Jen's Writing Journey

Welcome to the new home of Jen's Writing Journey, the blog that chronicles Jennifer Roland's writing life and provides useful information for new and seasoned writers.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or my email updates or follow me on Twitter.

Thanks for visiting!

How is this collection working for you? Do you have any categories of posts you’d like me to include? Any blogs you think I should be following for potential inclusion?

The Business of Writing

Distance Insulates Journalists
Have you ever gotten your hands on some ill-gotten research? Do you think it is okay for journalists to use less than legal methods of gathering information? Where would you draw the line?

Beware Bogus Literary Agents
Anne R. Allen brings us another great post. Here she helps her fellow writers avoid being scammed by a fake agent. Like many things in life, if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. After you read her six tips, read the addendum, added in response to agent Janet Reid’s feedback.

RWA Mid-Day Summary
The ladies at Dear Author give a rundown of the rogue digital publishing seminar, including some interesting history and financial information.

A Lot of B.S.
Eric at Pimp My Novel describes the BookScan system and how it relates to your success as a writer.

Publishing with a Small Press
For some authors, it can be a good idea to go to a smaller press or an electronic press. You can get more personal attention, and your time lines might be shorter. Elle Scott shares her experiences to help you decide what type of publisher will meet your needs.

Craft

The Fine Art of Feedback
Joe Finder gives some great ideas to help you not only take feedback–both positive and negative–but also make sure you are soliciting useful feedback.

To Splice or Not to Splice
Heidi Thomas takes on the nasty comma splice in her post at The Blood-Red Pencil. She also brings up the interesting question of when it is okay to break the rules of grammar. Do you allow it more in your fiction? Can a skilled writer break the rules in nonfiction?

Fiction

Novice Novel Writer in Need
On Pop Culture Divas, a blog I absolutely love, a novice writer asked for some advice. Read her story, then check out the comments. How can you apply the advice to your own writing life?

How Many Is Enough?
Have you ever found yourself falling out of love with a series, as if you could feel the author losing interest in the characters with every page? Or have you bemoaned the loss of a beloved series too soon? L.J. Sellers discusses series length. (I also talked about this last year on my pop culture blog when I realized I was watching some shows out of habit.)

Freelancing

3 Tips for Taking Back Your Life
This post makes me so happy. I wish I had followed this advice earlier this year–that way I wouldn’t be feeling so overwhelmed. Oh well. You live and learn.

10 Tips for Kicking Ass as a Freelance Writer
James Chartrand gives some great writing tips in this post. They all seem to boil down to one key point: put yourself in your readers shoes, then get out of the way and tell the story. This is helpful advice for fiction and non-fiction writers.

65 New and Useful Posts for Brand New (and Veteran) Writers
Not done reading about writing? Here is a collection of great posts from the folks at Freelance Writing Jobs.

Enjoy!

• Writing Roundup, December 4 The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing What Can I Expect of My Agent? Moonrat posts a nice description of what you can expect in your relationship with your agent. Read this post, then visit agent Kate Schafer Testerman's blog for a follow-up and......
• Writing Roundup, September 11 Here is a handy table of contents that will help you quickly reach the topic of your choice. Let me know if you like it this way. The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing Freemium for Writers Is Two Debates Don Holloway provides interesting insight......
• Writing Roundup, March 12 The Business of Writing Craft Fiction Freelancing Platform The Business of Writing Query Etiquette Agent Kathleen Ortiz posts some really bad sentences to include in your query letter. Please, follow her advice. How to Decide What Blogs to Read I've gotten a little ruthless in my blog reading, and......
• Writing Roundup, September 4 Public Service Message: If you are affected by the Google Books settlement and you want to opt out, today is the deadline. Here is the link to opt out. The Business of Writing Books: The Big Story Is Consolidation This Financial Times article argues for further consolidation of book publishers......
• Writing Roundup, June 26 Where has this month gone? How did you do on your goals? I got my spreadsheet going, and I'm using it. The two books are still in process, but I've got a whole weekend ahead of me! And I've gotten 3,000 words written on my novel. The Business of Writing......

• The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain (Paperback) From Publishers Weekly Flaherty (The Massachusetts General Handbook of Neurology) mixes memoir, meditation, compendium and scholarly reportage in an odd but absorbing look at the...
• 4th Edition of Author Love Welcome to the fourth edition of author love. Quite a few fun miscellaneous book related articles this week as well as some how-tos bloggers and...
• Author Love #3 Welcome to the third edition of author love. We've got book reviews, how-tos, and writing tips. Book Reviews swapnil warang presents switch2life: Book Review:"White Man...
• Lessons from the NFL The National Football League kicks off another season this week. In honor of my favorite sport, I thought I'd bring you some tips from the...
• Roundup August 10th This week from Fitness Health Network: Prevent Lung Disease With These Four Super Foods by Lazy Man and Health says not only are these four...