Category: Uncategorized

by @elizabethscraig

Below are the writing-related links I tweeted last week.
The Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine, designed by software engineer and writer Mike Fleming, makes all these links searchable. Sign up for the free monthly WKB newsletter for the web’s best links and interviews: http://bit.ly/gx7hg1 .
Recent news: the 3rd book in the Memphis Barbeque series released November 1—Hickory Smoked Barbeque.

Ghostwriting: Does It Matter If You Don’t Get The Credit? http://bit.ly/uuDUp4 @shurleyhall

Why Bloggers Should Be Stalkable: http://bit.ly/w3aPqu @charissaweaks

5 Ways to Stay Motivated While Writing a Novel: http://bit.ly/sU8JHo @nathanbransford

Speaker Tips for Authors: http://bit.ly/uuMjxN @sparrowgrp for @Bookgal

50 Quick, Dirty, and Cheap Ways to Improve Your Social Media Presence: http://bit.ly/vkKGT2 @smartwoman

11 Ways to Improve your Writing: http://bit.ly/urCf6G @soulofaword

Correct use of commas: http://bit.ly/ueQbTn @FantasyFaction

Smashwords to Start Accepting More eBook Formats in 2012: http://bit.ly/vDWdyU @ebooknewser

10 SEO Optimizations That Make A Difference: http://bit.ly/vndJXO @danny_cooper for @seanplatt

Chekhov’s Gag Tropes for Brainstorming Humor: http://bit.ly/sipyH7

Twitterific–my week in tweets: http://bit.ly/umy50a

1 indie author’s October sales report and analysis: http://bit.ly/s9btQK @DavidGaughran via @PassiveVoiceBlg

Getting the most from your Facebook fan page: http://bit.ly/vCI1Pn @curiosityquills

How to Write a Cover Letter That Is Both Modest and Confident: http://bit.ly/vAuqeE

7 things to remember when writing for young adults: http://bit.ly/u5AE7Q

How to Download Ebooks onto an Ereader from Project Gutenberg: http://bit.ly/u4svFI @PassiveVoiceBlg

10 reasons why pursuing your creative work is actually highly productive: http://bit.ly/rN3ggk @justinemusk

Keys to self-pub success: http://bit.ly/vvQ0r8 @TweetTheBook

How to Query a Book Review Blogger: http://bit.ly/sdG0xK @AnneRAllen

Do Readers See Your Characters the Way You Want Them To? http://bit.ly/vcZXW9 @KMWeiland

Tips for readings and signings: http://bit.ly/ukyK1A @marthawells1

Tips for book promo from @Janice_Hardy: http://bit.ly/vWmqeZ

10 resources for educating yourself on contracts: http://bit.ly/sgKpvL @/BryanThomasS

Structure-Getting Primal & Staying Simple: http://bit.ly/tTSmmt @KristenLambTX

5 Mistakes Writers Make When It Comes to Virtual Book Tours: http://bit.ly/rG9Cdv

6 Strategies To Help Get Your Family On Board With Your Passion: http://bit.ly/ugDLpz @OllinMorales

Barnes & Noble Introduces $249 Nook Tablet; Calls Kindle Fire ‘Deficient’ : http://bit.ly/vpOaJ7 @laurahazardowen

Writing memoirs – meeting the burden of marketability: http://bit.ly/tmgyKD @behlerpublish

10 Steps to Writing Mindfully for Your Blog: http://bit.ly/ugO8af @SeanMMadden

HarperCollins to pay $200 mil for Thomas Nelson: http://bit.ly/vsqqtv @GalleyCat #publishing

The Art of Performance = Not Wasting Your Audience’s Time: http://bit.ly/tO8f3u @kameronhurley

Why moving on to our next book is a good tactic: http://bit.ly/teKMJM

Inspiration vs Perspiration in Writing: http://bit.ly/tUjH0P @FaeRowen

1 agent’s concerns with NaNo: http://bit.ly/sSNsol @greyhausagency

5 writers with great Twitter bios: http://bit.ly/sSh8g7 @MarianSchembari

Download Seven Free Writing eBooks from @WritersDigest: http://bit.ly/urhVI8 @galleycat

