Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 91

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 40,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and see the character and location name generators! 

Happy Easter to all who observe it. I’m going to be taking the next week off to spend some time with family and catch up on some writing. See you next Sunday!

Business / Miscellaneous



Get a better author photo without spending a fortune: @sandrabeckwith

“A writer needs 3 things to protect her work”: @KristineRusch

Freelancing: when good assignments go bad: @DanaShavin

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration



3 Sources for Writers In Search of Ideas: @AustinDetails

Why You Must Write The Book You Want To Read: @SukhiJutla

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers



Book recommendation podcasts for writers wanting to read more: @RoniLoren

9 Crappy eReader Features We Don’t Need: @helpfulsnowman

6 Couples in Literature Who Should Just Break Up Already: @missriki

10 Spanish-Language Authors You Need to Check Out: @Gabino_Iglesias

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing



5 Sneaky Ways to Steal Time to Write: @weems503

4 Simple, Realistic Ways You Can Make Time to Write: @balanceless

8 Things Learned From Writing In 10-Minute Increments: @10MinNovelists

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

How To Combat Abrupt Writer’s Apathy: @faulknercreek

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life



Writer Wellness: Home Office Modifications and More: @JeriWB @colleen_m_story

The Long-Term Results of a Faithful Writing Life: @annkroeker

Don’t Stop Writing: @RuthanneReid

Embrace Your Boundaries: @DanBlank

Arts in the Parks: Current Residency Programs Across the National Park System: @My_poetic_side

Other Jobs Writers Take: @FinishedPages

The Hardest Thing About Writing a Book: @jaltucher

On Writing and Failure: @ecmyers

The Writer As Public Figure vs. The Writer Who Actually Writes: @Ramqvist

Minimalism For Writers: An Experiment: @besscozby @DIYMFA

7 Ways Our Writing Enriches Us: @kcraftwriter

3 Tricks for Writing Even When You’re Sick: @jeffelk

Writers and Alcohol: Busting the Myth of Booze and the Muse @AGHackney

A Writer’s Process: Longhand or Keyboard? by Linda Wilson

Genres / Fantasy

Five Books About Trolls: @TheFiveClaws @tordotcom

Genres / Historical

Trigger Warnings in Historical Fiction: @jrrabb

Genres / Horror

Horror in the Headlines: Using the News for Novel Ideas: @BookCurious @HorrorWriters

Genres / Mystery



How to Plot a Mystery: Set Up the Hero Fake-Out: @CockeyedCaravan

Plotting a Mystery: Figuring Out What Went Wrong: @CockeyedCaravan

Tips for writing unpleasant characters in mysteries:

Genres / Poetry

11 poetry writing tips: @monthlywriting

Genres / Short Stories



4 Short Lessons on Short Stories: @jessicastrawser @WritersDigest

Is Writing Flash Fiction for You? @ZoeMMcCarthy

8 Things Learned From 8 Years of Running a Literary Magazine: @NathanielTower

Gain publishing creds and storytelling skills by writing short stories: @JeremyJmenefee

Promo / Back matter

Back Matter in Your Book: @MJBowersock @IndiesUnlimited

Promo / Blogging

Stop Reading Blogs about Blogging and Write Your Blog: @AGHackney

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Copywriting for Authors: @copyhackers @thecreativepenn

Promo / Book Reviews

Remembering to say thank you: @iamagemcrystal

Promo / Connecting with Readers

Connecting With Readers Through Personal Interests: by A. Howitt @mythicscribes

Promo / Miscellaneous

Using Tricks of the Librarian Trade to Market a Book: @ElliottMelodee @ReedsyHQ

Promo / Newsletters



Is Your Author Mailing List Effective? 5 Ways To Find Out: @clarewhitmell

How to Get Going with MailChimp and Email Marketing: @CaballoFrances

Promo / Social Media Tips

The Biggest Mistake Authors Make on Their Facebook Profile: @cksyme

Promo / Websites

Authors Need A Website: 4 Free Alternatives: @justpublishing

Publishing / Miscellaneous



What Fiction Trends Say About Us: @msheatherwebb

Why Novellas are Making a Comeback: @aliventures

The Unglamorous Ordeal of Recording Your Own Audiobook: @JohnFreemanGill @lithub

Publishing / News / International Publishing



Frankfurt Book Fair Opens Advance Sales of Weekend Tickets: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

A Singapore Publisher on Championing Good Literature: @Porter_Anderson

The UK’s Sunday Times/PFD Young Writer Competition Opens to Trade Authors and Indies: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Self-Publishing: Our work has to be competitive, but we don’t: @Laura_VAB @RMFWriters

Publishing / Process / Book Design

Complete Guide to Book Cover Sizes and Why it Matters: @maifosz @publishdrive



Will a pen name maintain your privacy? An agent explains: @Janet_Reid

Writing Craft / Characters / Arc

All great stories involve inner demons: @KristenLambTX

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

Lesser-Known Character Archetypes: @beccapuglisi

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes



Why ‘Less Is More’ in Your Story: @patverducci

7 vexing habits guaranteed to wreck your writing: @pubcoach

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Breaking Writing Rules Right: “Only Use ‘Said”: @SeptCFawkes

Writing Craft / Endings

8 1/2 Tips for How to Write Opening and Closing Lines Readers Will Love to Quote: @KMWeiland

Writing Craft / Hooks

Why Readers Quit: No Physical Goal: @DavidHSafford

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Film Adaptations of Wuthering Heights and How They Change Understanding of the Original Text: by Craig Hubert

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

5 Theme Examples: How to Develop Story Themes: @nownovel

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous



Why You Need To Write With Authenticity And How To Do It: by Paige Duke @standoutbooks

How to Write a Fight Scene Readers Will Love: @Stepha_OBrien

Know What You Write (Not Write What You Know): by Tim Gautreaux @lithub

A Storycrafting Checklist: @SusanMayWarren

How to Manipulate a Protagonist’s Likability Using Narrative Distance: by Jes Gonzalez @WritersDigest

Writer Struggles: Killing Nice Characters: @RobinRWrites

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting



Plotting for Pantsters: @LisaCron

Freeze Frame: Creating a Stronger Scene: @bethvogt

10 Simple Tips For Writing Clever Plot Twists: @ClaireABradshaw

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

Metaphorical Usage and Scare Quotes: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

Edits Are The Time To Get Specific: @StephMorrill

Writing Craft / Tension



What Does It Mean To “Raise the Stakes”? @JamiGold @AngelaAckerman

Why Your Story Needs High Stakes: @AJHumpage

Writing Craft / Voice

Writing Craft: Balancing Rules and Voice: @JamiGold

Writing Tools / Apps

How to Use Trello to Storyboard Your Novel: @KathyEdens1 @ProWritingAid

Uncategorized



Agent Mark Gottlieb with @Trident_Media offers tips for better queries:

Death & Taxes: 9 Quotes From Authors Who Feel Your Tax-Day Pain: @TomBlunt @SignatureReads

 

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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The post Twitterific Writing Links appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Unpleasant Characters in Mysteries

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Unpleasant characters are tough for any genre.  But for mysteries, they present special challenges.

My editors from Penguin would often bring up concerns they had with unpleasant characters in my manuscripts.

My feeling is that unpleasant characters are incredibly useful in mysteries. They provide motive.  They provide realism. They can even provide humor.

Although I find these characters helpful, I do recognize the pitfalls.  Unpleasant characters are tricky for mysteries (and, likely, for most genres).

The unpleasant protagonist/sleuth:

If you’re telling your story from the point of view of the sleuth, the readers see the story world through his or her eyes.  Readers frequently express a desire to identify in some way with protagonists.

So this is the trickiest of all to write.  I’m constantly questioning how far to go with the unpleasant edge for my main characters.  After all, these are people that I want readers to want to spend time with.

But I remain drawn to characters who are cranky, impatient, or easily irritated. The challenge is to make them appealing at the same time.

Save the Cat has gotten both praise and criticism (from some corners for being formulamatic).  I think that they get at least one big thing right.  We need the reader to root for our protagonist. We need them to want the crime solved or the world saved or whatever goal our protagonist is working toward. It’s good to give something that makes readers pull for and like our character.  A sense of humor definitely helps.  Or kindness under the crustiness. Or a soft spot for children and animals.

Once our protagonist is accepted by readers, it gets easier in later books…as long as we don’t step over the line or make the unpleasantness excessive. To me, it should just a natural (and often comedic) part of a multifaceted character.

The unpleasant victim:

For me, it’s certainly easier to write the mystery if the victim is unpleasant. Who wouldn’t want to kill him?  But then you have to ask: why should the reader care who killed the victim?  Maybe it seems as though the character’s death was good riddance.

In this case, it helps to either have a victim who seems good and is later revealed to be unpleasant (via interviews with suspects or eyewitnesses), or to focus on the process of unraveling the puzzle instead of the tragedy of the crime.  I ordinarily choose to focus on the process. Solving mysteries is what the sleuth does…and it doesn’t matter if the victim was a Sunday school teacher or a blackmailer.  With any luck, the reader gets caught up with the interactive sleuthing a mystery provides and puts less importance on the victim.

The unpleasant suspect: 

This was usually the most troubling area of all to my editors, although I find the unpleasant protagonist more challenging to write.

My editors’ main concern was that readers would want the unpleasant suspect to be the killer.  Then, if I wrote the unpleasant character to be the killer,  the reader wouldn’t be surprised at the outcome (because it was what they wanted/believed to be true).

