fantasy Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Reetta Raitanen's Blog

(Note: It will likely take at least a year of dedicated work and a few books behind you to reach the lowest of these milestones. See these as long-term goals, not as something you compare yourself to when you’re just starting out)

Are Self-Published Books the New Query Letter by Erin Kern

Ruth Harris Reports: Editors and Editing Part 4

Self-Published Authors: Reach New Readers With New Genres, Story Elements and Categories by D.D. Scott

Self Publishing On the Wrong Side of the Atlantic by Catherine Ryan Howard

Book Review Blogs That Accept Self-Published Work by Karen Woodward

Who Is Reading the 99c Books? by Catherine Ryan Howard

Blogging

Should All Authors Blog? by Rachelle Gardner

How To Blog Smarter (And Get More Readers) by Shannon at Duolit

7 Blogging Tips For Authors by Chris Robley

50 Things To Blog About When You Have Writer’s Block by Caitlin Muir

How To Use Headlines To Get To “One Thought” by Sean D’Souza

56 Guest Posts and Counting: How To Keep On Top of Them All by Timo Kiander

SEO Tips & Tricks: How To Make Google Love Your Blog by Karen Woodward

How To Attribute Artwork Licensed Under the Creative Commons by Karen Woodward

Social Media

Twitter For Writers: Three Essential Types of Tweets by Ryan Casey

10 Twitter Hashtags to Get You Writing (And Keep You Writing) by Krissy Brady

3 Ways To Grow Your Email List With Twitter by Gregory Ciotti

3 Principles For Facebook Fan Pages by Jane Friedman

How To Run a Goodreads Giveaway With Maximal Results: 11 Tips by Emlyn Chand

Collected Wisdom

Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp

Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig

Friday Features by Yesenia Vargas

Deep Stuff

Why Not All Who Wander Are Lost by Debra Eve (Are you a Renaissance Soul?)

Six Clever Tricks For a Better To Do List by Ali Luke

Know Yourself by Mark McGuinness

How To Achieve Your Full Potential As a Writer by Carol Tice

The Beginner’s Guide To Unschooling by Leo Baubata

Tinsel Town’s New Favorite Trope: The Female Scientist by Emily Asher-Perrin

The Symbolism of Rabbits and Hares by Terri Windling

Fun Stuff

What Lord of the Rings Character Are You? by Marcy Kennedy

Designing From the Bones: Fruit From the World Tree by Gene Lempp

Fiction Affliction: “Genre-Benders” For October by Suzanne Johnson (such fascinating concepts)

Fiction Affliction: November Releases in Fantasy by Suzanne Johnson

10 Characters Whose Genders Were Swapped In Production by Susana Polo

The Pinterest Effect: The Economic Impact of Pinterest by Traci Davies

Playground Parents by Traci Davies

Posted by Reetta Raitanen on Oct 31, 2012 in Writer Wednesday | 7 comments

Link Feast For Writers, vol. 24

Writing blogs are a great way to learn about the craft and marketing our work. Enjoy the posts I’ve hoarded, some older, some recent.

Next week’s Feast will be a NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) special, dedicated to writing links that help you to plot your NaNo story, write it and finish it.

For those who don’t know what NaNo is, it’s a challenge to finish a 50 000 word story during the November. That means you must write at least 1,666 words per day over the 30 day period.

I’d love to hear from you in the comments. Will you participate NaNo this year? What challenges are you facing when plotting and writing your stories?

And then on to the links.

On Writing

Structure Part 3 – Introducing the Opposition by Kristen Lamb

Using Scrivener For Plotting by Hope Ramsay

Han Solo vs. Luke Skywalker: Who’s the Better Hero? by Tiffany Reisz

3 Ways To Create Incredible Characters by Karen Woodward

Taking Characters On a Voyage of Self-Discovery by Elizabeth S. Craig

Ax Your Cliches: Why and Whom by Margie Lawson

7 Tricks To Add Variety To Your Dialogue by Marcy Kennedy

The Sensual Writer: Sight by Lisa Lickel

What Are the Best Ways To End a Story by Christi Craig

Sometimes Stories Aren’t Yours – Writing Oppressed Classes by S.E. Sinkhorn

Revision Checklist For Compelling Characters by Kathy Steffen

How To Write Proficiently About Things You Don’t Know About by Jody Hedlund

Why Build a World When You Can Steal One by Lori Devoti

Politics, Religion, Social Media & How Great Writers Change the World by Kristen Lamb

