Maggie Stiefvater

Your Writerly Goodness for the week!

Bonnie Randall upcycles and upends clichés on Janice Hardy’s Fiction University.

K.M. Weiland offers six tips for how to organize your novel’s edits. Helping writers become authors. Later in the week, she provides three resources to help you unlock fascinating character goals.

Leanne Sowul explores learning through failure for DIYMFA.

Kristen Lamb looks at botched beginnings and common first page killers.

Ruth Harris lists nine ways editors can make you look good and seven ways they can make you miserable. Anne R. Allen’s blog.

Julia Munroe Martin asks, are we having fun yet? Why can’t the work of writing be fun? Writer Unboxed.

OMG, I love this! Lauren Carter explores the difference between discipline and devotion.

Juliet Marillier writes about focus, and how to regain it. Writer Unboxed.

Donald Maass characterizes the difference between literary and genre as the difference between scenes and postcards. Writer Unboxed.

Jami Gold wonders, can we track out improvements in writing quality?

Becca Puglisi covers this entry in Emotional Wounds for Writers Helping Writers: Being Stalked.

Here I am, curating the curators again 🙂 Elissa Field shares some great resources in her Friday Links for Writers.

Porter Anderson interviews Aron Levitz of Canada’s WattPad Studios. Porter Anderson Media

Debut novelist Anakana Schofield wonders why media is more interested in her than her novel, and . . . why can’t she get paid? The Guardian.

Sachiko Murakami interviews Anita Anand on the hardest thing about being a writer. Writing So Hard.

This is BEAUTIFUL. Astronomers attempt to date Sappho’s Midnight Poem using the stars. Carey Dunne for Hyperallergic.

Elizabeth Alsop says, the future is almost now. On the power of science fiction storytelling. The Atlantic.

Kim Stanley Robinson explains the technology behind his novel, Aurora. BoingBoing

Storytelling sadness for me: Makiko Futaki, the animator behind some of Studio Ghibli’s best anime, has died 😦 Konbini

Yum! Brit Mandelo wrote an amazing essay about Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle. Please do not read this if you haven’t read the full series. Major Spoilers! But it’s so good 🙂 Tor.com

This goes in Tipsday. One of my favourite ballads that tells a lovely story 🙂 The Once: Maid on the Shore.

Have fun! See you Thursday.

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.