I changed a murderer once for this reason, but lately I’ve taken a step back from that approach. I’ll either add more unpleasant qualities for the other suspects, or else I’ll smooth some of the rough edges off of the killer. For me, the surprise ending is one of the most important elements of a mystery and I’ll sacrifice a lot for a satisfying conclusion.

You can also write unpleasant and unlikeable recurring characters to act as foils for the main character.  This can be a great way to set up subplot conflict and tension for your sleuth.  I do this with the Erma Sherman character in my Myrtle Clover series. Erma is a disaster…and lives next door to my sleuth. She’ll do anything to avoid her.

Do you write unpleasant characters? How do you make them appealing for readers?

Writing unpleasant characters in mysteries:
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Photo credit: PuzzleMonkey! via Visual hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

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Why Did I Get a ‘No’? – The Do’s and Don’ts of Query Letter Writing

by Mark Gottlieb, @Trident_Media

As a literary agent in major trade publishing at the Trident Media Group literary agency, I often have to explain the elements of a good query letter to new clients. This article is intended as a description of what goes into a good query letter, for new authors unfamiliar with what literary agents and editors are looking for in a query letter intended the book-publishing world. For a writer who might be currently querying literary agents, or even contemplating that process, this might be interesting reading. Considering the high rejection rate in the book publishing industry for writers trying to become debut authors, this article will hopefully be enlightening for the countless writers who are experiencing rejection due to a poorly-constructed query letter.

A lot of authors dread writing query letters. I know many authors who can write a novel in a matter of months, but who could endlessly spend years toiling over writing a query letter. My advice to authors along the querying process is to really nail the writing of that query letter. A query letter that reads well is usually a good indication to the literary agent that the manuscript will similarly read well, inclining the literary agent to request a manuscript. Often the query letter can go on to become the publisher’s jacket copy, were the publisher to acquire the manuscript via the literary agent.

The Do’s

A good query letter is: upfront in one-two sentences what the book is about in hook or elevator pitch fashion (should mention the title, lend a sense of genre, and contain one-three competitive/comparative titles that were bestsellers or award-winners, published within the last few years). If the author has pre-publication blurbs, those can appear before those first two sentences.

Next is a couple of body paragraphs detailing some of the plot details without too many spoilers and in that space the literary merits of the manuscript can be mentioned. The last paragraph is usually reserved for a short author bio, mentioning relevant writing experience/credentials, and a link to an author site or social media page(s) can be included there.

The Trident Media Group literary agency prefers to be queried by authors via our website at http://www.tridentmediagroup.com

An extremely well written query letter will stand out. Bonus points for a query letter that carries a lot of author credentials, such as awards, nominations, bestseller status, writer group/workshop participation, successful publications in literary magazines/anthologies, and especially advance praise from other authors of note.

Personally, I find that the best time to query literary agents is the Spring or Summer as things start to slow down in publishing during that season. A bad time would be the Fall as everyone is just getting back from their summer vacations and settling in. A lot of professors on sabbatical and summer break are getting back in the Fall and flooding us with queries.

Only if the query letter is strong will a literary agent usually go on to request sample pages or a full manuscript, unless their policy on their site is for an author to include a sample with the query.

Reading the submission policies of the literary agency on their website is important. For instance, many sites ask that an author query only one literary agent at a time at a given literary agency. Some literary agents pass stuff along to another agent if it isn’t for them, but only when it is good. Usually when it is a pass, it is a pass on behalf of the entire agency. If an author wants to query us again, we ask that they wait 30 days. That will afford them time to revise their manuscript.

Not including the word count and genre in a query letter is not a red flag since upon receiving the manuscript; the agent can determine the page length and word count. Upon receiving the query, they can determine the genre. It helps to know these two things, though. A manuscript should not exceed 120,000 words.

Writers often toil over number of named characters in a query letter. Only the primary characters should be mentioned, or just the protagonist and antagonist. Getting stuck on the title of the book, as well as the character names, is something I often see authors getting stuck on before they even get to write their query letters. As this is often changed so authors shouldn’t dwell on it.

A well-written query letter will usually result in my request for a manuscript to read and consider. Seeing good writing in a query letter is more often than not a good indication that the manuscript will also be well written. That is why I always tell authors to think of their query letter as their storefront, since it’s everyone’s first impression of a book. Again, oftentimes, the copy from the query letter will find its way into an agent’s pitch or onto the jacket copy of a publisher’s book, so the query letter is an essential starting place.

The Don’ts

I would caution authors against too much personalization in a query letter since literary agents in our industry have their egos stroked enough. I don’t need authors to say, “I really like your work,” or, “My book is a good fit for you because it’s like XYZ book you represented.” Literary agents already know writers are approaching other agents as well. I for one am not one for idle chatter and small talk when it comes to chitchat in a query letter.

When agents request manuscripts, authors should be wary about requests for an exclusive, meaning that author won’t send the manuscript to other literary agents. The literary agent could sit on their hands for months. I don’t ask for exclusives. If there’s a project that interests me, I try and read it in two or three days or at least within a week. If I take a manuscript home and stay up all night reading it and call the author the next day, it shows I’m competitive. I care about this project and wanted to get ahead of everyone else.

Submit to agents who are building their lists. Writers who submit to a Chairman, CEO, Executive President, or VP of a literary agency are going to find that the higher-ups only take on a new author if he or she is a New York Times bestseller or major award-winner. Even if said senior executive publishing agent likes a query, they are going to pass it on to someone else more junior in the publishing agency. It’s better to take the time to research the book agents and figure out for yourself who would be best for your manuscript.

Apart from the act of querying, there are many mistakes that I’ve seen in query letters, but I will name just a few that would absolutely deter me from requesting the manuscript from an author:

-Submitting queries for novellas, short story collections, poetry or textbooks will usually turn a literary agent off, as most literary agents do not represent such things. Publishers tend not to buy from literary agents in those areas in the first place.

-Word count is also very important. Traditional book length is 80-120K, and commercial fiction tends to be in the 80-90K-word range. Going outside of normal book-length will not produce good results for an author querying a literary agent for a shot at going into major trade publishing.

-Writing within struggling genres such as cozy mysteries, erotica, or urban fantasy is also another way to turn a literary agent off in the querying process. We tend to be weary of that at Trident Media Group.

One of the biggest mistakes I have seen in query letters is an author that writes to me about what sounds like an amazing manuscript, but when I requested, the author tells me that the manuscript is either in idea state only or not fully-written. That doesn’t help me at all as fiction can really only be evaluated on a full manuscript.

The other common mistake I see is that authors tend to write excessively long query letters where they have a tendency to include the entire synopsis and sometimes even the first chapter or so of a manuscript. I can see how this sort of mistake might happen, as authors by their nature are storytellers, but the query letter should be concise and fit on one page.

A typo or a misplaced comma will not shoot down the entire query letter, but it is still considered poor form.

Beginning in book publishing means much more than just having written an amazing manuscript. This article ought to have helped most any writer new to book publishing navigate some of the pitfalls of our quirky industry.​

Mark Gottlieb attended Emerson College and was President of its Publishing Club, establishing the Wilde Press. After graduating with a degree in writing, literature & publishing, he began his career with Penguin’s VP. Mark’s first position at Publishers Marketplace’s #1-ranked literary agency, Trident Media Group, was in foreign rights. Mark was EA to Trident’s Chairman and ran the Audio Department. Mark is currently working with his own client list, helping to manage and grow author careers with the unique resources available to Trident. He has ranked #1 among Literary Agents on publishersmarketplace.com in Overall Deals and other categories. ​​

Agent Mark Gottlieb with @Trident_Media offers tips for better queries:
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The post Why Did I Get a ‘No’? – The Do’s and Don’ts of Query Letter Writing appeared first on Elizabeth Spann Craig.

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 40,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and see the character and location name generators! 

Subscribe for free to writing tips delivered to your inbox. 

Business / Miscellaneous

How to Start Your Own Publishing Company: @erikaliodice

Business Musings: Process: @KristineRusch

Is Writing Your Side Hustle? 4 Steps to Take Before Going Full Time @nfallontaylor

3 Author Behaviors Which Will Kill Your Career: @angee

How to Save for Retirement When You’re a Freelance Writer: by Mandy Gardner @hopeclark

Success with Audiobooks: What You Need to Know: @audiovoices #IndieAuthorFringe

Find And Serve Your Niche For Long Term Success: @chrisbrogan @thecreativepenn

Why 1 Writer Stopped Chasing the Bestseller Lists: @marieforce

Business / Taxes

Tax Tips for Writers: @LisaLondon3

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

Schedule Your Time in 4 Simple Steps: @JanalynVoigt

Accountability for our progress (video): @ScholarlyFox

Tracking your writing time: @RIngermanson

If you don’t write when you don’t have time, you won’t write when you do have time: @McgannKellie

Quick Fixes to Spend More Time Writing: @cksyme

The Major Danger of Confusing Projects and Goals: @MichaelHyatt

6 Practical Ways To Plug Time Leaks For More Writing Time: @10MinNovelists

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / When to write

How to Wake Up Early and Be Productive: @Ava_Jae

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

Does Your Writing Need a Literary Palate Cleanser? @Janice_Hardy

3 reasons for writer’s block: @jasonbougger

How a Thank You Note Got 1 Writer Through Writer’s Block: @juliepens @WritersDigest