The Challenges of Editing an Anthology: http://bit.ly/vrQCXk @Colin_Barnes

What 1 writer has learned about improving plot: http://bit.ly/sW0wzD @@Kathy_Crowley

Konrath releases his ebook v. print sales numbers: http://bit.ly/tcwV2O @jakonrath

Author Blogging 101: The Blogging Mindset: http://bit.ly/s9h6L9 @JFBookman

YA writers–a reminder of the many 1sts that kids face: http://bit.ly/u3MMrK @CherylRWrites

Tips for Using a Plot Board to Plot: http://bit.ly/vowoU6

An agent on Amazon Kindle Owners’ Lending Library: http://bit.ly/w3wdrA @RachelleGardner

Why story beats character: http://bit.ly/vjYugd @jammer0501

Create, Publish, Market, and Sell Your Own E-Book: http://bit.ly/rzIjJS @TheCreativePenn

How to hire the right website designer: http://bit.ly/rC8gq1 @JaneFriedman

The Nook tablet’s target audience: http://bit.ly/ujV9kj @laurahazardowen

Fantasy stories in a non-fantasy world: http://bit.ly/ugLGTo @DirtyWhiteCandy

Using Character to Fuel Momentum: http://bit.ly/tkF6Px @VictoriaMixon for @jan_ohara

How to gain perspective on your work: http://bit.ly/tS61KE @writersdigest

A Pulitzer-winning biographer with 6 writing lessons: http://bit.ly/vXImSq @michellerafter

Good Writing Habits & Motivation: http://bit.ly/u1MVXg

Authors can’t skimp on cover design or editing: http://bit.ly/vXc8Nd @novelpublicity

A Better Way Of Managing Your Author Website: http://bit.ly/sbc3GE

How to Recognize and Recover When You’ve Started Believing Your Own PR: http://bit.ly/se97vU @lizstrauss

8 rules for developing a good plot: http://bit.ly/vMsmih

5 Ways to Take the Ickiness Out of Marketing Our Books: http://bit.ly/uh2Grd @JodyHedlund

1 writer explains how his focus and motivation: http://bit.ly/tsthsH @RobertSharenow for @Janice_Hardy

Using The 12 Stages of Physical Intimacy To Build Tension In Your Novel: http://bit.ly/sIfqiI @JHansenWrites

Best self-publishing sites: http://bit.ly/v5Hdex @rule17

Tips for marketing your novel from @Janice_Hardy for @AngelaAckerman: http://bit.ly/vDSsqo

Using triggers in our writing: http://bit.ly/ssAr9W @authorterryo

Publishing in literary journals–an endangered rite of passage: http://bit.ly/vKtr90

A Love Affair…With Index Cards: http://bit.ly/vdFbfw @JulieMusil

True “do-it-yourself” publishing success stories will probably become rare? http://bit.ly/rQKY8o @PassiveVoiceBlg

An agent with “Submissions 101”: http://bit.ly/uUun06 @BookEndsJessica

Be a More Confident Writer: 5 Choices That Might Be Hurting Instead of Helping: http://bit.ly/siaqvS @AnnieNeugebauer

10 phrases freelancers hate to hear: http://bit.ly/vmB4lD @michellerafter

How movie money works: http://bit.ly/sre3qG #screenwriting

10 Intensifiers You Should Really, Absolutely Avoid: http://bit.ly/vyks5u

Attaining the impossible: http://bit.ly/tF0MiB @HP4Writers

Indie publishing is professional suicide? Authors respond: http://bit.ly/tPfDkc @PassiveVoiceBlg

Kobo Acquired by Japan’s Rakuten for $315 Million: http://bit.ly/sPbZ0q @GalleyCat #publishing

Tips for writing dialogue: http://bit.ly/slMVWY

How To Succeed At Screenwriting… By Really Trying, Part 2: Watch Movies: http://bit.ly/tgA5qr

