Greetings fellow writers!
I was catching up on my blog reading last week, so I’ve got a lot of
links to share this time (can that please be my excuse for not having this
posted on Saturday?). Let’s get to it!
One of
the most frequently asked questions of writers (by writers and non-writers) is
“why do you write?” (the tone and implication of such a question, of course,
can change, depending on who’s doing the asking). I’ve been collecting thoughts with the
intention of writing my own “why I write” post for a while, but I haven’t
actually done it yet. The truth is, I
don’t really know all the reasons why I write – I just do – but I know that one
of the reasons is that I feel in my bones that stories are important, not just
as entertainment, but as a way of exploring what it means to be human, and a
way to process things that happen to us.
And I think this post speaks to a lot of what I feel about storytelling
very well.
I’ve
always thought of outlining as something one does before writing a book, but this suggestion to re-outline after you
finish your first draft (or maybe outline for the first time if you’re a
pantser) makes a lot of sense to me.
You may
notice this link is from the same blog as the previous link. As I mentioned above, I’ve been catching up
on my reading this week, and sometimes I like a lot of posts from the same
blog. Since I do try to keep some
variety in this post, I try not to list too many from the same blog, but
sometimes they’re too good not to list.
This post is a fun look at how you might incorporate your sleeping life
into your writing practice.
Here’s
a great post on character building as a sleuthing exercise. This really resonates with me, because it’s
pretty much exactly how I build my characters.
I almost never feel like I’m deciding things about them, but rather
uncovering them layer by layer as I explore.
I write
abysmally bad dialog, so I’m always looking for new tips on how to make it
better. I also enjoy numbered lists, and
hey! this post has both.
From K.
M. Weiland’s “most common writing mistakes” series, musings on “suddenly” and
why writing is most often stronger without it.
Another
character building post. I like this
unique take on the character questionnaire by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, although it
does make me kind of hungry for pizza.
Did I
mention I’m catching up on my reading?
This is the last one from K. M. Weiland’s blog (this week), but it’s a
good one. I like to think of myself as a
pretty organized person, but the truth is, I can always use more help in that
area. Here’s some organization
suggestions specifically tailored to writers (although most of them would work
for anybody).
Multitaskers unite!
I truly believe that part of the reason I don’t get much writing done on
the weekends is that I just can’t function creatively in a messy environment,
so I end up doing cleaning tasks (when I don’t get overwhelmed by the shear
scope of the mess and end up on the couch watching another episode of “How I
Met Your Mother” instead). Finally,
someone has come up with a way to clean house and write at the same time! (Sort
of)
This
post is actually not about writing at all, and yet it is. I’ve spent a fair amount of time in the
theater and still subscribe to some theater related pages on Facebook. This article popped up on one of their posts
the other day, and I thought, “you know, this is kind of applicable to writing,
too.” We may apply those real emotions
in different way than an actor does, but it still seems like it would be
beneficial to learn to use them to make our work better.
I am
woefully twitter illiterate. I have two
accounts, but I just don’t really get it.
I like the new thing they’ve added where you can expand tweets so you
can see replies, but before that I was really at a loss to understand how to
have a conversation in such a format – it all just looked like random unrelated
stuff to me. Anyway, Gabriela over at
DYI-MFA recommended this guide to me, and while I haven’t been through the
whole thing yet, it looks pretty good.
Twitter may never be a tool in my toolbox, but it’s nice to know there’s
guidance available for those of us who need a little more help.
Here’s
a nifty little chart of defense mechanisms people use with examples. It’s definitely going into my character
building toolbox.
For
some reason, I don’t yet have Chuck Wendig’s blog in my RSS reader, even though
I’ve liked pretty much everything I’ve ever read of his. I guess maybe I just always come across his
posts during times when I’m freaking out about the fact that I subscribe to 30+
writing blogs and don’t have time to read them all, but how can I possibly
unsubscribe because they’re all so awesome.
But I digress. If you write
romance novels, this may be an essential post.
If you don’t, it’s still hysterical. Be forewarned that this post contains some explicit language.
A post
from a fellow ROWer. I love these tips
for how to make the most of a novel writing month. I participated in NaNoWriMo for the first
time last November, and while I didn’t “win”, the experience was so worth
it. And if you can’t wait for November,
there are plenty of other “novel in a month” challenges out there. I had no idea!
This is
a great post from Janice Hardy on setting mood and tone in your scenes. I love the way she lays out examples, from
the very basic telling, to spine tingling showing.
My
current project is a stand-alone novel (I think), but I do have a couple things
in the idea box that I think are tailor made to be series, so I appreciated
this post from Lynn Viehl on series planning.
Another Chuck Wendig post. This is an older post of Chuck’s, but someone
linked to it in another post I was reading, and I thought it was pretty
awesome. I am still working on some of
these virtues, but I’ll get there! (I hope.) Also contains explicit language.
And to close, another list of
tools that might make your writing (or some other aspect of your life)
easier. Some are free and some just have
free trials. I’ve downloaded the To-Do
Desklist – it seems pretty cool so far.
So that’s it for
this installment! I hope you find
something useful here, and have a great writing week!
Note: this is a list
of blog posts and articles on writing that I collect weekly. Inclusion on this list does not necessarily
mean it was published this week, just that I read it this week and thought it
was cool, interesting, and/or useful.
Posts
