As I browse blogs each week, I’ll post a mash-up of the best ones here. Some have great writing tips, some are focused on publishing, and some are just plain fun. Enjoy!
First, some awesome advice from Joanna Penn: Writer’s Block: The 12-Step Cure
Jane Friedman has a great post over on Writer Unboxed about shifting our normal writers’ attitudes about query letters and blog headlines.
If you’re interested in finding like-minded people on Twitter, with some Twitter etiquette thrown in, try Kristen Lamb’s excellent post here.
Children’s and YA writers know that the kids need to solve their story conflicts themselves, not have parents or teachers step in for them. But does that mean parents shouldn’t show up at all? Kait Nolan has some great advice.
And last but not least, have a little fun with I Write Like…. You enter several paragraphs (or more) of your own writing, and it checks for style and word choice and tells you what famous author writes in a similar style. Of course, if you’re good (unlike me), you wait until after you’ve finished your writing for the day.
I entered several samples, just to make it . . . scientific? Consistent? Or maybe just to have fun? Turns out I wrote like Stephanie Meyer in one blog post, like Stephen King and Gertrude Stein for one character in my women’s novel, and . . . wait for it . . . Margaret Atwood fairly consistently! Any bits (and the whole thing) of the short story I’ve been working on, plus any of my American character in my women’s novel. My Irish character scenes are written like James Joyce, but gee, if I change the names from Conal and Murphy to John and Jones, I no longer write like Joyce, I write like Chuck Palahnuik!
If I could choose, I’d emulate Stephen King (without the horror) or Margaret Atwood. But somehow I think it’s fun, not science. Drat.
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