Advice for New Writers Archives - Page 22 of 33

Archive for the ‘Advice for New Writers’ Category

Guest Post: Really, Your Outline Does Not Have to Be Perfect

An outline is a roadmap. It helps you decide the overall shape of the novel. It does not lock you into that structure if you stumble upon something interesting.

Guest Post: Chasing the First Sale: What a Pro Story Is

There are tons of great resources on writing fiction, and I won’t even attempt to get into all that information here. What I’m going to focus on are the macro, big-picture things I’ve learned through personal experience.

SFWA at BEA: A Recap

[SWFA’s presence at BEA] this year was an experiment, but a wildly successful one. We were able to inform, educate and engage people from all areas of the publishing world. Dozens of bloggers and librarians stopped by to talk to us and thank us for being there.

Guest Post: Race in YA Lit: Wake Up
& Smell the Coffee-Colored Skin, White Authors!

Which came first—the chicken, the egg, or the egg white omelet—I don’t know. But the discussion glosses over an obvious gap: white authors.

Guest Post: How Writers Can Use Pinterest

When it comes to social networking, Pinterest has emerged as a major player. Cat Rambo provides an excellent overview.

Guest Post: We Limit Ourselves and Need to Stop

Everyone can improve their abilities at almost anything with determination, practice, and coaching.

Guest Post: Would You Rather Be Wrong or Right?

My personal preference is for what I’ve called third-order answers. A lot of mysteries have an obvious culprit, and then a character who is, if you know your narrative conventions, the obvious alternative to the obvious culprit. I like mysteries that go one step further.

BooklifeNow.com Announces a Rebranding

BooklifeNow.com, a website that serves as support for and a supplement to Booklife: Strategies and Survival Tips for the 21st-Century Writer by author Jeff VanderMeer, is proud to announce a new website rebranding and content management team that aims to keep current with changing trends in the writer’s market, as well as increase reader engagement and grow the reader base.

Guest Post: Submit, Quit, or Self-Publish It?

The way to become a published writer is to write (and to submit what you write). Seems obvious, yet so many would-be writers produce that one story or novel and then rework it endlessly, or submit a story or three, get rejected once (or a hundred times), and decide to give up.

Guest Post: Finding Inspiration

I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite ways of finding inspiration — some of them obvious, some of them less so. But it’s always good to have reminders, and if you haven’t used a few of these sources of inspiration in awhile (or ever), give them a go.