Jen's Writing Journey

A short and sweet pre-Memorial Day roundup.

The Business of Writing

So-N-So Recommended Me
Referrals can be a great way to get an agent to look at your work–but only if they are done right. Here you’ll find some examples of good and bad referrals. Main lesson? Make sure the agent actually knows the person who referred you.

We’ve Terrified the Wrong Half of Y’all
Agent Janet Reid lets us know that those of us reading agent blogs and applying the lessons they teach are doing at least something right. Sometimes, we will take whatever affirmation we can get.

Having a Writing Life…
Have I mentioned that I love Elizabeth Moon? So I was super-excited when I found her Live Journal. Now I could keep up with her releases and her process and maybe find out a little more about her. That’s the coolest thing about the Internet for we readers: we can let our stalking tendencies out a little without really putting anyone in danger. But, that access has led some of us to believe that our favorite writers owe us more access or information or even the next installment in out favorite series. Moon reminds us that no matter how much we love a writers or his or her books, we don’t own them.

Interview with Christina Katz
I can’t get enough of Christina Katz. Her books Writer Mama and Get Known Before the Book Deal have shaped a lot of my ideas about how to conduct my burgeoning writing career. Here, she talks a little more about building your platform.

Fiction

Is Fiction a Type of Fabrication? part 1
Rebecca Emrich starts a series on the nature of fiction in response to an email question she received. She writes both fiction and nonfiction, so she is poised to explore some really interesting aspects of fiction writing in these posts.

False Starts
Jasmine Ahern describes her own personal writer’s block. She is starting strong, but unable to finish. So she went to another writer to get some tips to push past her block.

How to Write a Great First Draft
L.J. Sellers challenges the notion that all first drafts suck. Although sometimes it is important to give yourself permission to just get a chunk of the story out without regard for craft–especially if you are having trouble moving past that section–a little pre-planning will help you ensure that the bulk of your first draft is good. It will still need revisions, but you’ll be a lot closer to a saleable piece.

Freelancing

The Lure of Mother Nature
A lot of us dream of the day we can quit our day job and write for a living. We imagine how gorgeous it will be to work from home, spending time with our families and taking daily visits from the muse. But, working from home can be hard to accomplish. Freelancer Jennifer Mattern talks about distractions and how she deals with them.

Use Your Parenting Experience to Generate National Pitches
In this post, Sharon Miller Cindrich provides tips of how to translate real-life experience into writing assignments. Although she focuses on parenting publications, the concept applies to hobbies, day job knowledge, lots of things. How can you turn your personal strengths and knowledge into stories that instruct?

Writing for the Web: Establishing an Online Presence
Jennifer Applin says if you want to write for the web, you need to be on the web. Most of us look at the websites of established writers and think, “one day…” But, Applin argues that the website is one component that makes the “one day…” possible.

General Writing Tips

More than the Bones
At the Rose City Romance Writers blog, Pauline Trent discusses the necessity of transitions and flow. The key, Trent says, is making sure you have anough filler to move your story and keep its pace appropriate, but not so much that you bog it down.

Punctuate Quotes Correctly
Sue Lick gives a quick refresher on punctuation. Print it out and keep it handy when you proof your work. Your editor will thank you.

• Writing Roundup, December 18 The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing Digital ARCs Make Progress Novelist L.J. Sellers looks at the move toward digital review copies. How will that affect writers. Backlist Title Dilemma How should authors deal with their less than stellar backlist releases? Shrug and hope......
• Writing Roundup, February 12 Whew. This has been a week of technology troubles for me, but my laptop is on the mend. So, I'm back with some of the great writing posts from around the blogosphere. (It pains me to use such a cliched word, but I don't know of any word to describe......
• Writing Roundup, August 21 We've got a lot of interesting news posts this week in addition to the regular blog suspects. The Business of Writing The Limits of Control This article from the American Journalism Review provides a good synopsis of the ethics policies and guidelines major newspapers are asking their reporters to follow......
• I Beat Obama: I'm Done with the Twilight Series In honor of the upcoming release of the Twilight movie (Nov. 21), I wanted to tell everyone that I have finished the entire saga. I finished Breaking Dawn on Monday.I read Twilight and New Moon a while back. Then I took some time off while I worked on my book......
• Set Yourself Up for Success We all know that there is no magic formula for success. It comes down to hard work and good timing. You can't control timing, but you can control how hard--and smart--you work. 1. Research If you want to write for a particular magazine, subscribe to it and visit the local......

• How to Get Free Education in Economics Mr. ToughMoneyLove is not going to talk about free credit scores, free credit card balance transfers, or free credit anything.  ("Free credit" is an oxymoron...
• How to Write an eBook and What to Do with It Are you a web content writer who works for hire?  If so, have you taken the time to examine e-books?  If not, do.  Thanks to...
• Do You Have A Book Inside You Waiting To Come Out? It's amazing. I've been writing books for years, and selling them online for nearly 15 years, and previously only in print through selling foreign licenses,...
• Book Review: 100 Tips For Acoustic Guitar by David Mead If you have been playing acoustic guitar for awhile but still feel like you are missing some key information, 100 Tips For Acoustic Guitar, by...
• Do it yourself relationship fixes... As a Relationship Coach, I am completely blown away at the sheer number of books, tapes, internet content, articles, and opinions on how to 'work'...