Thoughts on what pages authors should sign books: http://bit.ly/t1lQ0p

Magic Bullet: The WISE Screenwriting Method: http://bit.ly/t0peDn @scriptmag

8 Ways Writers Cause Trouble: http://bit.ly/toSt3s @dollycas

The Creation of an Agent’s TBR Pile: http://bit.ly/t4Am91 @SaraMegibow

10 tips for getting published: http://bit.ly/tVrENb @nicolamorgan

1 writer’s experiment with Facebook ads: http://bit.ly/satEYq @LizzyFord2010

Tips from a self-pub success story: http://bit.ly/rVDxoG @JFBookman

3 Essential Guidelines for NaNoWriMo: http://bit.ly/uUSaMT @VictoriaMixon

When to Modify Your Name Due to SEO Concerns: http://bit.ly/sVMZM3 @JaneFriedman

7 More Fixes for Dangling Modifiers: http://bit.ly/rp1Fyi

Ebook as artifact: http://bit.ly/u8DKvI @camillelaguire

Crime fiction writers: 1 way to write sleuths that readers identify with: http://bit.ly/s8AaRA @Mkinberg

Creepy houses in crime fiction: http://bit.ly/s7NEhw @mkinberg

Save The Bookstore Day: http://bit.ly/uJUa4L @NicholeBernier

Why indie authors need to produce professional products: http://bit.ly/szDyls @joebeernink via @p2p_editor

The Brit Writers Awards: Questions and Threats: http://bit.ly/ue4dYg @VictoriaStrauss

The Art of Receiving Criticism: http://bit.ly/ttk36a @storyfix

Understanding Advances And Royalties: http://bit.ly/ssHVBy @HeatherMcCorkle

Social media–1 size doesn’t fit all: http://bit.ly/vdXKWP @KristenLambTX

The Secret to Writing While Driving: http://bit.ly/rq1iDn @christi_craig

5 Things To Consider When Turning Real Life into Fiction: http://bit.ly/rvkVlX @ProcrastWriter

Thanks to @AngelaAckerman & @beccapuglisi for making me a hero! http://bit.ly/vOG89f . Ck out their sidebar resource for writers.

How and why 1 writer changed his book’s title: http://bit.ly/v6IF4c @AuthorGuy

Create Visibility Before Getting Published: http://bit.ly/uD3IV5 @KarenCV for @spunkonastick

5 levels of slush pile manuscripts: http://bit.ly/sp0VLv @camillelaguire

5 Mistakes Virtual Book Tour Mistakes: http://bit.ly/tJjPKM @Working_Writer

Tips for organizing information: http://bit.ly/tfWY2D @CherylRWrites

How to Keep Writing When the Honeymoon is Over: http://bit.ly/vrEOxk @JodyHedlund

Indie pub drama, Amazon’s library, book piracy, con-confusion. Great wrap-up by @Porter_Anderson for @JaneFriedman : http://bit.ly/uAI8PI

An agent on the stages of an edit: http://bit.ly/tNgtf3 @BookEndsJessica

8 Press Kit Elements for Your Author Website: http://bit.ly/suQt8H @sandrabeckwith for @FriesenPress

The trouble of calling ourselves writers: http://bit.ly/smxWxs @writeitsideways

Keeping your writing interesting to keep yourself engaged: http://bit.ly/uLjmXW @originalimpulse for @fuelyourwriting

How to speak publisher – D is for Design: http://bit.ly/uDYwLM @annerooney

Great covers–tips from 4 design pros: http://bit.ly/sTxzoa

‘Every Book is a Leap of Faith’: Int’l Lit. Publishing: http://bit.ly/tXkBKs @pubperspectives #publishing

The different types of plotting writers: http://bit.ly/s2tNo6 @C_Herringshaw

Author platform–it’s not about you: http://bit.ly/sDkqyC @JFBookman

Book Bloggers: The New Publishing Gatekeepers: http://bit.ly/sjNc0M @jenniecoughlin

