There’s plenty to learn about the business of writing, no matter the genre or your level of experience. In getting to know other writers, especially through connections made on Twitter and Facebook, and by subscribing to blogs by writers or about the craft and publishing, I’ve found a ton of resources and recommendations. Here are just a few of my favorites.
First and Foremost:
- 5 Things Every Writer Should Know about Rights (via Jane Friedman @ Writer’s Digest)
Inspiration to Write
- On Being a Woman Writer: An Open Letter to Virginia Woolf, by Sayantani Dasgupta
- How to Write Every Day, by Jamie Grove
- Turning that urge to write into a career, by Allison Winn Scotch
Books on Writing (There are so many great books!)
- Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing, by Margaret Atwood
- The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide, by Becky Levine
- Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
- Nail Your Novel, Why Writer Abandon Books and How You Can Draft, Fix and Finish with Confident, by Roz Morris
- Write Great Fiction – Plot & Structure, by James Scott Bell
The Mother Lode for Fiction Writers
From Write It Sideways (a blog worth bookmarking), 101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips
Tips for Novel Writing
- Ten Editing Tips, for your Fiction Manuscript, from Margaret Atwood
- The Top Eleven Ways Not to Write a Book, from Leigh Michaels
- Ten Gifts to Give Beginning Novelists, from Margaret Atwood
- Minding Your 4Ps and Qs: One Wordplayer’s Approach to Writing the Character-and-Plot Driven Novel, from John H. Ritter
- Story Structure Series, from Larry Brooks @ Storyfix.com
- Plotting Made Easy (worth the read even if you don’t write children’s lit), from Adventures in Children’s Publishing
Query and Synopsis tips
- Secrets to a Great Book Query Letter, from Writer’s Digest
- Buried in the Slush Pile: One Page Summaries
- Notes on the Effective Query Class at SCWW, from Janet Reid
- How to Trim Your Query to 250 words (or fewer): Advice from Agent Janet Reid (via Writer’s Digest)
- Querying: In Hindsight, from Natalie Whipple
- Publish a Bestseller – Synopsis Tips for Writers
A gem of a post from a great website
- Where to Find Free Market Listings, from Jane Friedman.com, with links to lists of book publishers, literary journals, agents, magazines and periodicals.
The contracts are signed, the book’s on its way to the printer, now what?
- There are No Rules – What, Me Market? (Adventures of a First-Time Author)
- Twitter from One Author’s Point of View, from Lisa Schroeder
- The Art & Science of Twitter, Part 1: The Science and Part 2: The Art, from Nina Badzin (via Writer Unboxed)
Hi, I’m Ning. from Indonesia.
Your blog is nice. I have a dream, wanna be a writer, but I don’t know yet how to be the writer. Hehehe…
Nice to know you…
Thanks for stopping by, Ning. I hope some of these resources guide you along your writing way!
Hi, Christi. I love your blog’s content!
Any advice or querying tips on getting shorter fiction pieces/poetry published? Thanks!
Bea, The best tips I can offer are write, rewrite (and rewrite again), then submit submit submit. Newer journals are great places for emerging writers to submit. And, I consider every submission I send out good practice, even if it garners a rejection. Cover letters are as tough to write as the stories themselves, sometimes more so! Anyway, read journals that interest you, and once you become familiar with the content and stories those journal are publishing, you’ll get a feel for which ones are right for your work or not.
Newpages.com is another site that lists calls for submissions.
Good luck! And, thanks for stopping by.
I’ve written very little, however, I do read all the time (hence why my blog reviews books, I’ve got about 40 reviews in there since March) and I’m fascinated by the writing process. One source I’d suggest for writers is the writing excuses podcast (www.writingexcuses.com). They’re up to their 6th season of podcasts and they are all entertaining and very fast paced and they cover a wide variety of topics relating to all areas of fiction. I’ll probably check out some of these sites as well.
Thanks for sharing that resource, Adam!
hi!
thanks for sharing these links. I will use the weekend to study the sources deeply but I am glad to find your blog here!
As I am quite a beginner, I will have a closer look at your advices!
Thanks,
JR
You’re welcome, JR. Good luck in your writing adventures!
Hi Christi!
Love your blog. I live far down south. I´m a writer of short stories (in Spanish). And my only daughter is living in Wisconsin! What a coincidence! Best regards.
I have found http://www.writersweekly.com to be an invaluable resource.
Thanks, Traci. I’ll check out that link!
This page makes me happy.