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.
Freemium for Writers Is Two Debates
Don Holloway provides interesting insight into the concept of using free content to increase readership and, we hope, encourage readers to buy our paid content.
The Library in a Digital Age
If you were building a library from scratch, what would you put in it? Scads of books? E-book readers? Digital televisions? Internet-connected computers?
How I Spent My Summer Vacation
Kassia Kroszer shares her story of the founding and then closure of Quartet Press. I was sad to see Quartet close down this week, and I wish all of th best to all who were involved. Kroszer makes some interesting points about the future of publishing and the need for authors to stay on top of the new developments so we can figure out how they may affect us.
Maybe You Shouldn’t Quit Your Job Just Yet
Agent Rachelle Gardner gives a great breakdown on just what you can expect with your first advance. She describes the payment process and the amounts that will go to your agent and that you should set aside for taxes. It’s a nice dose of reality that we can all keep in mind when we plan to trajectory of our writing careers.
Identifying and Eliminating Your Habit Words
Patricia Stoltey gives some good tips for using technology to weed out your most repeated words. What are yours? I find that my habit words change from WIP to WIP, but they tend to be the connector words, such as “however” or “in addition.”
People Watching: For Spies or Writers?
Kristine Meldrum Denholm likens writers to spies. Both vocations require you to observe people, looking for their habits and their tics, and then to process those actions through a filter. How often do you spy on people to enrich your characters?
The Value of the Unanticipated
Novelist Camy Tang offers a tip to enliven a scene that is missing that little something special: an unanticipated conflict.
Where Do You Write?
Kimberly Farris share her writing location of choice and asks you to share yours. I find that different locations work best for different types of writing. Nonfiction? In the office with no distractions. Blogging? Just about anywhere. Fiction? In the living room with my two dogs and the TV on.
A Limited Number of Words
Novelist L.J. Sellers isn’t writing as much on her novel this year, and she thinks the culprit is her other writing job. I definitely feel as if I have a limited amount of writing juice, and my day job has been getting the bulk of it lately. What about you? Do you have an infinite pool of words to put on paper?
Stay Fresh
Elle Scott discusses the use of brand names and important figures in your writing. Don’t do it, she says, it will only make your writing sound dated, even by the time it comes out. J.R. Ward, are you listening? If you insist on including brand names in your fiction, Jessica Faust gave some good tips on how to do so last week.
10 Reasons Why Old-School Freelancers Need to Lighten Up and Stop Whining
Deb Ng looks at the realities of web writing. Many of us got our start in print, and we try to apply our print logic to the web. Print pay is typically higher, so we get offended by lower-paying online gigs. That’s fine, until we start judging our fellow writers who write for those sites. Read Deb’s thoughts and the comments.
20 Not-So-Obvious Blogs for Freelancers
We all have our favorite writing and entrepreneurial sites, but what about productivity sites? Or innovation sites? Even money management sites? Freelance Folder lists some great resources for business building and management that you might not have thought of.
Building a Platform: Day 1
Jacqueline Vick provides some guiding questions to help you decide on your niche. Once you have a niche, you can begin to build a platform that targets that niche.
How to Write a Really Good Query Letter, Part XI: What do you mean you want me to talk about my writing credentials?
Anne Mini discusses the importance of describing your platform in your query letter. As part of that discussion, she gives some great ideas to help you build a platform, including contests, article writing, and education.
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Categories: Uncategorized, writing