General Fiction Getting Around... Career Essentials Getting Started Queries & Manuscripts Market Research Classes & Conferences Critiquing Crafting Your Work Grammar Guides Research/Interviewing Writing Contests The Writing Business Income & Expenses Selling Reprints Collaboration Pseudonyms Negotiating Contracts Setting Fees/Getting Paid Rights & Copyright Tech Tools The Writing Life The Writing Life Rejection/Writer's Block Health & Safety Time ManagementColumn: Ramblings on the Writing Life Fiction Writing - General General Techniques Characters & Viewpoint Dialogue Setting & DescriptionColumn: Crafting Fabulous Fiction Fiction Writing - Genres Children's Writing Mystery Writing Romance Writing SF, Fantasy & Horror Flash Fiction & More
Jonathan Franzen’s 10 Rules of Writing Last week, I posted about George Orwell’s rules for writing, so while I’m finishing book #12: The Corrections I thought this would be a great opportunity to check out what Jonathan Franzen has to say on the subject. This list came from The Guardian: The reader is a friend, not an adversary, not a spectator.Fiction that isn’t an author’s personal adventure into the frightening or the unknown isn’t worth writing for anything but money.Never use the word “then” as a conjunction– we have “and” for this purpose. Substituting “then” is the lazy or tone-deaf writer’s non-solution to the problem of too many “ands” on the page.Write in the third person unless a really distinctive first-person voice offers itself irresistibly.When information becomes free and universally accessible, voluminous research for a novel is devalued along with it.The most purely autobiographical fiction requires pure invention. I love #2.
For writers: hints - Mem Fox So you want to write a picture book… There’s some quick-and-snappy advice below, in case you’re in a hurry, but don’t forget to read the important list of 20 do’s and 20 don’ts, which you’ll find at the end of the first section. And there’s even more advice after that. Before I continue, however, you will discover, if you’re lucky, that the two most important people in anyone’s writing life are agents and editors. First you will need an agent to help you find a publisher; then the publishing house will assign you an editor.
ntent & usability: Web writing Web writing is totally different to writing for printed matter. We tend to scan content on the web hunting for the information we're after, as opposed to reading word-for-word. As a result of this, there are certain guidelines you should be sure to follow when writing copy for your website: 1.
50 of the Best Websites for Writers There are tons of reference sites on the web that can help you find a job or write a poem, essay or story. Here is a list of the best 50 websites for writers. Reference Websites Merriam-Webster Online - Merriam Webster is the perfect place to look up words and find information. The site offers a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, podcasts, word games and a lot of other things that may be of interest to writers and word-lovers. Bartleby - This site is good if you need a quote or if you want free access to encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri, and other reference books.
Writers Association - What is Horror Fiction? That's a difficult question. In recent years the very term has become misleading. If you tell people you write horror fiction, the image that immediately pops into their minds is one of Freddy Krueger or maybe Michael Myers, while you were hoping for Shelley's Frankenstein or Stevenson's Dr. (More) tips for writing well (Austin Govella at Thinking and Making) Published Wed, Jul 8, 2009 by Austin Govella. Updated Wed, Jul 8, 2009. As an editor, I’ve noticed several recurring bad habits you heathens would do well to disabuse yourselves of immediately. Almost without exception, these bad habits instantiate themselves as a series of stock phrases and constructions that reflect a lack of focus, a lack of fully developed argument, or the kind of intellectual laziness that sets in as you slog through your first draft.
The 7-Step Write a Book Fast Program Post written by Leo Babauta. I’m often asked about writing (something I’ve done professionally for 22 years), and one of the most common things people want help with is writing a book. I’ve written a number of books, including 110,000 words of a novel in a month (in addition to blogging regularly), and numerous non-fiction books. I could share a lot of tips for writing a book, but my favorite secret is how I can write a book in just three days. 100 Sites for Fiction Writers: #17 – Tor.com This is an ongoing series looking at websites that can be of help to fiction writers with their craft and career. Tor.com Longtime fans of science fiction and fantasy reading will be familiar with Tor Books, the publishing company which has its online home at Tor.com. For more than 30 years Tor has been bringing best-selling fiction to genre fans, along the way earning numerous awards and consistently being recognized as one of the best science fiction and fantasy publishers in the market. But often enough genre fans only know a publishing company by its name on the spine of its books. While Tor offer some excellent reading material, the company’s website offers much more for readers and writers.
WRITER BEWARE ® About Us Mission Who we are, what we do, and why. Includes information on how to contact us. Overview and Site Map What you’ll find on the Writer Beware website, plus links to general resources about literary scams. Writer Beware® Legal Recourse and Other Remedies Getting NaNoWriMo Done: How to Write a Novel in 30 Days With November 1st almost upon us, NaNoWriMo is set to begin. There are plenty of tools to help budding novelists achieve the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days, but what about the reasons behind committing to such a daunting task in the first place? Surely, many of those taking on the challenge have other priorities that they have to deal with – myself included – so adding on the pressure of pushing through those commitments and the occasional bout of writer’s block is going to take herculean effort, right? Well, yes…and no.
Inspirational Short Stories 2015 : Uplifting, Feel Good Stories The inspirational, feel good stories posted in this section are from everyday visitors, like YOU, through our post a story page. Please browse through the stories and then share yours! Learn To Appreciate Writing Writing Even the best writers sometime need a little stimulation, if only for practice. Otherwise, writers may face the dismal monstrosity of writer's block. These generators are here to help when you need plot ideas, genre-bending concepts, and more.
FocusWriter - Gott Code About FocusWriter is a simple, distraction-free writing environment. It utilizes a hide-away interface that you access by moving your mouse to the edges of the screen, allowing the program to have a familiar look and feel to it while still getting out of the way so that you can immerse yourself in your work.