Theatre unearthed. The Guardian.

Margaret Atwood’s ten rules of writing. Brainpickings.

Buzzfeed shares 51 of the most beautiful sentences in literature.

This is the coolness: a periodic table of figures of speech. LifeHacker.

Nearly perfect movies and what they teach us about storytelling. Charlie Jane Anders for i09.

Steven Moffat finally agrees that a woman Doctor is a distinct possibility. Can I get an “Amen” my sisters? Though he also says it’s too soon to think about a new Doctor. i09.

Five lessons Peter Capaldi learned from Doctor Who. Wired.

Beautiful poetry from Shane Koyczan:

 

Neil Gaiman recites “Jabberwocky”:

 

This is going to be one splendid movie 🙂

 

Paftoo’s secret room in Roz Morris’s Lifeform Three was based on this real underwater ballroom. Sunny Skyz.

May your week be full of fantastic nonsense 🙂

See you Thoughty Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, Aug 10-16, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 4 Comments

Here we go in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1!

K.M. Weiland’s blog tour continues on the Writer.ly community with the ten commandments of reading like a writer.

And on Darcy Pattison’s Fiction Notes with four types of villains.

Here’s Katie’s regular Sunday post with podcast: How to figure out what your character’s arc should be.

Finally, her Wednesday vlog: Characters or ciphers? Which are you casting in your story?

MJ Bush collects 99 essential quotes on character creation. Each entry cited and linked for further reference.

Sarah Callender posts about rumination frustration on Writer Unboxed.

Lisa Cron explains how to get what you need out of a famous author’s talk. Very useful for conferences, conventions, and literary festivals.

And . . . forgetful Mel forgot to catch up on the couple of posts I couldn’t link two Tipsdays ago when WU was experiencing some technical difficulties. So here they are now: David Corbett on the tyranny of motive, and Jane Kisacky on the many dreams of writing.

Becca Puglisi ponders, what makes a good blurb? on Writers Helping Writers.

Jami Gold guests on Anne R. Allen’s blog: Everything you need to know about giving and receiving feedback on your WIP.

Then, Jami had to follow up on her blog with the beta reading worksheet.

Jami also posted on characters both strong and vulnerable.

Bronwyn Hemus of Standoutbooks explains why showing and telling is not an either/or proposition, but a matter of how and when.

Here’s Amy Shojai’s entry in the writing process blog hop: Why I write what I write.

Barbara Geiger’s confessions of an ex-there-are-no-rules-writer.

Rebecca T. Dickson tells us all the crap someone should have told us writers by now.

Julian Friedmann on the mystery of storytelling. TEDxEaling.

 

Open Culture shares Jane Austen’s unusual editing method.

Fifteen scientists share their favourite science fiction novels and movies. The Huffington Post Science.

As a friend of mine would say, that’s a shite-load of Writerly Goodness.

Enjoy, my friends 🙂

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz July 6-12, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

Not a huge whack this week folks, but what there is, is all quality 🙂

Most common writing mistakes with K.M. Weiland. This week, one dimensional conflict.

Janice Hardy discusses character development.

Roz Morris demonstrates her beat sheet technique with Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Anne R. Allen lists twelve dumb things writers do to sidetrack our success.

The ever-awesome Robin LaFevers writes about the crushing weight of expectations on Writer Unboxed.

Lisa Cron writes about how writers have the powah on Writer Unboxed.

Carly Watters reveals three signs that you’re past the form letter rejection stage.

Writer’s Relief presents the joy of gerunds.

Did you need even moar books to read? I didn’t think so. Still, here’s The Millions’ book preview for the second half of 2014.

Eight things you should know about Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series from the Barnes & Noble book blog.

A review of the two volume Robert Heinlein biography from Barnes & Noble Reviews.

Enjoy!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz June 15-21, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

There’s a little bit of everything this week. A little craft advice, some blogging tips, love for the word nerds and the book worms, writerly brain science, and a couple of thoughtful pieces about women in fiction and making it in the world of fandom.

Part two of K.M. Weiland’s how to write a flat character arc series.

Later in the week, Cathy Yardley wrote a guest post for Katie: Six tips to outline your novel faster.

Jan O’Hara discusses McKee’s four tips on writing a BIG story on Writer Unboxed.