5 Secrets for Overcoming Fear and Anxiety as Writers: @shahw1 @TheIWSG

Elements of Plot Structure: Fire Up Your Stalled Novel: @WritetoDone

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

10 Film Scores to Listen to While Writing: @GiveMeYourTeeth @LitReactor

7 tips to get our writing done: @beprolifiko

6 Elements to Becoming a More Productive Writer: @Mad_Hat_Writer

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

Teaching Writing: On the Pitfalls of Hiding Out: @LannyBall

What Stress Can Do For You: @sowulwords @DIYMFA

3 Self-Care Tips For Writers: @rsmollisonread

5 Ways Ernest Hemingway Had It Easier: @BobEckstein @WhereWritersWin

5 Lit-Friendly Cities You Can Expatriate To: @chris_shultz81 @LitReactor

Readers Report Hearing Characters’ Voices: by Jackson Frons @ElectricLit

Cartoonist @amykurzweil On Drawing Inherited Trauma: by Julia Purcell

Who Is the Best Fake Novelist on TV? @ElectricLit

Writing to Survive: A Father on the Death of His Young Son: by Stéphane Gerson @lithub

How to Write Without Approval: Reasons to Keep Writing When it’s Tough: @AGHackney

Where to Find Opportunities to Teach to Supplement Your Writing Income: @ericmaisel @JaneFriedman

Simplicity: The Value of Quiet: @emi1y_morgan

How to Be Taken Seriously as a Writer: @KateMColby

How to Write When the Going Gets Tough: @missriki @LitReactor

8 Highly Unusual Writing Residencies: @knownemily

How to Survive a Creative Writing Workshop: @wickerkat @LitReactor

What’s with writers and late blooming? @DebraEve

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Spaces

4 Keys to Create Space to Write: @lornafaith

Genres / Fantasy

Why Fantasy Writers Should Embrace Their Heritage: by Andrew Falconer @mythcreants

How to Write Urban Fantasy – 6 Magical Tips: @writeturninfo

Using Mythic Elements in Your Stories: by Anne Marie Gazzolo @mythicscribes

Genres / Historical

16 Things All Historical Fiction Writers Need to Know: @IGLAbooks

Genres / Horror

Pieces of a horror writer: @pederson_lucas @jimbomcleod

Genres / Literary Fiction

5 Pieces of Bad Advice Literary Fiction Writers Get About Publishing: @MikeSahno @annerallen

Genres / Mystery

The 3 Mistakes Thriller Writers Most Often Make: @HesterAuthor @SignatureReads

Activism as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Plotting a Mystery: Work Backwards from the Climax: @CockeyedCaravan

How to Plot a Mystery: Set Up the Villain Fake-Out: @CockeyedCaravan

Writing the Crime Scene: Poison: @repokempt

Cosmetic surgery as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Genres / Non-Fiction

How To Use Story In Your Non-Fiction Author Business: @MelissaAddey

How to use ebooks to build your non-fiction niche: @jayartale #IndieAuthorFringe

Genres / Poetry

Speculative Poetry: Science Fiction and Fantasy in Verse: by Randi Anderson @WritersDigest

Genres / Romance

The Triangle of Romantic Suspense: @Allison_Brennan

5 Ways to Write Romance With Respect: @angelajames

4 Reasons Romance Novels Are an Important Form of Literature: @JodyHedlund

10 reasons readers fall hard for Christian Grey: @ACRoseAuthor @RWANYC

Promo / Ads

How 1 Writer Sold 100x More of Her Book Series: @GlynnisCampbell

Promo / Blogging

The guest blogging audience most novelists don’t know about: @sandrabeckwith

Tips for writers who want to stop blogging: @karinabilich

How Blogging and Other Content Marketing Helps Writers Get Noticed: @lornafaith

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

What the Heck is Copywriting Anyway? @bryancohenbooks @TheIWSG

How Great Book Descriptions Can Help Sell More Books: @Bookgal

7 Tips for Writing a Book Description: @WritersAfterDrk

Promo / Book Reviews

7 Ways To Deal With That Dreaded Bad Review: @PhreyPress

Promo / Connecting with Readers

5 Ways to Show Your Readers You’re Their Perfect Match: @EmilyWenstrom

Promo / Crowdfunding

How Patreon Works for Writers: @crazyauthorgirl

Promo / Miscellaneous

Why Book Clubs are the New Book Tour: @nmeierwrites @WomenWriters

Promo / Newsletters

20 Actionable Email Marketing Tips for Bloggers: by Pawan Kumar @WritetoDone

Promo / Platforms

How To Build Your Own Online Platform: @Bang2write

Promo / Pricing

10 Factors to Consider When Using Your Book as a Freemium: @bookmarketing @Bowker

Promo / Social Media Tips

Getting the Most out of a Twitter Pitch Event: @SpunkOnAStick

Using Instagram Stories to Build Reader Engagement: @tinytashhxo @penguinusa

Stop Focusing on Follower Count: 5 Things to Do Instead: @Andrea_Dunlop @JaneFriedman

3 Unconventional Ways To Use Social Media To Effectively Find Your Readers: @DanBlank @thecreativepenn

Promo / Websites

7 Vital Website Ingredients for Authors And Editors: @Belinda_Pollard

Set Up A Pro Author Website In An Hour Using WordPress: @PaulTeagueUK @IndieAuthorALLI

Sharing Your Purpose on an About Page for Your Website: @MarshaIngrao

Is Your Website Missing these Key Elements? @WriteNowCoach

Publishing / Miscellaneous

“Hire a professional indexer. The author… is the worst person for the job.” @Porter_Anderson @indexers

Publishing / News / International Publishing

Entertainment CEO to publishers: ‘learning from Angry Birds’: @Porter_Anderson @LauraNevanlinna

Wimpy Kid author finds success in Italy: @Porter_Anderson @wimpykid

Cambridge Editing Services: Editing in English as a Second Language: @emilykmarchant @Porter_Anderson

European book publishing: total market value of $38.4–$42.7 billion: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

Publishers Weekly and Frankfurt Book Fair Open Nominations for 2017’s PW Star Watch: @Porter_Anderson

Russian Retailer LitRes Announces New Ebook Format: @Porter_Anderson

The Baileys Women’s Prize Shortlist: @BaileysPrize @Porter_Anderson

Global Book Fair Report 2017: ‘Propelling Rights Deals’: @Porter_Anderson @IntPublishers

Canadian Retail: Kobo Acquires Shelfie Technology: @Porter_Anderson @HudPeter

Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Is Acquiring Spain’s Ediciones B @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Does Self-Publishing Make Sense for Scholarly Writers? @Porter_Anderson @DanielBerze

4 Surprising Things About Self-Publishing an Academic Book: @joshgans @ReedsyHQ

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

When is Your Manuscript Submission-Ready? @Ava_Jae

Is It Time, Dear Writer, To Ditch Your Literary Agent? @ChuckWendig

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Rejections

Manuscript Rejection Feedback: 3 Critiques to Heed (and 2 to Ignore): @Carocour @WritersDigest

5 Mistakes Writers Make Dealing With Rejection: by Michael Alvear @Bang2write

Publishing / Process / Distribution

An Alternative Solution for Book Distribution: @StreetLib : by Marco Croella and @davidpenny_

Publishing / Process / Legalities

How To Protect Your Creative Work: @KathrynGoldman @thecreativepenn

Why and how to copyright our books:

Publishing / Process / Services to Avoid

How to Identify & Avoid Some Common “Bad” Publishing Deals: @SusanSpann @RMFWriters

Writing Craft / Beginnings

Character Introductions: Introduction through surprise: @GoIntoTheStory

Flog a Pro: would you pay to turn the first page of this bestseller? @RayRhamey

Starting a Novel With Aftermath: @Kid_Lit

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

Is Your Antagonist A Match For Your Hero? @Writers_Write

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

The Structure of Character: @woodwardkaren

Discovering a Characters’ Secrets: @AuthorSAT

Creating Characters—7 Habits of Seriously Messed Up People: @KristenLambTX

Tips for Making Your Characters Talk: @jessicarpatch for @DaniPettrey

Writing Craft / Characters / Supporting Characters

The Importance of the Adversarial Ally: by Jeanne Cavelos @WriterUnboxed

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Why Readers Quit #1: Nothing Happens: @DavidHSafford

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Check Your Character’s Dialect: @NovelEditor

8 Ways to Bungle Dialogue: @10MinNovelists

How to Correctly Punctuate Dialogue for Novels: @WritersAfterDrk

Writing Craft / Drafts

How to Compose the Perfect First Draft: @annkroeker

Writing Craft / Endings

The Finish Line for Your Novel and Tips for Wrapping it Up: @p2p_editor

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

The 1000 Day MFA: @shauntagrimes

How Audiobooks Can Improve Your Writing: @RichardRieman @RMFWriters

7 of the Great Platonic Loves in Literature: @carrievasios @ElectricLit

The Quiet Call to Action in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time: @charlottejv @SignatureReads

6 of the Most Fabulous Food Writers of All Time: @rosmance

8 TV Shows That Will Make You a Better Novelist: by Andrew Lowe @ReedsyHQ

12 of the Sweet Valley High Books’ Most Ridiculous Plotlines: @erincmccarthy

How to Escape in 9 Books: by Cara Hoffman @ElectricLit

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

5 Cases of Unfulfilled Foreshadowing: by Oren Ashkenazi @mythcreants

Your Quick And Easy Guide To Theme, Allegory And Symbolism: by Hannah Collins @standoutbooks