Faking It – acting like you know what you’re doing: http://bit.ly/sosm0N @behlerpublish

A Get Out of Jail Free Card for Some Authors: http://bit.ly/uPwXGN @PassiveVoiceBlg

What Makes a Story Feel Unrealistic? http://bit.ly/uGLflu @JamiGold

Survey of Low Fantasy Subgenres: http://bit.ly/sygKZp @FantasyFaction

When Characters Betray Other Characters: http://bit.ly/vR4glj @janice_hardy

Tips for using a storyboard for revision: http://bit.ly/vYUQHU @joanswan

When, in your drafts, to add the details of your worldbuilding: http://bit.ly/rAGXtw @HP4Writers

Examples of description used in novel openings: http://bit.ly/v0c0yL @KarenMusings

How to feel miserable as a writer: http://bit.ly/viq2Sm @JamesScottBell

Writing Adult Vs. YA Titles, one author’s experience: http://bit.ly/uNvBaB @LeannaRenee

Build a questions list to keep writing fresh: http://bit.ly/sKbq2U

Song structure and plot (what novelists can learn from songwriters): http://bit.ly/s3LVVW @JLeaLopez

Best articles for writers–11/11/11: http://bit.ly/uLsMkN @4KidLit

3 tips for giving readings: http://bit.ly/vOxXJB

10 Phrases to Purge From Your Speech & : http://bit.ly/rLsacn @nancyragno for @JaneFriedman

15 Tips for Writing a Murder Mystery: http://bit.ly/ua2ran @JHansenWrites

Write the beginning last: http://bit.ly/vsAL1E @elanaj

Indie v. traditional. Choose according to your project: http://bit.ly/vYNVu6 @LAGilman

Character v. trait: http://bit.ly/tSoOgo @TheresaStevens

Myth-Busting About Uncertainty: http://bit.ly/upfaaq @Later_Bloomer

Backstory: A Lesser Known Reason Not to Dump it Upfront: http://bit.ly/tHOUah @jeanniecampbell

1 writer admits to not being totally present with her family: http://bit.ly/rFfssC @tessgerritsen

15 Words for Household Rooms, and Their Synonyms: http://bit.ly/sTuyOY

How to Be a Better Parent AND a Better Writer: http://bit.ly/svLRxY @write_practice

Why Would You Ever Want to Outsource Your Voice? http://bit.ly/vBYbRN @chrisbrogan

Juxtaposition of relationships: http://bit.ly/rvgdQC @RavenRequiem13

A free directory of #ebook pros–for covers, editing, formatting, & more: http://tinyurl.com/3mxg5zt

Introducing Writer Beware’s Small Presses Page: http://bit.ly/tiaTKk @VictoriaStrauss

Why 1 writer has been happy with his decision to self-pub: http://bit.ly/vC4SzI @DavidGaughran for @jakonrath

YouTube Video Marketing Tips for Authors: http://bit.ly/sM2MA8 @curiosityquills

4 Ways to Fix a Stalled Story: http://bit.ly/vIHz3U @Janice_Hardy

Why an author’s early works are usually most original: http://bit.ly/rYFCxr

Tips for writing book proposals: http://bit.ly/rUJ2qK

An interesting interview with Stephen King: http://nyti.ms/v3lENZ (NY Times): @errolmorris

10 point website checkup: http://bit.ly/vU1x7m @Bookgal for @KarenCV

Hook your reader from the start: http://bit.ly/vUkcnv @HowToWriteShop

Generating Story: Develop The 6 Core Parts, Start Anywhere: http://bit.ly/tFL0LZ @authorjohnbrown

How The Kindle Fire Will Attack The iPad: Newsstand: http://rww.to/vPJx6Q @JonMwords

How to Write Fast and Well: http://bit.ly/v4hp1J @gatekeeperspost

5 Great Websites for Thriller Writers: http://bit.ly/tYPj8X @worddreams

The Art And Craft Of Story With @VictoriaMixon for @TheCreativePenn: http://bit.ly/rT1D2l