Anne R. Allen’s blogging essentials for authors.

In related news, Roz Morris answers the question, how much time should an author spend blogging and building websites?

10 words that started out as errors from Grammar Girl, Mignon Fogarty.

Moar wordnerdery from ideas.ted.com: 20 words that used to mean something completely different.

24 quotes that will inspire you to write more from Buzzfeed.

Also from Buzzfeed, 37 books every creative person should read.

Back with ideas.ted.com, six science fiction and fantasy books for the app generation.

Benedict Cumberbatch reads Kurt Vonnegut’s letter to McCarthy after the burning of (among other books) Slaughterhouse Five.

 

I just saw Lisa Cron tweet about this NY Times article: This is your brain on writing, by Carl Zimmer.

Tasha Robinson’s post on The Dissolve, We’re losing all our strong female characters to Trinity Syndrome, caused a bit of a furor on the SFCanada listserv, and elsewhere on the interwebz.

Jim C. Hines shares his Continuum guest of honour speech. It’s kick-ass. Then again, Jim’s good at that kind of thing 😉

Enjoy, my writerly peeps.

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz June 8-14, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

Another fine crop of lovely stuff to share. I’m even curating the curators this week 😉

Ten ways to tell a story – all about point of view from Writers Write out of South Africa. Solid article with good examples.

Are shifts in point of view and head-hopping always bad? Roz Morris answers.

How to ‘stay lit’ from The New York Times. An article Roz brought to my attention.

Finishing the novel: the daily task of “getting it done.” Elissa Field shares her process.

Elissa’s also a fellow curator. Here’s her Friday links for writers.

Writing the flat character arc, part 1: the first act. K.M. Weiland’s next character arc series begins!

What kindergarten got (and still gets) really, really wrong. The continuation of Lisa Cron’s standardized testing adventure on Writer Unboxed.

Robin Lafevers discusses what writing as therapy means to her. Also from Writer Unboxed.

Agent Noah Lukeman shares fifteen tips to help sell your ebook series.

The Atlantic: No, The Fault in Our Stars is not young adult fiction’s saviour. A few weeks back, I posted an article that posited Greenlit (for John Green, author of the above named YA novel) was a thing. Is this article the other side of that coin? Read and find out.

Guy Bergstom’s Red Pen of Doom: The six horsemen of the writepocalypse.

Enjoy, my writerly peeps.

I’m heading down to CanWrite! tomorrow. While I’ll keep the blog fires burning, I might be a little scarce around the interwebz otherwise. Good news, though: I’ll have more panels and sessions to blog!

Whee!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz May 18-24, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila / 3 Comments

Tipsday

Roz Morris responded to a writer in a bind. The result was this post.

If you’ve read Lifeform Three, you’ll find this Roz Morris post on the inspiration of the Surrey landscape interesting. If you haven’t read the novel, you’d better get cracking!

The Geeks’ Guide to the Galaxy interviews Mary Robinette Kowal. Listen to the podcast.

Speaking of podcasts, listen to K.M. Weiland’s fourteenth instalment in the Creating Stunning Character Arcs series. Or read the post. As you wish, dear reader.

The draws and drawbacks of success as an author from The New York Times.

Jan O’Hara tells us why our characters need to make tough choices. Writer Unboxed.

And yes! Now WU has its web issues sorted, here’s Lisa Cron’s wonderful post: What kindergarten got (and still gets) really, really wrong.

Three more things you need to know about exposition and telling by Victoria A. Mixon.

Agent Carly Watters has some advice for when you start comparing yourself to other writers.

Maggie Stiefvater writes about how her characters are not based on her experiences, but they answer the questions she asks in her head.

Tech Crunch interviews Hugh Howey.

The Paris Review resurrects their interview with John Steinbeck.

Anne Lamott on how to handle the haters. Brainpickings.

Two of my favourite Neils talk about genius. More Brainpickings brilliance.

Writers’ Relief offers five techniques to help turn short stories into novels.

The Bookbaby blog presents this interesting infographic about 24 books that predicted the future.

Enjoy, my writerly peeps 🙂

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the Interwebz May 4-17, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

Yes, you read that date correctly. It’s a double shot of Tipsday this week (since I missed out on last week).