J.K. Rowling Shows Why Muggles Obsessed With Class by Simon Hooper (themes of her new book)

J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy: We’ve Read It, Here’s What We Think by Lev Grossman

Calvinball Mythology and the Void of Meaning by Jonathan McCalmont (long, cool article about building mythologies for TV series and movies)

What Should Newbie Writers Focus On by Jami Gold

How To Avoid Distractions and Create a Career in Fiction: Interview with Holly Lisle by Joe Bunting

On Willpower, Self Discipline and Cake by Candy Gourlay

Lessons Learned From 1 Year As a Full Time Author Enterpreneur by Joanna Penn

Your Author Platform

People Want the Real You by Chris Brogan

Finding Your Novel’s Target Market: 7 Hidden Keys In Your Novel by Jan Bear

The Genre-Free Author: Looking For the Common Themes In Your Writing by Ami Hendrickson

Finding the Right Readers Using Warning Labels by Elle Casey

Wordsmithing Your Brand by Lynn Viehl

The Secret to Attracting 1000 True Fans (Pay To Exist)

7 Steps To Writing an Author Business Plan by Susan Spann

When (And How) Should You Start Marketing Your Book by Yesenia Vargas

The Simple Power of One a Day by Seth Godin

How To Prepare For a Book Launch by Jody Hedlund

35 Ways To Engage Your Book Audience in the First 90 Days (Wise Ink)

How To Create a Killer Marketing Plan For Your Book Launch by Srinivas Rao

What Is the ONE Thing You Have Done That Brought You More Readers? Advice from Indie Authors by Laura Pepper Wu

What Is the ONE Thing You Have Done That Brought You More Readers? Part 2 by Laura Pepper Wu

What Is the ONE Thing You Have Done That Brought You More Readers? Part 3 by Laura Pepper Wu

How To Get Amazon’s Top Customer Reviewers to Review Your Book by Laura Pepper Wu

Email Marketing: How To Not Be a Dirty Rotten Spammer by Sonia Simone

Link of the Week: Booksai (Muse Tracks) – a tool for finding books similar to yours

The Seasons of Publishing by Dean Wesley Smith

Choosing the Right Publishing Route For You by Talli Roland

7 Common Self-Publishing Fears and How To Banish Them by Karen Woodward

Book Marketing Tips For First Time Self-Publishers by Karen Woodward

Ruth Harris Reports: Editors & Editing – Part 3

The Key 11 Questions Every Indie Author Must Know About the Competition (Wise Ink)

Amazon KDP: The Best Long-Term Strategy by Karen Woodward

How To Make the Most of Your eBook’s Free Days / KDP Select Days by Laura Pepper Wu

Where to Promote Your KDP Free Days by Cheryl Bradshaw

Blogging

Top 10 Self-Sabotaging Mistakes of Author-Bloggers by Anne R. Allen

When Traffic Isn’t Enough. 3 Questions Every Blogger Should Ask Themselves by Chris Drucker

How To Write and Maintain a Great Blog That Helps You Sell More Books (With Blogging Hero Gretchen Rubin) by Laura Pepper Wu

7 Ways Partnerships Can Work For You by Michelle Schaeffer

(Some win-win partnerships that come to mind are Joanna Penn’s & C.J. Lyons’ writing courses, and Ruth Harris as a regular poster in Anne R. Allen’s blog)

One Time-Saving Way To Manage Your Author Blog by Yesenia Vargas

A 6-Step Process To Turn Ideas Into Blog Posts by Ali Luke

Writing Great Content: 3 Tips by Amy Lynn Andrews

The 6 Magic Words That Always Get Clicks by Caitlin Muir

Why You Need To Work Harder on Your List Posts by Ben Barden

How To Run a Blog Series and Get More Subscribers by Annabel Candy

How To Write a Strong Opinion Piece For Your Blog by John McLain

How To Win Some Blogger Love: Scoring the Book Review, Guest Post or Interview by Kristen Lamb

