I’m so excited to be revealing the cover for my upcoming short story collection ‘Beautiful & Deadly’!
Keep an eye on my blog next week as I will be debuting the book trailer during my blogiversary celebrations, launching a competition to win an advanced PDF copy of the collection and giving details of the release date of the book!
I missed posting last month’s helpful writing links post in the craziness of NaNoWriMo, so this month you get the best writing sites and blog posts I’ve come across in the last two months.
Writing
I was going to put this website under ‘Just for Fun’, but it is actually quite a helpful writing tool for anyone writing historical/period pieces. Just type in a modern word and it will tell you the equivalent word Jane Austen would have used.
Need a Jump? Four Ways to Fix a Stalled Story
This isn’t about writer’s block. This is for when you know where you want your story to go and you have your plan, but the story just won’t write. The scene you’re writing feels boring and lifeless. Something just isn’t working. This post can help you pinpoint why your story has stalled and how to fix it so you can get momentum going again.
Writing Fantasy Genre Stereotypes Part One: Your Heroine is Too Beautiful and Part Two: Writing the Opposite Gender
This two-part series looks at gender stereotypes in fantasy writing and how to avoid them. In particular, it looks at how in fantasy female characters are often stereotyped as either a sex object or a man in women’s clothing (or often both combined). Part one deals with visual stereotyping in the fantasy genre and part two deals with women who act like men and men who act like women (particularly aimed at women writing male characters or men writing female characters).
10 Ways to Create a Plot Twist
Plot twists are a great way to keep your story exciting, but it’s all about finding the right moment and right scenario to introduce the twist. This post provides ten ways for adding a plot twist into your story.
25 Reasons Readers Will Quit Reading Your Story
As writers we want our readers to keep reading until they turn the very last page. If we don’t want readers to close our book half way through, or, even worse, after the first page, this list provides tips on what to avoid in your novel to ensure your readers will keep turning pages. A great checklist for revision.
Revising
A great checklist of things to look out for when revising to make your manuscript as good as it can possibly be before submitting.
Self Publishing
11 Self Publishing Strategies for Success
A lot of authors now look to self publishing as an alternative to traditional publishing, but it is by no means an easy road. This post offers some strategies to help ensure your self publishing journey is a success.
So You’re Thinking About Self Publishing
A round up of helpful sites for those thinking about self publishing.
Social Media
8 Incredibly Simple Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content
Not getting many reads on your blog? This post offers some simple solutions to help get your blog posts noticed (and shared).
How to Write a Popular Writing Blog
Tips for what makes a blog popular (a post for writers who blog).
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I hope you all have a happy and safe New Year!
Before I do this month’s roundup of helpful writing sites and blog posts, I just want to send out my thoughts and prayers to those in New Zealand affected by the earthquake. If you wish to donate to the New Zealand Red Cross to help out those affected, here is a link: New Zealand Red Cross
Onto the most helpful sites and posts I’ve come across this month:
Writing
This is by far the best site on punctuation I’ve found. It covers colons, semicolons, commas, dashes and apostrophes. It is very straightforward and clear and makes understanding how to use punctuation very easy. I always thought I was good at punctuation, but reading so many complicated posts on punctuation on the internet has often left me confused on whether I’m doing it right. This site is now my go to site when I need clarity.
The Very Basics: Ten Things All Writers Need To Do
Ten things writers should do if they want a shot at getting published.
Killzone author James Scott Bell outlines opening chapter no nos based on statements by literary agents.
Five Tips for Your First Five Pages
From things you shouldn’t do in your opening to things you should do.
This post explains the difference between a conversation and dialogue.
8 Ways to Pile on the Fear in Your Horror Fiction
Great post for horror writers looking for ways to amp up the fear factor in their writing.
A look at the way J.K. Rowling uses touch in the Harry Potter series as a way of showing emotion, rather than telling.
A great post for fantasy writers on creating a magic system that fits best with the world in your novel.
Lovable and Admirable Characters
We all want to create characters our readers will want to read more about. Author Denise Jaden shares some advice she received about qualities your main character should have to ensure he/she is engaging and lovable.
How to Get the Biggest Bang for Your Plot Point
This post outlines where your main plot points occur in your manuscript and what you should be doing at these points to create a deeper connection with your reader.
Tightening Your (Manuscript’s) Belt
A checklist for eliminating unnecessary prose.
7 Ways Glee Can Improve Your Fiction Writing
Joanna Penn uses the popular TV show ‘Glee’ as a metaphor for ways to improve your writing.
Queries
How to Write a Bio for Your Query
Dot point list of what to include and also includes an example of what to do if you have no writing credentials.
What Your Query Says About Your Book
Your query letter is your first impression of your manuscript. This post tells you how much an agent can tell about your manuscript just by reading your query letter.
Corinne Jackson shares an original query letter she wrote that kept getting rejected, tips she received from a literary agent to improve the query and a revised query she wrote using the tips from the agent that resulted in requests for partials and fulls.
Just for Fun
For anyone on Twitter, you’ll be able to relate to these ‘stages’.
Jo Hart - Author 