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

15 Ways to Earn Your Audience as a Writer: @ChuckWendig

14 Tips On How To Create Your Own Urban Legend: @woodwardkaren

Could a character be a paramedic if he were disabled? @scriptmedic

Putting Your Writing Through Its Paces: @ProWritingAid

Writing Craft / Pacing

4 reasons to use a time jump in your story: @Chris_Kokoski

Writing Craft / POV

Choosing a POV for your novel: @patverducci

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Story Structure’s Purpose for Readers: @JamiGold

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Research

BS Medical Tropes That Need to Die: Stealing Ambulances (With a Patient Still Inside): @scriptmedic

How to Do Your Own Medical Research: @scriptmedic

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

When Do I Spell Out Numbers? @BrianKlems @WritersDigest

Why We Love To Hate Grammarians: @helpfulsnowman @LitReactor

A refresher on verbs: @HopeTDougherty

Hyphenation: When Nouns Become Adjectives: @ProWritingAid

3 Cases of Dangling Modifiers: @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

Tips for Surviving the Editing Journey: @SukhiJutla

How To Edit Description: @JillWilliamson

8 Ways to Troubleshoot a Scene-and 5 Ways Make It Fabulous: @KMWeiland

A Writer’s Guide To Ruthlessly Killing Your Darlings: @10MinNovelists

7 Reasons to Read Your Manuscript Out Loud: @10MinNovelists

6 Things Learned Rewriting an Old WIP: @KelsieEngen

Writing Craft / Scenes

10 Questions To Ask Before Writing An Interesting Scene: @10MinNovelists

Writing Craft / Series

Pros, Cons, and Tips for Writing a Novel Series: @AuthorDeb Raney

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

Including Background Scenery: by Wendy Thomas @CSLakin

Writing Craft / Tropes

Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Researching the Tropes: by Tina L. Jens @BlackGateDotCom

Writing Craft / World-Building

Society in Story: by Aaron Miles @FantasyFaction

Writing Tools / Apps

The Fuss-Free Beginner’s Guide To Scrivener: @ClaireABradshaw

Comparing Dropbox and Google Drive: @MarshaIngrao

Writing Tools / Miscellaneous

Writing Doubts (Writer Worksheet): @EvaDeverell

From My Blog: 

How Flash Fiction Can Make You a Better Writer (and Where to Find It)

Reading More in 2017 – By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig In 2016, I worked in more reading than I had in …

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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Subscribe to Writing Tips Via Email

by Mike Fleming, @Hiveword

In my previous post about changes to the Writer’s Knowledge Base (WKB) I mentioned that a future feature would be the possibility of receiving emails brimming with writing links on a daily or weekly basis. Well, that future is now!

As are probably well aware, every day Elizabeth tweets links to great articles on writing. Every Sunday you can get the week’s worth of links via her Twitterific blog post. You can also search for these articles or browse them by category on the WKB. And now, you can also have them delivered right to your inbox on a daily or weekly basis.

To get these emails you’ll need a free Hiveword account so that the system can remember your settings. If you are not familiar with Hiveword it hosts the WKB but also has other tools for writers such as a novel organizer and name generators. Once you are signed in, click the Writer’s Knowledge Base logo and then click Categorized Emails. Or, save a few steps and just click here when you are signed in.

You are now presented with a page for selecting your desired delivery frequency and the article categories that interest you. Here’s a screenshot:

(Note: There are many more categories to choose from than the screenshot shows. You can see all of them here.)

Click Save once you’ve chosen a frequency and any number of categories. If you chose Daily delivery you will get an email every day with the article links from the previous 24 hours that match your category selection. It’ll show up in your inbox around 1200 GMT (that’s 8am Eastern time in the United States).

If you chose weekly delivery then you will get your email every Monday around 1200 GMT. As you might expect, the article window is the previous week.

I’d like to point out that your category selections will determine how many links you receive in an email or if you even receive an email at all on a given day. It’s really up to you as to how many links you receive. Elizabeth can tweet as many 20 articles a day but not every category gets covered each day so you can see how your number of links can vary. If you’re getting too many links to handle, simply dial back your category selection to put more of a laser focus on what you need at the moment. You can always change your categories at any time or even turn off delivery.

There ya go! Relatively short and sweet. I hope you like this capability and would love to hear your thoughts on it.

 

Mike Fleming runs Hiveword which is a suite of online writing tools. The flagship product, Hiveword, is a free novel organizer.

Integrated within Hiveword is the Writer’s Knowledge Base and Knockout Novel which is a paid add-on from acclaimed writing coach James Scott Bell.

 

Free writing tips delivered to your email inbox via @hiveword and @elizabethscraig
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Copyrighting Our Books

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

When I was first signing a book contract in 2008, I remember that the industry generally scoffed on writers worried about copyright issues. Some writers wondered if they should register a copyright on their manuscripts before submitting them to agents and publishers. There was even a line of thinking that authors could simply mail their manuscripts to themselves to acquire a ‘poor man’s copyright’ through the postal service.

Acquiring a copyright to send work to a reputable agent or publisher was indeed probably overkill. But the problem now is more insidious: there are cases where retailers like Amazon have challenged writers to prove a book’s content is theirs after receiving challenges from unscrupulous writers.

I’d been meaning to copyright my books for some time, but it became a higher priority after the copyright challenges became news. And I hopped right over to the US Copyright site after reading a post on Joanna Penn’s blog: an interview with attorney Kathryn Goldman. I recommend you read or listen to the entire post.

One of the things Kathryn Goldman brought up in the interview is that the US Copyright is a better deal than one in the UK, for instance. It’s $35 for a copyright in the US for the life of the copyright (a one-time fee). In the UK, it’s £65 for 5 years.  According to Goldman, “if you have a registration in the United States and your country is a signatory to the Berne Convention, then you’re entitled to the protections that that country offers based on the U.S. registration.” That’s important information for international writers.

I found the copyright registration process easy, if not intuitive. I’ll go one step further: the US Copyright site reminds me of early websites in the late 1990s. It’s not a modern site, y’all. But once I got the hang of it, I zipped through quickly. I registered 11 books in probably 45 minutes time (and for a total cost of $385).

Since the site isn’t intuitive, I thought I’d walk you through my process on it.  I’m a novelist without a coauthor for those who don’t regularly follow my blog.

I started at the Copyright site (the first page isn’t so bad, but just wait) and chose ‘literary works’.  If you want the definition, they list it as “a wide variety of works such as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, textbooks, reference works, directories, catalogs, advertising copy, compilations of information, computer programs and databases.”

You’ll need to create a user name and login.

Choose ‘register a new claim’ in the left sidebar.

Answer yes or no…for me, they were all yes. If you had a coauthor or were part of an anthology, your answers would be different. And I did register each work separately–I didn’t attempt to register an entire series under one copyright because my understanding from writer forums is that that wouldn’t work.

A pop up box pops up and you indicate you’ve read it and your book is eligible  (give it a look-over to make sure it is).

Type of work: literary work

Check the box below.

Note: Keep hitting ‘continue’ at the top of the page or else you might accidently click ‘change application’ at the bottom of the page. As I mentioned earlier…the site is not intuitive.

Type in your title.

Mark if the book has already been published (mine all had…this is not a problem).

Indicate the nation of first publication, the year you wrote it, and the date it was published. Note: they want the month, date, and year (look it up on Amazon if you don’t remember). If you don’t put it in the MM/DD/YYYY format, it will kick you back to the previous screen with no explanation whatsoever. It took me a while to figure out what I was doing wrong.

List your author information: name, citizenship, and what part of the book you were responsible for (for me, this was limited to text. I didn’t design my own cover). There’s a spot for pen names here, too.

Add your address (we’re the claimant).

Limit your claim if it applies (it didn’t for me).

Provide contact information for anyone who wants permission to use your work (the ‘add me’ tab at the top is a shortcut and will fill in the information you listed previously).

Add your info in case the copyright office needs to contact you with questions (or use the wonderful ‘add me’ tab).

Add your name and info for the copyright certificate to be mailed to.

I skipped paying for special handling, but if you’re being challenged on your copyright of your work, this is an option to expedite matters.  They claimed the process could take as long as 10 months…I certainly hope it doesn’t. I’m hoping it’s like the passport office…they always say it will take longer than it actually does.

Check the box and add your name to ‘sign’ the document.

Review your submission and then add it to the cart.

To repeat the process and add more books, click ‘add more services’. Otherwise, you can check out.

You can pay via bank draft or credit card.

Here’s the pain in the neck part for anyone who has printed versions of their books…you must mail them a hard copy (I sent them published books I had on hand).

If your books are only available in digital format or if the books are unpublished, you can submit files electronically. Here is the full list of requirements for sending a digital file:

“When is an electronic copy acceptable?

An electronic copy of the work being registered may be uploaded directly into eCO if it is within one of the following categories:

• Unpublished work

• Work published only electronically

• Published work for which the deposit requirement is identifying material

• Published work for which there are special agreements requiring a hard-copy deposit to be sent separately to the Library of Congress

For works where a hard-copy is required, you can still submit an application and payment by eCO and send copies of your work to the Copyright Office by the U.S. Postal Service or express courier.”

But don’t send them an epub or mobi file!  They take:

.doc (Microsoft Word Document)

.docx (Microsoft Word Open XML Document)

.htm, .html (HyperText Markup Language)

.pdf (Portable Document Format)

.rtf (Rich Text Document)

.txt (Text File)

.wpd (WordPerfect Document)

.wps (Microsoft Works Word Processor Document)

As I mentioned, I had to send them printed books…my books didn’t meet any of the requirements for electronic submission.  Before my next book comes out, you better believe I’m submitting it digitally.