Social Share Buttons: Just Pick Three (Pushing Social)

Social Media

Social Media Explained With Coffee by Michelle Schaeffer

The Top 10 Social Networks for Creative People by Mark McGuinness

40+ Tips on How To Become a Social Media Rockstar on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ by Kristi Hines

Find the Right People To Follow on Twitter by Kristi Hines

Blogging Playbook: Getting More Twitter ReTweets (Pushing Social)

How To Use StumbleUpon: Your Comprehensive Guide by Kristi Hines

Pinterest For Authors by Jennifer Bray-Weber

Collected Wisdom

Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp

Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig

Friday Features by Yesenia Vargas

Fill-Me-In-Friday by Roni Loren

Bring On The Bloggy Brilliance by Jenny Hansen

Deep Stuff

The Danger of Learning Only From Succesful People (And What To Do Instead) by Dorian Mars

Is It Time to Rethink Your Routines? by Lynn Johnston (I loved her eBook Kaizen Plan For Organized Authors)

Boring Is Productive by Robert C. Pozen

The Science of Procrastination and How To Manage It by Maria Popova (2:49 min video)

The Complete Flake’s Guide to Getting Things Done by Sonia Simone

Dreading a Task? 5 Tips For Getting Yourself To Tackle It by Gretchen Rubin

5 Best Literary TED Talks (Elizabeth Gilbert’s Creativity talk is phenomenal)

50 Best Social Psychology Books on Persuasion, Influence & Understanding Your Brain by Gregory Ciotti

The Unintended Consequences of China’s One Child Policy by George Dvorsky

Fun Stuff

Beautiful Pins (40K+ gorgeous photos ranging from fantasy to humor, traveling and cheesecake)

What We Learned About the Hobbit Movies at DragonCon by Chris Lough

33 Geeky Insults You Can Use Almost Anywhere by Jason Cranford Teague

27 of the Most Insane Martial Arts Battles Ever Filmed by Cyriaque Lamar (includes video snippets)

The Most Thrilling Sci-fi and Fantasy Books Coming in September by Charlie Jane Anders

All the Science Fiction and Fantasy Books You Can’t Afford to Miss in October by Charlie Jane Anders

Announcing Pony Fest #12 by Rebecca Enzor

(Want to win a custom made My Little Pony looking like your book character? Sign up there *points up*)

The History of English in 10 hilarious minutes (11:21 min video)

Real-Life Superheroes: 10 People with Incredible Abilities (Oddee.com)

Posted by Reetta Raitanen on Oct 4, 2012 in Writer Wednesday | 13 comments

Link Feast For Writers, vol. 19 – World Building

Every writer needs world building (a.k.a. setting), regardless of a genre. Good setting creates and enchances the conflict of the story, and anchors your characters in their world. What characters want and need has no meaning without a context and history.

Hence a big part of the links this week focuses on world building. And well, also because it’s a favourite hobby of mine 😉

You can find the regular features (writing, author platform, deep stuff etc.) when you scroll down further. Happy browsing.

If You Have Time For Only One Thing:

More than Magic & Gadgets–Taking Science Fiction and Fantasy to Another Level by Kristen Lamb

World Building

How Much World Building Should You Do Before Writing the Novel? by Lynn Viehl

Building a World from Top-Down, Bottom-Up or Sideways by Sofie Bird

World Building Do’s by Lynn Viehl

World Building No No’s by Lynn Viehl

The Elevator Speech For Your Setting by Berin Kinsman(After the first paragraphs the advice might not be 100% applicable to writing since it’s aimed for roleplaying games)

Information Density, or, Cramming a Fifty Pound Sausage in a Five-Pound Sack (Swan Tower)

Creating a Story Bible by Suzanne Johnson

Your Writer’s Bible by Sofie Bird

World Building Questions by Patricia C. Wrede

Building Secondary Worlds by Mark Charan Newton

Using Tarot Cards to Create a World by Raeyn Barclay

Drawing Inspiration From Further Afield: Fantasy Set In Non-Western Cultures by Aliette Bodard