How to Style Compounds After the Noun: http://bit.ly/t2vWqY

3 Hidden Benefits of a Controversial Guest Post: http://bit.ly/rZMzMT @webtrafficcafe

5 Ways to Make More Time to Read: http://bit.ly/tHUZBh @robertbruce76 for @michaelhyatt

Writing for Middle Grades: Voice: http://bit.ly/tMlaeX @magicalwords

1 writer’s lessons learned after 20,000 tweets: http://bit.ly/vPVqqn @JeffGoins

Treating characters as if they were real: http://bit.ly/tkIWeM

The subconscious shelf: http://nyti.ms/tWWeMV (NY Times)

The Pleasures and Perils of Rereading: http://bit.ly/sdCOT9 @RealLiveCritic

Speed bumps on the road to publication: http://bit.ly/ryOtVd

5 features to help you grow your ghostwriting business: http://bit.ly/vMuZXI & http://bit.ly/ttqyzU @KarenCV

How Independent Bookstores Sell E-Books: http://bit.ly/vvBDvy @laurahazardowen

Romance in fantasy: http://bit.ly/tOSTb0 @FantasyFaction

Hi everyone! Today I’m over at the Writers in the Storm blog with tips for writing mysteries. If you’ve ever thought about writing one, or if you’re a mystery reader, I hope you’ll slide by.

Also, I want to thank Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi for featuring me as one of their Writing Heroes on The Bookshelf Muse blog. It’s a huge honor for me, since I really respect the resource they’ve established for writers there— fantastic writers’ thesauruses. Look in their sidebar to check out their thesaurus for character traits, emotions, settings, symbolism, weather, and more. They’ve opened up a giveaway for one of their wonderful critiques, which I’ll be passing along to a reader very soon.

I also wanted to thank Sharon Galligar Chance at Sharon’s Garden of Book Reviews for her kind review of Hickory Smoked Homicide.

Thanks!

@AuthorGuy — Authorguy’s Blog

What a difference a Date makes.

When I first started my latest novel (the latest one to be released, not my WIP) I was standing in a book store, looking at the spine of a book with the title Blood Moon. I say ‘started’ here because just looking at this title gave me the idea for a novel in which a werewolf attack occurs on the Moon. The story as originally envisaged in that flashbulb moment, that ‘Aha’ moment for which all of us writers live, was supposed to be a mystery, with a hideous monster in the middle of it.

When I started actually writing the story, the title was (you guessed it) ‘Blood Moon’. Hey, why not, can’t copyright titles, right? Well, no, you can’t, which is not always a good thing. We want our books to stand out, don’t we? We want people to find our books, don’t we? Well, have you ever tried googling the title ‘Blood Moon’? There are lots of books with that name. It’s really rather shocking. I hope the authors had better names for their books, but it’s amazing that so many publishers couldn’t be bothered to check! I suppose there might be title generators or SEO algorithms that recommend titles with Blood and Moon in them, but if you want that book to shine don’t hide it under a bushel of other books with the same name.

When I was in the middle of writing my story, I grew dissatisfied with the title. It seemed rather ordinary to me, and more important, it didn’t actually tell me anything about the book. Worse, what it did tell me was wrong! You see, Blood Moon didn’t stay a mystery very long. I think I was in chapter two somewhere when I realized that I had no aptitude for writing mysteries. Or Horror. I’m a character-based novelist, and I usually discover the plot as I’m following my characters around. Blood Moon is a great title for a mystery (or a paranormal, or a romance, or a…) but it’s not a great title for whatever this story was shaping up to be.

Sometimes we authors realize it ourselves, and change the title to something more useful. Sometimes we don’t, and it falls to the editors and even marketing people to say that our book just doesn’t feel like a ‘Blood Moon’ sort of book, and then where are we? The title influences the book as we’re writing it, at least it does for me. As Blood Moon moved farther away from anything mystery-like, the name became more of a straitjacket. So I went on the web, googling the phrase ‘Blood Moon’ to see if there were any useful alternatives. It turns out there are. Blood Moon is an actual name, the name of a particular full moon, one of the 13 that occur throughout the year. It never occurred to me that people would name them but they do. (Possible series idea there.)