At the bottom of the page, there’s a section for printing shipping slips. I clicked it and then clicked on the link they provided after they’d prepared the slips. We’re supposed to put one slip with each book (I attached them with rubber bands to the books) and then mail them to the address at the bottom of the slips.

We can check on the progress of our registration claim on their homepage in the ‘open cases’ link to the left.

Is it convoluted? Yes. Is it a pain? Most definitely.

But it’s not particularly expensive, especially considering the cost of everything else book-related.

Have you registered the copyright for your books?

I also wanted to let my blog readers know about a special offer (and I’m an affiliate for it).  It’s called The Writer’s Bundle. The Write Life, a website for writers, is offering a deal this week only (starting today at 6 a.m. ET):  a package they call The Writer’s Bundle.They’ve bundled together 10 ebooks, courses and tools on freelancing, novel writing, self-publishing, marketing, editing and more. Purchased separately, they’d cost nearly $1,700. But for the next four days, The Write Live is offering the entire package for just $99. Click here for more information or to download the bundle.

How and why to copyright our books:
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Photo credit: The Library of Congress via Visualhunt / No known copyright restrictions

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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 40,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and see the character and location name generators! 

Business / Miscellaneous

“Cataloging” Your Book : @MaryGillgannon @RMFWriters

How much should editing cost? @pubcoach

Does a Writer Really Need a Professional Development Plan? @AnnOttoAuthor @WomenWriters

15 Tips for Authors Running Webinars: @JFbookman

What To Do If A Website Has Stolen Your Work: @standoutbooks

7 Ways to Handle a Freelance-Writing Client Who Won’t Pay Up: @aliventures

How to Start Your Own Publishing Company: @erikaliodice

Business Musings: Process: @KristineRusch

Business / Taxes

Tax Tips for Writers: @LisaLondon3

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

What not to do at an author festival: @Elfwriter

Tips, dos and don’ts for attending writing conferences: @SusanKelley @TheIWSG

A Closer Look at April’s PubTechConnect Conference: @Porter_Anderson

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

When You Don’t Feel Like Writing: @victoria_grif7

Be the Encouragement to a New Writer: @JoEberhardt

5 Tips For Cultivating Creativity In Writing: @rsmollisonread

5 Tips to Help You Fall in Love with Creating Again: @emi1y_morgan

Notorious Literary Muses from Best to Worst: @knownemily

Music as The Writer’s Muse: @Caliskaniverse_

My 4-Step System for Hacking Your Creativity: @ink_and_quills

Why Writers Benefit from Using Creative Visualization: @VoicetoStory

How Objects Inspire Fiction: @AnneLParrish

Non-writing hobbies and habits that fuel writing: @AllieLarkin @WriterUnboxed

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

8 Ways To Read More, Even When You’re Deep Into Your Own Manuscript: @cnoepagan

How to Learn From Other Authors: @Janice_Hardy

No Amount of “Research” Can Take Hot Mr. Darcy Away From Us: @knownemily @lithub

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

A Mindful Guide to Email in 20 Minutes a Day: @zen_habits

How Productive Writers Start The Day: @sidsavara

5 Secrets to Writing Despite a Day Job: @JerryBJenkins

Schedule Your Time in 4 Simple Steps: @JanalynVoigt

Accountability for our progress (video): @ScholarlyFox

Tracking your writing time: @RIngermanson

If you don’t write when you don’t have time, you won’t write when you do have time: @McgannKellie

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

6 Self-Imposed Limitations That Prevent You from Publishing: by Elizabeth Lee

Got writer’s block? @Lin_Manuel has a playlist for you: @michaelschaub

5 Tools to Give You a Running Jump Over Writer’s Block: @foxcabane @JudahThinks

Does Your Writing Need a Literary Palate Cleanser? @Janice_Hardy

3 reasons for writer’s block: @jasonbougger

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

Writing Process: Get it Organized, Get it Done: @davidpenny_ #IndieAuthorFringe

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

Success requires collaborators: @DanBlank

How to Turn Elements of Your Novel Into a Masterpiece: @ESimsAuthor @WritersDigest

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

The 5 Types of Teenage Writers, and the Best Ways to Teach Them: @lindseyleej @SignatureReads

Dare to Write: @annkroeker

Why You Can (And Should) Keep Writing When You Have Children: @aliventures

67 Rules for All Writers to Live By: @ToddBrison

Encouragement for the Mother Who Writes: @StephMorrill

Networking for Introverted Writers: @KathyEdens1 @ProWritingAid

When Your Hometown is Crammed With Aspiring Writers: @KathleenDonohoe

A 10-Minute Mind Cleanse: @EntryLevelRebel @Inc

Teaching Writing: On the Pitfalls of Hiding Out: @LannyBall

What Stress Can Do For You: @sowulwords @DIYMFA

3 Self-Care Tips For Writers: @rsmollisonread

5 Ways Ernest Hemingway Had It Easier: @BobEckstein @WhereWritersWin

5 Lit-Friendly Cities You Can Expatriate To: @chris_shultz81 @LitReactor

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Spaces

4 Keys to Create Space to Write: @lornafaith

Genres / Fantasy

Why Fantasy Writers Should Embrace Their Heritage: by Andrew Falconer @mythcreants

Genres / Historical

50 Great Details For the Setting Of Your Victorian Novel: @BrynDonovan

Genres / Horror

Horror Writing: Prevent the Romantic Storyline from Strangling the Scary: by Mac Childs @HorrorWriters

H.P. Lovecraft’s Process for Writing a Horror Story, or Any Piece of “Weird Fiction: @openculture

Pieces of a horror writer: @pederson_lucas @jimbomcleod

Genres / Literary Fiction

5 Pieces of Bad Advice Literary Fiction Writers Get About Publishing: @MikeSahno @annerallen

Genres / Memoir

How novelists adapt to writing memoir: @writerjeangill @MsBessieBell @Roz_Morris

Genres / Miscellaneous

What to Know Before Writing In A New Genre: by Paige Duke @standoutbooks

Genres / Mystery

Tips for better suspense: @SueColetta1

Defending dissertations as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Noir is the Perfect Genre for Telling a Millennial Story: @therealeharnett @lithub

8 Ways A Thriller differs from a Mystery: @woodwardkaren

The 3 Mistakes Thriller Writers Most Often Make: @HesterAuthor @SignatureReads

Genres / Non-Fiction

3 Copywriting Tips to Help You Sell More Nonfiction Books: @thecreativepenn

How To Use Story In Your Non-Fiction Author Business: @MelissaAddey

Genres / Romance

The Triangle of Romantic Suspense: @Allison_Brennan

5 Ways to Write Romance With Respect: @angelajames

Genres / Screenwriting

A screenwriter’s analysis of “Arrival”: @CockeyedCaravan

Character Introductions in Screenwriting: @GoIntoTheStory

Promo / Ads

Book Marketing: Using Amazon Ads to Grow a Newsletter List: @ArtConnectsUs @thecreativepenn

How 1 Writer Sold 100x More of Her Book Series: @GlynnisCampbell

Promo / Blogging

The guest blogging audience most novelists don’t know about: @sandrabeckwith

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Improve Your Book Descriptions and Audience Targeting: @JaneFriedman #IndieAuthorFringe

What the Heck is Copywriting Anyway? @bryancohenbooks @TheIWSG

Promo / Book Reviews

Real Writers Get Bad Book Reviews. Here’s Why That’s OK: by Michael Alvear @thewritelife

‘You Have Such an Ugly Baby’: Tactfully Reviewing Books You Don’t Love: @iamagemcrystal

Promo / Miscellaneous

Writer, Promote Thyself: @cathychall

Why EVERY Author Needs a Media Kit: @damselwriter

Planning the Perfect Release: The Arc List: @JAHuss

What’s New On Your Marketing List? @mollygreene

DIY: Online Education as Book Marketing: @JaneFriedman

Promo / Platforms

How To Build Your Own Online Platform: @Bang2write

Promo / Podcasts

6 Best Podcasts For Writers Who Want to Sell More Books in 2017: @cksyme

Promo / Social Media Tips

9 Facebook Posts We Don’t Need to See From Authors: @Gabino_Iglesias

Instagram Stories: How to Create Engaging Stories: @Mike_Stelzner @SMExaminer

20 Quick Pinterest Marketing Tips: @KarenBanes

Why 10 Genuine Social Media Followers are Better Than 10,000 Fake Ones: @cksyme

Getting the Most out of a Twitter Pitch Event: @SpunkOnAStick

Using Instagram Stories to Build Reader Engagement: @tinytashhxo @penguinusa

Stop Focusing on Follower Count: 5 Things to Do Instead: @Andrea_Dunlop @JaneFriedman

Promo / Websites

7 Vital Website Ingredients for Authors And Editors: @Belinda_Pollard

Publishing / Miscellaneous

“Hire a professional indexer. The author… is the worst person for the job.” @Porter_Anderson @indexers

Publishing / News / Amazon

Confessions of a paid Amazon review writer: by Yuyu Chen @Digiday

Publishing / News / International Publishing

UK’s International Literature Showcase Names 2017 Participants: @Porter_Anderson

Russian Librarians Warn of Crisis in Library Consolidation Plans: by Eugene Gerden @pubperspectives

UAE’s Sultan Al Qasimi and Brazil’s Luiz Schwarcz Lead LBF’s Intl. Excellence Awards: @Porter_Anderson

Titles Translated from 11 Languages: The 2017 Man Booker International Longlist: @Porter_Anderson

