Nina Amir tells us how to write a good book in 30 days. (This entire site has a lot of good resources, as well)

Thoughts about “Thought Verbs” from Chuck Palahniuck, author of “Fight Club.”

Creating crisis in your story

The Shape of Stories by Kurt Vonnegut

And finally, here’s one of my favorite paragraphs about writing:

Today we’re going to talk about social media. UGH.

Really. Just…ugh.

It’s a necessary evil, and even entertaining a lot of the time, but the truth is it takes time and energy and focus that you’d really rather be putting toward your writing, if you had your ‘druthers. Still, there are great tools out there that help you build and engage with your audience, and you’re a fool if you don’t take advantage of them.

Here are a few resources that have really helped me as I navigate my way through the social media maze:

The Social Media Cheat Sheet – INCREDIBLY helpful guide to picture sizes and formatting constraints on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.

5 Low-Cost Social Media Marketing Strategies for Authors – Great if you don’t have a lot of money to throw at a marketing program.

102 Hashtags Smart Writers Are Using – I started using some of these faithfully and doubled my Twitter following with people solidly in my target demographic very quickly.

17 Tools That’ll Take Your Social Media Marketing To The Next Level –  A list of various downloads and apps that can help you with content and scheduling.

Dan Pearce’s 100 Blogging Tips – Dan is a blogger with a strong viral presence, and his tips are spot-on if you want to build and engaging blog.

Now go forth and be retweeted, reblogged, liked, pinned, hashtagged and hopefully…read!

Writing is a struggle about finding the right word. Or string of words. You need to be able to convey, to describe, to paint, and do it all in as few unnecessary words as possible. Which is a whole lot easier than it sounds, believe me. So I’ve used these two, on occasion – and they do help:

The Wheel of Emotional Description

100 Ways To Say “Said” (and use this one sparingly – “Said” is still the best way to say something, but when you need occasional umph, another word may do better).

Then you have to put the words into some sort of structure. Here are three references that I’ve skimmed and gleaned from and applied in various ways: Continue reading →

This will be the first year I haven’t entered NaNoWriMo in a long, long time. Why? Because a book I started as a NaNo Project finally landed me a bona-fide book deal with a “Big 5” publisher, that’s why – so I am living proof that You. Can. Do. This.

In my resource collection I have a file of stuff I use to motivate me before NaNo starts every year, so I’m going to share them with you:

1. Pixar’s 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling – These are outstanding, and rule #4 is the rough outline for every single book I’ve ever written.
2. Chuck Wendig on How to Push Past the Bullshit and Write That Goddamn Novel
3. 22 Lessons from Stephen King on How to be a Great Writer
4. 10 Writing Tips to Make Your Editor’s Life Easier
5. Joss Whedon: 5 Things Your Script Has to Have (this goes for fiction, too)

Hope those help – and good luck to everyone!

Now here’s my sage advice:

FINISH THAT BOOK. JUST WRITE AND FINISH THAT DAMN BOOK.

Hello everyone! It’s Thursday, so it’s time to share some writer resources! This week I’ll be highlighting opportunities that you might not want to miss!

51 Magazines That Pay Writers #250+

10 Magazines That Pay Writers $500+

Top 5 Writing Contests For Your Book

Halloween Short Story Contest With $500 Prize

Finally, I’ll finish off with the granddaddy of all writer links: Redditor motopoeta publishes a huge list of monthly writer resources in the Reddit writing community – you don’t want to miss it!

Hello everyone – here are this week’s writer resources. Our subject today: Inspiration!

10 Works of Art Every Writer Should See In Person

The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations

Writing Prompts That Don’t Suck (these gave me some great short stories – one of which germinated into my latest novel)

John Cleese On Creativity

Ray Bradbury On How Listmaking Can Boost Your Creativity

Hope these got your creative juices flowing! Happy (miserable, brow-beating, frustrating) writing!!