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.

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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 the internet or the blog space that isn’t cliched.)

• The Business of Writing
• Craft
• Fiction
• Freelancing
• Platform

The Business of Writing

Feminist Critique of Romance: UR Doin It Wrong
Racy Romance Reviews takes a look at feminist thought on romance novels. In essence, the idea that romance novels are inherently anti-feminist is based on outdated books and a lack of primary research. This is an interesting post that not only provides insight into the current state of the romance genre but also gives a good example of how to do research.

Your Turn: What Prosperity Means to Four Writers
Christina Katz opens her forum up to writers to discuss their personal definitions of prosperity. Carol Alexander, Lydia Sharp, Julie Achterhoff, and Dionne Obesso give their ideas of a prosperous writing life. This was a timely post for me, as I have been examining my own ideas of prosperity and how to bring it into my life. What does prosperity mean to you?

How to Find an Agent for Your Nonfiction Book
I spend a lot of time here focusing on fiction, even though my published work has been mainly nonfiction. Here is some advice for those of us looking to land an agent to represent our nonfiction work.

Musicblogocide 2010 and eBooks
Google unceremoniously removed many music blogs for copyright violations. Galleycat gives some of the background and begins to ask the question of how Google’s decision to remove these blogs will affect the future of blogs that focus on ebooks and vooks.

Long Time No See by Deborah Schneider
Deborah Schneider gives an interesting look into the work (and time) it took for her to publish her first book. How long will you stick it out before you give up the writing game?

When Do You Give Up?
Another look at this tough question from agent Kate Shafer Testerman.

How the iPad Might Bring Us Back to Our Print Roots
Giovanni Calabro looks at how the book and magazine publishing components of the iPad might breathe new life into the publishing industry.

Craft

Easy Editing Tips
L.J. Sellers gives some good ideas to get you started on self-editing your work.

Clear-Cut Rules for Hyphens
Are you a hyphen pro? If not, here is a post that will teach you what you need to know.

Fiction

How Setting Influences Your Characters
C. Patrick Shulz gives tips to use your setting to develop your characters into the multi-dimensional, complex individuals they need to be.

How to Write about a Real Location when You Haven’t Been There
Want to include an authentic picture of a real-life setting in your work? Joanna Penn can help.

Freelancing

When Bells Ring Almost Too Much, It’s Time to Triage
How do you handle it when you have too much work and/or too much personal life? Anne Wayman suggests you take a triage approach to your multiple priorities so that each gets the attention it needs at the time it needs.

Cut This Story
Web writers have one thing right for our current time and attention span: they know how to write short, scannable text that can be easily digested by readers. Print journalists can learn lessons from their web-writing counterparts and create stories that are more useful to readers. Michael Kinsley gives specific examples to help you.

Platform

You Tell Me: Can Authors Balance Publicity and Privacy in the Internet Era?
Agent Nathan Bransford asks an interesting question in this post. Will we ever have another J.D. Salinger, or has the Internet and the new requirements that authors do a large portion of their own marketing removed the possibility of being “just an author”?

Surprise! Branding Is Not Always about Your Book
Carolyn Howard-Johnson gives some tips on branding for authors.

How to Leverage Twitter When You Have Little Time
Saving time on Twitter gives us more time for writing, right?

Tips for Getting Visitors to Your Web Site
Want more potential readers to visit your web site? Here are four tips that might help.

Related Posts:

• Writing Roundup, June 25
• Writing Roundup, June 18
• Writing Roundup, June 4
• Writing Roundup, May 28
• Writing Roundup, May 21