A writer friend actually called me the queen of curation this past week 🙂 I think that title belongs to Elizabeth Spann Craig, but I was duly flattered, nonetheless.

Part 12 and Part 13 of K.M. Weiland’s Creating Stunning Character Arcs series.

Lisa Cron’s TEDx lecture, Wired for Story:

 

I would have posted Lisa Cron’s Writer Unboxed: What kindergarten got (and still gets) really, really wrong, but WU is having some technical difficulties right now. I’ll try to keep it in mind for next week. It’s an excellent post. Heart Lisa Cron.

A little more brain science for you here. Frank Bruni encourages kids to read, kids, read.

Anne Ursu examines the phenomenon of ‘Greenlit.’ Contemporary realism in MG and YA.

Jami Gold asks the question, when should we skip a scene in our stories? And she answers it too, clever lady.

Janice Hardy makes a case for prologues: not as evil as you think.

Victoria Mixon’s three things you should know about exposition and telling.

6 tips to modernize your prose for the 21st century reader from Anne R. Allen’s blog. This one generated a few comments. Who should be more accommodating, the writer or the reader?

Roz Morris’s tips for using Amazons keywords and categories intelligently.

Joanna Penn interviews Jane Friedman on money, writing, and life.

Publishing industry news: Pay equity and gender parity are still issues. Why Jill Abramson was fired.

Carly Watters offers 5 easy steps for formatting your next query.

Laura Pepper Wu write a guest post for Catherine Ryan Howard about 11 inspiring quotes from the world’s best writers.

10 more inspiring quotes from the Procrastiwriter.

And even more inspirational quotes from Jane Friedman:

 

George Saunders on the power of kindness, animated, from Brainpickings.

You may remember I posted the Rolling Stone interview with George R.R. Martin a couple of weeks ago. Well, here are the “outtakes.”

And, I know it’s been everywhere, but I love this clip about George R.R. Martin’s secret weapon.

See you all on Thoughty Thursday!

Tipsday

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz April 6-12, 2014

/ Melanie Marttila

TipsdayAnother eclectic bumper-crop here on Tipsday.

Wired podcast with Elizabeth Bear:

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/geeks-guide-elizabeth-bear/

MJ Bush’s WritinGeekery. A balance of strengths to take your story higher.

http://www.writingeekery.com/strength/

Robin Lafevers on Writer Unboxed. Dear soon-to-be-published author.

http://writerunboxed.com/2014/04/11/dear-soon-to-be-published-author/

And Lisa Cron on The importance of letting ‘em see you sweat.

http://writerunboxed.com/2014/04/10/the-importance-of-fear/

And … Jael McHenry on the relative value of writing craft books.

http://writerunboxed.com/2014/04/07/should-you-read-about-writing/

3 tips for writing better action scenes from BookBaby blogs.

http://writerunboxed.com/2014/04/10/the-importance-of-fear/

Wlater Benjamin’s thirteen theses from Brain Pickings.

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/15/the-writers-technique-in-thirteen-theses-walter-benjamin/

Agent Carly Watters answers the question, Can I write fiction for a living?

http://carlywatters.com/2014/04/07/q-can-i-write-fiction-for-a-living/

Patty Jansen offers her thoughts on when hiring an editor isn’t necessarily the answer.

http://pattyjansen.com/blog/get-your-book-edited/

The Outlander fan gathering. If you’ve been drooling over the coming Starz series as much as I have, you’ll want to see this 🙂 BTW, for my Canadian friends, Showcase will be broadcasting (eeeee!). this summer. Can hardly wait.

http://www.starz.com/videos/video/388

How to be the lord of your novel’s timeline (timelord, get it?) from Roz Morris.

https://nailyournovel.wordpress.com/2014/04/05/an-easy-way-to-make-your-plot-plausible-control-your-novels-timeline/

10 ways pre-published authors can start their careers now, from Anne R. Allen.

http://annerallen.blogspot.ca/2014/04/10-ways-pre-published-writers-can-start.html

K.M. Weiland on the elephant in the room. Are you ignoring your writer’s instincts when it comes to revision?

http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/2014/04/story-revision.html

Enjoy, my friends.