One of those names was ‘St. Martin’s Moon’. So I thought, ‘Hey, sounds like a cool title’, but it was much more than that. St. Martin is the patron saint of many things, including beggars, innkeepers, and geese. More important, St. Martin’s Moon is the full moon in the sky shortly after Halloween. And here’s me, writing a werewolf novel.

• And just like that (well, not really, nothing about this book was ‘just like that’) the book got a bit of a makeover.
• Some details got a whole new significance. Because of the title, the time and place of events suddenly shifted. It’s Halloween, and I discovered Joseph Marquand, my MC, hates Halloween. Why? Well, let’s find out.
• Some details were added. Because of the title, I noticed a church sign one day and worked it into the story. Minor, I’ll admit, but good for flavor if nothing else.
• When I got around to writing the end (I’m very linear) I found that the whole ending had been changed. I discovered Joseph Marquand didn’t like psychics either, but that’s for next book.
• Even the genre was different, and I don’t say that lightly. I didn’t just change the genre from mystery to paranormal romance, although for a long time that’s what I thought I’d done. I ended up inventing a new genre, because the story morphed to fit the title.

The Feast of St. Martin is November 11^th. St. Martin’s Moon is November 10^th this year. My wife is planning a party, just because.

Happy Martinmas!

Like many writers, I started when a story came along and decided that I should write it. Don’t ask me why. Others followed, until now I’m afraid to go out of the house with a recorder or notebook in my hand. But I show them, I refuse to write the same story twice!

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Hi everyone!  Today I’m over at the book blog, Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book.  I’ve got a guest post explaining why it’s dangerous to unleash writers on an unsuspecting public. :)

There’s also a giveaway of one copy of Hickory Smoked Homicide.

Hope you’ll pop by!

First of all, thanks to Mason Canyon at the Thoughts in Progress blog for her review of my recent release, Hickory Smoked Homicide.  I appreciate it, Mason!

I was talking to another writer the other day and they asked me how I handled the pressure of promo and reviews.  I thought about it for a second, then I said, “I write.”

But it wasn’t always that way.  After I wrote my first book, I treated it like a child that needed its hand held.  I walked it to kindergarten, I anxiously watched what people said about it. Was it being bullied?   I worried over it.  I was a helicopter parent for the book.

Then I noticed that I kept getting the same advice from the other writers that I knew. “You should write another book.”  Some of the writers didn’t even realize they were giving advice.  “When’s your next book coming out?” they’d ask.  As if that was just the normal approach.  It was, actually, an annoying refrain.

I didn’t want to think about the next book.  I wanted to focus on the fact that I’d just written a book! It made my head hurt to think about moving on to another one.  I wanted to just celebrate my accomplishment.

Since I continued to hear the same advice, though, I wrote another book.  I started obsessing over it the same way.  At that time, I was trying to move from a regional press to the big guys.  I wrote queries and synopses and cover letters, and tracked them carefully.  And I wasn’t writing.

I discovered that it was very discouraging to get rejections.  That was probably because querying was my sole focus.  The rejections really stung.  I hated going to my mailbox.

And still I continued to hear the refrain.  “So what’s your next book about?  What are you writing now?”

Was there no resting on your laurels in this business?  Even after a couple of books? 

That’s when it all started clicking for me.  Write, edit, submit, brainstorm, repeat.  That’s the cycle.  That’s how we get better, that’s how we start a writing career, that’s how we sustain a writing career–that’s it.

That’s how rejections and reviews won’t sting.  We keep writing. 

If we write a real stinker?  We keep writing, keep improving.  We’ll have a better or more successful book the next time.  Or the next.

If all our writing dreams are hanging on one or two books, we’ll nurse the dickens out of them. It’s so much better, so much healthier, to keep being creative. 

What’s your next book about?