Why e-readers were a disruptive innovation in the US, but not in Japan: by Mark E. Parry and Tomoko Kawakami

Intl Publishers Assoc to Visit Georgia, Where Publishers Are ‘Heading to Annihilation’ @Porter_Anderson

British Comics Publishers in Changing Marketplace: ‘We Want To Do More Comics’: @MarkPiesing @richjohnston

A French-and-Arabic publishing exchange agreement signed in Paris: @Porter_Anderson

2017 Copyright Outlook: ‘Precarious for Rightsholders’ : @Porter_Anderson @MJHealy

Industry Notes: BookExpo Audio ‘Tea,’ Canada’s BookNet-Kobo Contest, and UK’s ‘Media Medic’ @Porter_Anderson

Entertainment CEO to publishers: ‘learning from Angry Birds’: @Porter_Anderson @LauraNevanlinna

Wimpy Kid author finds success in Italy: @Porter_Anderson @wimpykid

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Successful Self-Publishing? 5 Important Tips for New Authors: @theorganicwoman

Does Self-Publishing Make Sense for Scholarly Writers? @Porter_Anderson @DanielBerze

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

When is Your Manuscript Submission-Ready? @Ava_Jae

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

5 Tips for Querying & Choosing a Literary Agent: @BriannaShrum @WritersDigest

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Rejections

How 10 Years Producing “Car Talk” Helped A Writer Deal with Rejection: @louiecronin @WriterUnboxed

The 8 Most Common Reasons 1 Editor Sends a Rejection: @MissConstance21 @DIYMFA

Publishing / Process / Book Design

Can Changing Your Book Covers Really Help You Sell More Books? @ADStarrling

Publishing / Process / Distribution

Get Your Books Into Bookstores With Ingram Spark: @andysbromley @rcutlerSpark #IndieAuthorFringe

How to Get Your Book Distributed: What Self-Published Authors Need to Know: @JaneFriedman

Publishing / Process / Legalities

How To Protect Your Creative Work: @KathrynGoldman @thecreativepenn

Publishing / Process / Services to Avoid

Vetting publishers: @RWANYC

Publishing / Process / Translation

Swedish Translator Sarah Death on the Translation Business Today: @DennisAbrams2

Vote for Your Favorite French Books Translated to English: The Albertine Prize: @Porter_Anderson

Writing Craft / Beginnings

8 Awful Ways To Start A Novel: @10MinNovelists

Character Introductions: Introduction through surprise: @GoIntoTheStory

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

18 Ways To Write An Emotionally Abusive Villain: @10MinNovelists

Is Your Antagonist A Match For Your Hero? @Writers_Write

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

62 Character Flaws for Creating a Well-Balanced Character: @ev_scarlett

Make Your Story Richer with In-depth Knowledge of Your Characters: @ReeseRyanWrites

Clothing tells us much about a character: @monicamclark

Walk a Mile in Your Characters’ Shoes: @bryngreenwood @WriterUnboxed

The Structure of Character: @woodwardkaren

Discovering a Characters’ Secrets: @AuthorSAT

Creating Characters—7 Habits of Seriously Messed Up People: @KristenLambTX

Writing Craft / Characters / Emotion

How to Characterize Love in Your Writing: @WordDreams

Writing Craft / Characters / Supporting Characters

Large Character Casts: How to Put your Characters Temporarily Elsewhere: @ev_scarlett

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Reasons to avoid using dreams in fiction: @jasonbougger

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Action and Dialogue in Storytelling: @WritingForward

Check Your Character’s Dialect: @NovelEditor

8 Ways to Bungle Dialogue: @10MinNovelists

Writing Craft / Diversity

How “Sensitivity Readers” From Minority Groups Are Changing the Book Publishing Ecosystem: @xwaldie @Slate

Writing Craft / Endings

How to Write an Unforgettable Ending: by Neil B. Tafani @mythicscribes

The Finish Line for Your Novel and Tips for Wrapping it Up: @p2p_editor

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

Tips for better backstory: @10MinNovelists

Character Background: 5 Backstory Writing Tips: @nownovel

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Margaret Atwood on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Means in Today’s World: @MargaretAtwood @nytimes

Tabletop Gaming and Storytelling: @judyblackcloud

The 1000 Day MFA: @shauntagrimes

How Audiobooks Can Improve Your Writing: @RichardRieman @RMFWriters

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Staying Organized While You Write and Finish Your Book: @writeabook

3 Vital Elements of Craft: Subplots, Scenes and POV: @hanque99 @MCBookTours

How to tell if your writing is improving: 4 easy tips: @Peter_Rey_

Making ‘artful audio stories’: tips for talking to strangers: @wendelpatrick1 @AaronHenkin @Transom_org

Organizing Your Novel: @PBRWriter

Write Exciting Stories About Boring Things: @helpfulsnowman
“In writing, there’s more than 1 way to do just about anything”: @cathyyardley

 

Writing Craft / Pacing

4 reasons to use a time jump in your story: @Chris_Kokoski

Writing Craft / POV

A Simple Trick to a Stronger First Person Narrative: @Janice_Hardy

Choosing a POV for your novel: @patverducci

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

Using the Forbidden Love Masterplot: @RobinRWrites

Two Types of Writers: Plotters and Pantsers: @Amandajwills @reedsyhq

Story Structure’s Purpose for Readers: @JamiGold

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

4 Ways to Prevent Incorrect Tense Issues: @sacha_black

Using Repetition to Produce Parallel Structure: @writing_tips

Hyphenation Rules for 35 Prefixes (and 1 Suffix): @writing_tips

Commonly Confused Commas: by Laura Fineberg Cooper

When Do I Spell Out Numbers? @BrianKlems @WritersDigest

Writing Craft / Revision

When Your Book Is Such A Mess You Don’t Know If It’s Worth Editing: @StephMorrill

Tips for Surviving the Editing Journey: @SukhiJutla

How To Edit Description: @JillWilliamson

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

3 Ways a Critique Group Will Boost Your Writing: by Gayla K. Hiss @NovelRocket

Writing Craft / Scenes

10 Questions To Ask Before Writing An Interesting Scene: @10MinNovelists

Writing Craft / Series

Pros, Cons, and Tips for Writing a Novel Series: @AuthorDeb Raney

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

7 Tips On Writing Realistic Settings: by Emma Johnson @WritersEdit

Does Your Character Description Create A Powerful Image? @michael_hauge @AngelaAckerman

Writing Craft / Synopses

Tips for Writing a Synopsis: @Ava_Jae

Writing Craft / Voice

4 Lessons for Discovering Your Writing Voice: @PaulaSMunier @WritersDigest

Writing Tools / Apps

The Fuss-Free Beginner’s Guide To Scrivener: @ClaireABradshaw

Writing Tools / Miscellaneous

Writing Doubts (Writer Worksheet): @EvaDeverell

Writing Tools / Resources

Time-saving tasks you can use with Find and Replace: Part I: https://t.co/Jm20A2fboQ and II: by Lisa Lines

The new Amazon Author Insights site (via @AmazonKindle ):

Scrivener Corkboard Templates for Calendars, Timelines, More: @EvaDeverell

Writing Tools / Thesauri

Character Motivation Entry: Overcoming Abuse and Learning To Trust: @AngelaAckerman

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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Reading More in 2017

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

In 2016, I worked in more reading than I had in 2015. I love reading, but for some reason in 2015 I ended up with a bunch of abandoned books (I’m not one of those who feels I must finish reading a book I’m not enjoying).

Not only do I love reading, I know that reading makes me a better writer. That’s why I’m pushing myself to read even more in 2017 than I did last year. I’ve got new ways to make that happen, which I thought I’d share with you.

There are a few things that I’ve done differently:

Used a Goodreads account. I opened a Goodreads account under a different name so that I wouldn’t appear to be using the site to promote other books–I only wanted to use it as a reader. I’ve learned that it’s a very helpful site when it comes to reading. So frequently I’d read a book and then forget the author or title. This way, I can follow authors and learn when they have new releases. Goodreads also sends me newsletters with suggestions for other books to check out.

Spent more time at the library. I got out of the habit of writing at the library in 2015 because I was being productive at home. But I’ve found that I can make even more progress on my book…plus find things to read, myself.

Taken advantage of my Amazon Prime Kindle First benefit. If you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can choose between four (usually) selections for free each month. There have been some good choices. Even better, some of the choices have helped me read books in genres I might not otherwise have read.

Used OverDrive more. This ties into my library time, but it’s online. I request books from my library’s OverDrive site. Popular titles have a waiting list, but I never seem to stay on it very long before getting the book. It’s delivered right to my device and I don’t have to worry about returning it to the library.

Used an extension to find out whether a book I’m interested in is at my library. Jane Friedman mentioned this cool extension in one of her Electric Speed newsletters. It’s called Library Extension and currently just for Chrome browser users. When you’re browsing books on Amazon, it will check your library’s catalog to let you know if the book is available (check first to make sure your library is supported–they support 3200).

Develop ‘for later’ lists and wishlists to always have something to read next. It’s not the reading that takes the time…it’s the finding something to read. This is ironic, since there have never been more books on the market. But not all books are good fits. Not every book makes me want to sit down and read.

What are your reading plans for 2017?

Reading more in 2017:
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How Flash Fiction Can Make You a Better Writer (and Where to Find It)

by Fred Johnson,  @FredBobJohn

In our non-stop world of tweets, tags, and text messages, it’s often difficult to find the time and motivation to sit down and read (let alone write!) a full-length novel. Even short stories can fall flat in terms of their ability to reflect the pure speed and transience of modern life.