World Building 101 by Charlie Stross

World Building Heuristics by Charlie Stross

“The ratio of the near future is: 90% of it is just like today, 9% is stuff that is on the drawing boards, and 1% is unutterably strange and alien and unexpected.” – Charlie Stross

World Building: Psychology by Charlie Stross

World Building: The Unknown by Charlie Stross

Lost and Found: The Orphaned Hero in Myth, Folklore, and Fantasy by Terri Windling

Overused Tropes of Fantasy (Roleplaying Tips)

Medieval Demographics Made Easy. Numbers For Fantasy World

9 to 5: Character Jobs in Fantasyland by S.B. Stewart-Laing

10 Divine Concepts (Roleplaying Tips)

Magic? It’s Complicated (Old Words for Old Worlds)

Sanderson’s First Law of Magic by Brandon Sanderson

Sanderson’s Second Law of Magic by Brandon Sanderson

Magic Systems by Juliette Wade

How To Keep Your Story’s Superpowers/Magic Extraordinary by B. McKenzie

On Writing

Reading Like a Writer by Patricia C. Wrede

Making the Most of Ideas – The Fear by David B. Coe

Story Elements Checklist by Alexandra Sokoloff

Complicated Webs & Pacing by Patricia C. Wrede

Micro & Macro Levels of Writing by Patricia C. Wrede

Deep Characters For Plot-First Writers by Suzanne Johnson

6 Tricks Movies Use To Make Sure You Root the Right Guy by C. Coville at Cracked.com

Making Your Book Memorable: Creating Moments by Roni Loren

Michael Hauge’s Workshop: An Antidote To Love At First Sight by Jami Gold

Michael Hauge’s Workshop: Are These Characters the Perfect Match? by Jami Gold

5 Ways To Respect Your Writing by Krissy Brady

Why Write Short Stories by Sandra Wickham

Idea Prompt: Fairytale/Myth + Genre/Setting by Sofie Bird

Stand Out In The Slushpile: Some Basic Tips by Erika Holt

Author Platform, Blogging & Social Media

How To Create Your Own Brand & Find Your Voice by Marie Forleo (5:08 min video)

Digital Self-Publishing Checklist by Lori Devoti

Advertising Your Freebie eBooks by Karin Cox

Building a Following: The Four Types of Bloggers by Roni Loren

Why I Quit Blogging (and What To Do If You’re Struggling) by Jon Morrow

5 Ways To Systemize Your Blogging by Nick Thacker

How To Legally Use Your Own Photos On Your Blog by Melinda Van Lone

8 Ways To Grow Your Social Media Footprint by Jenny Hansen

How To Build A Rabid Following On Twitter To Promote Your Blog Posts by Jon Morrow (4:56 min video)

Facebook For Authors: Understanding EdgeRank by Chris Robley

Collected Wisdom

Twitterific by Elizabeth Spann Craig (August 12)

Friday Features by Yesenia Vargas (August 10)

World Building Resources by Juliette Wade

(In case you are wondering, there are no links to Gene Lempp’s Blog Treasures and Roni Loren’s Friday Features this week because those formats were on a short break)

Deep Stuff

5 Important Things I Learned Teaching Autistic Kids by Jenny Hansen

Modern Heroes by Kim Vandervort

Sisterhood by Karin Rita Gastreich

Chasing a Storm & Finding One Inside by Lara Zielin

Fun Stuff

Behold Fantastic (Pinterest boards for lovers of history and fantasy)

Immortal Monday: Death Deities & Meg Cabot’s Abandon by Debra Kristi

10 Fantasy Must Reads by Patricia C. Wrede

When Giants Walked the Earth by Ash Silverlock

Posted by Reetta Raitanen on Aug 15, 2012 in Writer Wednesday | 12 comments

Link Feast For Writers, vol. 14

Writing blogs are a great way to learn about the craft and marketing our work. Enjoy the posts I’ve hoarded, some older, some recent.

Note: I am taking a short break from Link Feast. The series returns as a once a month feature on the last week of each month. Next Wednesday I will blog about Holly Lisle’s Sweet Spot Mind Maps and how to use them to inspire your writing.

If You Have Time For Only One Thing:

Holly Lisle has published the first 5 lessons of her How To Think Sideways writer’s career course as eBooks.