Enter flash fiction. This relatively modern form describes very short fiction, with pieces normally clocking it at below a thousand words. With so few words to play with, writers of flash fiction have to cram meaning and emotion into as few words as possible. The most famous example is commonly attributed to Ernest Hemingway and is only six words long:

For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Powerful stuff indeed. But here’s the kicker: flash fiction, beyond being a pleasure to read, can make you a better writer, no matter what you’re writing.

This is because flash fiction is all about using every last word and wasting no space whatsoever, which is an incredibly important skill for a writer to cultivate. Learning the value of brevity can help you get better, whether you’re writing short stories, novels, articles, blog posts, reviews, commercial copy… anything really.

Even better, flash fiction takes very little time to read and write. You can embrace brevity and write flash fiction during your break at work, on the bus, or before you go to bed. Better still, it can be a great way to test out ideas or to dip a toe into a different genre–if one piece doesn’t work, it’s no big deal, but if another does, you can develop that piece and use it as the foundation for a longer text.

With all this in mind, here are some great platforms and communities to help encourage you, give you some inspiration, and provide some top-notch reading material.

Flash Fiction Online

Flashfictiononline.com is an online magazine that publishes a new issue every month. It publishes varied works of between five hundred and one thousand words and, in addition, releases anthologies intermittently.

Issues are available to read online for free or to purchase in ebook format. Even better, the magazine has a good team of editors who ensure that only high quality work gets through. A great place to start if you’re after longer flash fiction.

Fifty Words

Fiftywords.com publishes fifty-word stories in a feed on their website. Run by one person, the site’s stories vary in quality, but when each one is only fifty words long it doesn’t take long to find the good ones. Definitely worth a look.

Six Word Stories

Cutting down the wordcount to an even more extreme degree, the sub-Reddit r/sixwordstories deals, as the name suggests, in six-word stories. Taking inspiration from the Hemingway story I mentioned earlier, Six Word Stories is an open forum for people to share their own stories and comment on those of others. This being the case, quality varies massively, but it’s a good site to visit if you’re curious to see how much can fit into six words.

Terribly Tiny Tales

At once a seasonal magazine, community, and social media site, terriblytinytales.com is a massive and long-standing platform for those interested in flash fiction. They release a tweet-sized story every day, and explore different ways in which readers and writers can collaborate together. Submitting is easy and the community is friendly. Give it a go!

Spartan

Spartan is a small-but-growing literary magazine dealing in minimalist prose. Alongside traditional Carver-esque minimalism, Spartan also publishes flash fiction. The magazine’s published pieces are available for free online, and every year the team release a print anthology in limited numbers. Again, submitting your own work is easy and can be very rewarding.

Quiet Pine Trees

One of my favourite platforms for flash fiction, Quiet Pine Trees lives primarily on Twitter (as @QuietPineTrees) but is also on Tumblr (as quietpinetrees.tumblr.com.) The curator produces tweet-length short fiction of consistently impressive quality, publishing to both Twitter and Tumblr. Many of the pieces have a sci-fi or speculative twist, but there’s something here for every lover of flash fiction.

So, those are my favourite spots for flash fiction. Next time you find yourself with a spare half hour, why not break out a pen and have a go yourself? Your work will thank you for it–regular injections of flash fiction (whether you’re writing or reading) will help keep you sharp, ruthless, and on-point. Say goodbye to waffle!

How flash fiction can make you a better writer (by @FredBobJohn ):
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Fred Johnson is an editor for Standout Books, where he helps authors take their manuscripts from good to perfect.

He also writes fiction and poetry, and can be found on Twitter @FredBobJohn.

 

Photo via Visual Hunt

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Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

A weekly roundup of the best writing links from around the web.

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 40,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers.

Have you visited the WKB lately?  Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and see the character and location name generators! 

Business / Miscellaneous

2016 Novelist Income Survey Final Results and Data: @jimchines

“Cataloging” Your Book : @MaryGillgannon @RMFWriters

How much should editing cost? @pubcoach

Does a Writer Really Need a Professional Development Plan? @AnnOttoAuthor @WomenWriters

15 Tips for Authors Running Webinars: @JFbookman

What To Do If A Website Has Stolen Your Work: @standoutbooks

Conferences and Events / Miscellaneous

What not to do at an author festival: @Elfwriter

Tips, dos and don’ts for attending writing conferences: @SusanKelley @TheIWSG

A Closer Look at April’s PubTechConnect Conference: @Porter_Anderson

Creativity and Inspiration / Goal setting

Jumpstart Your Writing Career in 2017: by Fae Rowen

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration

Dear Writer: Why You Need to Get Out into the World: @emi1y_morgan

How to Use Essential Oils: A Guide for Writers: @claireswinarski @thewritelife

When You Don’t Feel Like Writing: @victoria_grif7

Be the Encouragement to a New Writer: @JoEberhardt

5 Tips For Cultivating Creativity In Writing: @rsmollisonread

5 Tips to Help You Fall in Love with Creating Again: @emi1y_morgan

Notorious Literary Muses from Best to Worst: @knownemily

Music as The Writer’s Muse: @Caliskaniverse_

My 4-Step System for Hacking Your Creativity: @ink_and_quills

Why Writers Benefit from Using Creative Visualization: @VoicetoStory

How Objects Inspire Fiction: @AnneLParrish

Creativity and Inspiration / Inspiration / Reading as Writers

8 Ways To Read More, Even When You’re Deep Into Your Own Manuscript: @cnoepagan

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Fitting in Writing

5 Strategies For When You Don’t Have Time For Your Dream: @10MinNovelists

5 Tips for Turning Your Day Job into a Secret Writing Office: @GiveMeYourTeeth @LitReactor

A Mindful Guide to Email in 20 Minutes a Day: @zen_habits

How Productive Writers Start The Day: @sidsavara

5 Secrets to Writing Despite a Day Job: @JerryBJenkins

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writer’s Block

6 Self-Imposed Limitations That Prevent You from Publishing: by Elizabeth Lee

Got writer’s block? @Lin_Manuel has a playlist for you: @michaelschaub

Creativity and Inspiration / Productivity / Writing Quickly

Putting the “Professional” in Professional Writer: @KelsieEngen

How to Write Better Faster (podcast): @cksyme

Writing Process: Get it Organized, Get it Done: @davidpenny_ #IndieAuthorFringe

Creativity and Inspiration / Success

Success requires collaborators: @DanBlank

How to Turn Elements of Your Novel Into a Masterpiece: @ESimsAuthor @WritersDigest

Creativity and Inspiration / Writing Life

How to Overcome Unique Challenges as a Highly Sensitive Writer: @colleen_m_story

The 5 Types of Teenage Writers, and the Best Ways to Teach Them: @lindseyleej @SignatureReads

Dare to Write: @annkroeker

Why You Can (And Should) Keep Writing When You Have Children: @aliventures

67 Rules for All Writers to Live By: @ToddBrison

Encouragement for the Mother Who Writes: @StephMorrill

50 Great Details For the Setting Of Your Victorian Novel: @BrynDonovan

Make Writing Dreams Come True: @Lindasclare

“In writing, there’s more than 1 way to do just about anything”: @cathyyardley

Genres / Historical

Genres / Horror

Horror: Strategies for Hiding and Revealing Your Antagonist: by Mac Childs

Horror Writing: Prevent the Romantic Storyline from Strangling the Scary: by Mac Childs @HorrorWriters

H.P. Lovecraft’s Process for Writing a Horror Story, or Any Piece of “Weird Fiction: @openculture

Genres / Memoir

How novelists adapt to writing memoir: @writerjeangill @MsBessieBell @Roz_Morris

Genres / Miscellaneous

On Representation in RPGs: @booksofm @jimchines

Genres / Mystery

Pedigreed families as elements in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Tips for better suspense: @SueColetta1

Defending dissertations as an element in crime fiction: @mkinberg

Noir is the Perfect Genre for Telling a Millennial Story: @therealeharnett @lithub

8 Ways A Thriller differs from a Mystery: @woodwardkaren

Genres / Non-Fiction

3 Copywriting Tips to Help You Sell More Nonfiction Books: @thecreativepenn

Genres / Poetry

Poet Activists Throughout the Years: @My_poetic_side

Genres / Science Fiction

How To Become A Master of Writing Science Fiction: by Ryan Turpin @SciFi_Addicts

Genres / Screenwriting

A screenwriter’s analysis of “Arrival”: @CockeyedCaravan

Character Introductions in Screenwriting: @GoIntoTheStory

Genres / Young Adult

How to Write With a Teen Voice: @Janice_Hardy

Promo / Ads

3 Ways to Improve Your Facebook Ads: @LarryAlton3

Is Paid Advertising Right For Your Book? @pbackwriter @OrnaRoss #IndieAuthorFringe

Book Marketing: Using Amazon Ads to Grow a Newsletter List: @ArtConnectsUs @thecreativepenn

Promo / Blogging

What use are blog analytics? They tell an interesting story: @sgc58

Promo / Book Descriptions and Copywriting

Improve Your Book Descriptions and Audience Targeting: @JaneFriedman #IndieAuthorFringe

Promo / Book Reviews

Real Writers Get Bad Book Reviews. Here’s Why That’s OK: by Michael Alvear @thewritelife

‘You Have Such an Ugly Baby’: Tactfully Reviewing Books You Don’t Love: @iamagemcrystal

Promo / Crowdfunding

How Crowdfunding Allows You to Experiment Outside Your Genre: @emilygrosvenor @JaneFriedman

Promo / Miscellaneous

Planning the Perfect Release Marketing Tip Video Series: @JAHuss

An agent on hiring a publicist: @Janet_Reid

Use Short Stories to Market Your Novel: @jamesscottbell @StonehamPress #IndieAuthorFringe

Writer, Promote Thyself: @cathychall

Why EVERY Author Needs a Media Kit: @damselwriter

Planning the Perfect Release: The Arc List: @JAHuss

What’s New On Your Marketing List? @mollygreene

DIY: Online Education as Book Marketing: @JaneFriedman

Promo / Podcasts

6 Best Podcasts For Writers Who Want to Sell More Books in 2017: @cksyme

Promo / Social Media Tips

On Using Memes to Market Books: @RogerDColby

7 Ways To Get More Out Of Pinterest: @woodwardkaren

Your Guide to Picture-Perfect Instagram Book Marketing: @Bookgal

9 Facebook Posts We Don’t Need to See From Authors: @Gabino_Iglesias

Promo / Speaking

5 Strategies for Dealing with Speaking Anxiety: @Exec_Speak @livequiet

Publishing / Miscellaneous

Why the Internet Didn’t Kill Zines: @jennydeluxe @nytimes

Advice on Writing a Novella Collection: @pattywrites on @NovelRocket

Publishing / News / Amazon

Confessions of a paid Amazon review writer: by Yuyu Chen @Digiday

Publishing / News / International Publishing

IPA’s Michiel Kolman on China: ‘A $10 Billion Concern’: @Porter_Anderson @michielams

Hay Festival plans a new children’s literature festival for October: @Porter_Anderson @pubperspectives

The Expanded British Book Awards: @Porter_Anderson @Porter_Anderson

UK’s International Literature Showcase Names 2017 Participants: @Porter_Anderson

Russian Librarians Warn of Crisis in Library Consolidation Plans: by Eugene Gerden @pubperspectives

UAE’s Sultan Al Qasimi and Brazil’s Luiz Schwarcz Lead LBF’s Intl. Excellence Awards: @Porter_Anderson

Titles Translated from 11 Languages: The 2017 Man Booker International Longlist: @Porter_Anderson

Why e-readers were a disruptive innovation in the US, but not in Japan: by Mark E. Parry and Tomoko Kawakami

Intl Publishers Assoc to Visit Georgia, Where Publishers Are ‘Heading to Annihilation’ @Porter_Anderson

British Comics Publishers in Changing Marketplace: ‘We Want To Do More Comics’: @MarkPiesing @richjohnston

A French-and-Arabic publishing exchange agreement signed in Paris: @Porter_Anderson

Publishing / Options / Self-Publishing

Successful Self-Publishing? 5 Important Tips for New Authors: @theorganicwoman

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing

How to Escape the Slush Pile by Brandon Taylor @ElectricLit

3 Questions to Ask Before a “Revise and Resubmit”: @besscozby

How to Stay Positive on Your Path to Getting a Book Published: @almccall @thewritelife

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Querying

5 Tips for Querying & Choosing a Literary Agent: @BriannaShrum @WritersDigest

Publishing / Options / Traditional Publishing / Rejections

How 10 Years Producing “Car Talk” Helped A Writer Deal with Rejection: @louiecronin @WriterUnboxed

The 8 Most Common Reasons 1 Editor Sends a Rejection: @MissConstance21 @DIYMFA

Publishing / Process / Book Design

Can Changing Your Book Covers Really Help You Sell More Books? @ADStarrling

Publishing / Process / Distribution

Get Your Books Into Bookstores With Ingram Spark: @andysbromley @rcutlerSpark #IndieAuthorFringe

How to Get Your Book Distributed: What Self-Published Authors Need to Know: @JaneFriedman

Publishing / Process / Services to Avoid

Vetting publishers: @RWANYC

Publishing / Process / Translation

Swedish Translator Sarah Death on the Translation Business Today: @DennisAbrams2

Vote for Your Favorite French Books Translated to English: The Albertine Prize: @Porter_Anderson

Writing Craft / Beginnings

What “Starts with Action” Really Means: @angiehodapp

What Penguin Random House Editors Look for on an Opening Page: by Phil Stamper-Halpin

8 Awful Ways To Start A Novel: @10MinNovelists

Writing Craft / Characters / Antagonists

How To Make The Reader Trust Your Villain: @standoutbooks

Writing Craft / Characters / Development

3 Character Development Questions for Writing About Jobs You’ve Never Done: @jeffelk

Take Your Character to Work Day: @nicoleva @HighlightsFound

62 Character Flaws for Creating a Well-Balanced Character: @ev_scarlett

Make Your Story Richer with In-depth Knowledge of Your Characters: @ReeseRyanWrites

Clothing tells us much about a character: @monicamclark

Walk a Mile in Your Characters’ Shoes: @bryngreenwood @WriterUnboxed

Writing Craft / Characters / Emotion

How to Characterize Love in Your Writing: @WordDreams

Writing Craft / Characters / Protagonists

Why Should Your Readers Care About Your Protagonist? 11 Questions to Find Out: @thewritingkylie

Writing Craft / Characters / Supporting Characters

Creating Stunning Side Characters (and Why They Matter): @SeptCFawkes

Large Character Casts: How to Put your Characters Temporarily Elsewhere: @ev_scarlett

Writing Craft / Common Mistakes

Are You Making These Common Fiction Writing Mistakes? @KMWeiland #IndieAuthorFringe

Reasons to avoid using dreams in fiction: @jasonbougger

Writing Craft / Dialogue

Tighten Up Your Dialogue: @patverducci

Action and Dialogue in Storytelling: @WritingForward

Writing Craft / Diversity

Representation Matters: A Literary Call To Arms: @tinytempest

Writing Craft / Endings

How to Write an Unforgettable Ending: by Neil B. Tafani @mythicscribes

Writing Craft / Flashback and Back Story

On Writing Flashbacks (video): @Ava_Jae

Tips for better backstory: @10MinNovelists

Character Background: 5 Backstory Writing Tips: @nownovel

Writing Craft / Lessons from Books and Film

Authors on Illness: 5 Books Destigmatizing Cancer: @lequincampe

9 Stories That Continue After the Adventure: by Stubby the Rocket @tordotcom

Margaret Atwood on What ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Means in Today’s World: @MargaretAtwood @nytimes

Tabletop Gaming and Storytelling: @judyblackcloud

Writing Craft / Literary Devices

How To Strengthen The Theme Of Your Book During Edits: @StephMorrill

Writing Craft / Miscellaneous

Staying Organized While You Write and Finish Your Book: @writeabook

3 Vital Elements of Craft: Subplots, Scenes and POV: @hanque99 @MCBookTours

How to tell if your writing is improving: 4 easy tips: @Peter_Rey_

Making ‘artful audio stories’: tips for talking to strangers: @wendelpatrick1 @AaronHenkin @Transom_org

Organizing Your Novel: @PBRWriter

Writing Craft / POV

Writing in third person limited: @jasonbougger

A Simple Trick to a Stronger First Person Narrative: @Janice_Hardy

Writing Craft / Pre-Writing / Plotting

4 Reasons Why Authors Shouldn’t Be Nice In Their Stories: @10MinNovelists

Using the Forbidden Love Masterplot: @RobinRWrites

Two Types of Writers: Plotters and Pantsers: @Amandajwills @reedsyhq

Writing Craft / Punctuation and Grammar

The Oxford Comma: Great For Listing, Pontificating, And Winning Court Cases: @colintdwyer @NPR

3 Cases of Too Many Commas: @writing_tips

4 Ways to Prevent Incorrect Tense Issues: @sacha_black

Using Repetition to Produce Parallel Structure: @writing_tips

Hyphenation Rules for 35 Prefixes (and 1 Suffix): @writing_tips

Writing Craft / Revision

8 Tips for Seeing Your Novel with “Fresh Eyes”: @HarrietWriter @WomenWriters

When Your Book Is Such A Mess You Don’t Know If It’s Worth Editing: @StephMorrill

Writing Craft / Revisions / Critiques

3 Ways a Critique Group Will Boost Your Writing: by Gayla K. Hiss @NovelRocket

Writing Craft / Settings and Description

7 Tips On Writing Realistic Settings: by Emma Johnson @WritersEdit

Does Your Character Description Create A Powerful Image? @michael_hauge @AngelaAckerman

Writing Craft / Synopses

Tips for Writing a Synopsis: @Ava_Jae

Writing Craft / Tension

Ratcheting Up The Tension: by Shawn Coyne

How To Create Conflict Between Multiple Antagonists: by Hannah Collins @standoutbooks

Writing Craft / Voice

How an Environmental Science Background Helped 1 Writer Find Her Writing Voice : @katebrandes3

4 Lessons for Discovering Your Writing Voice: @PaulaSMunier @WritersDigest

Writing Tools / Apps

BuzzTrace: A New Platform To Help Writers Find Their Readers: @buzz_trace @sabsky

Apps, Tools & Plugins for Indie Authors in 2017: @CaballoFrances

Writing Tools / Resources

Time-saving tasks you can use with Find and Replace: Part I: https://t.co/Jm20A2fboQ and II: by Lisa Lines

The new Amazon Author Insights site (via @AmazonKindle ):

Writing Tools / Thesauri

Character Motivation Entry: Being Acknowledged and Appreciated By Family: @AngelaAckerman

From My Blog:

Listing Your Books With Google Play – by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig Although I was late to sell my bo…

The top writing links of last week are on Twitterific:
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