Link Feast For Writers Vol. 11
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.
On Writing (Character Special)
Drop The Drama Bomb by Mario Acevendo at Writers In The Storm
Spice Up Your Writing With Optimal Learning Styles by Jan O’Hara at Writer Unboxed
Ask Your Character: Why Do You Matter? by Donald Maass at Writer Unboxed
Depth of Character by Donald Maass at Writer Unboxed
First Impressions by Diana Peterfreund
Giving Your Character A Unique Voice (Film Script Writing)
5 Tests To See If Character’s Voice Is Working by Christopher Boone
What Makes A Female Character Strong by Jami Gold
10 Antagonist No No’s by Lynn Viehl
16 Villain Archetypes by Tami Cowden
Top 10 Mentor Characters by Alexandra Sokoloff
Where Are All The Female Mentor Characters by Stella Carter at Jezebel
How To Kill Characterization (at Drying Ink)
Myers-Briggs As A Tool For Authors by Fae Rowen
Chinese Element Personality Types For Fun & Writing by Fae Rowen
Creating Character Depth With Astrological Signs by C.J. Winters
Character Trading Cards by Lynn Viehl
Using Tarot For Creative Writing by Janet Boyer
10 Easy Ways to Improve Your Dialogue by Ali Luke at Write To Done
Create a Rough Sketch Of Your Work In Progress (diymfa.com)
12 Ways To Create Suspense by Gail Carson Levine
What Everyone Knows & Team Mundane by Catherynne M. Valente
Practical Writing Tips From 22 Brilliant Authors (scroll down to get the advice. My favourite bit was: “Write the first chapter LAST”)
Writing Quickly: A Secret Strategy by Ava Jae
Trend Tracking Versus Jumping by Lynn Viehl
Write Books That Change Lives by Ingrid Sundberg
Book Series Sell by agent Rusell Galen
Do You Read Like A Reader Or A Writer by Janice Hardy
Fighting Writer Fatique by Lynn Viehl
Your Author Platform
How Much Interaction Should Writers Have With Their Readers by Jody Hedlund
Hustling: How To Spread Word About Your Book by Chris Guillebeau
Convention Schmoozing 101 by Mary Robinette Kowal
How To Write Free Content That Gets You An Avalanche Of Traffic by Danny Iny
How To Keep Your Book Talk Fresh by Roz Morris
3 Selling Tactics From The Internet Marketing Gurus by Lindsay Buroker
89 Book Marketing Ideas (Author Media)
How To Launch A Book Without Losing Your Mind by Elizabeth S. Craig
Blogging
How Long Does It Take To Get Blog Readers? by Nina Amir
Top 10 Blog Traffic Killers by Michael Hyatt
How To Get Better Results With List Posts (Pushing Social)
3 Guaranteed Ways To Get Your Blog Post Read (Pushing Social)
Put Some Thought Into Your Blog Comments: No Vanilla Adjectives Please by Susie Lindau (check out the comments too)
How To Write A Good Blog Comment by Nathan Bradsford
Find Your Blog’s Unique Voice by Jeff Goins at ProBlogger
How To Promote Your Blog Like The Big Guys by Leo Baubata
How To Get Serious About Promoting Your Blog (Pushing Social)
Launching A Successful Blog Tour by Alan Rinzler
Hosting Your Own WordPress Website by Melinda Van Lone
Must Have WordPress Plug-ins by Annabel Candy
If I Started Blogging Today, I Would… by Annette Gendler
The New Style Of Blog Writing by Mary Jaksch
Shakespeare on Blogging by Leanne Shirtliffe
How To Figure Out What Content People Want (at Social Triggers)
Social Media
8 Ways To Grow Your Social Media Footprint by Jenny Hansen
Why Authors Tweet (NYTimes)
Twitter Success Tricks from @thewritermama
Content Creator’s Twitter Evolution (Writer’s Digest)
Control Your Social Media So It Doesn’t Control You by Elizabeth S. Craig
Triberr Review: Useful Tool Or Shiny Toy? by Linda Adams
Tumblr For Writers by Ava Jae
Collected Wisdom
Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp (June 2)
Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig (June 3)
Friday Features by Yesenia Vargas (June 1)
Writing on the Ether by Porter Anderson (May 31)
Deep Stuff
What’s the First Thing You Do When You Open The Computer? by Seth Godin
Expand Your Circles by Amber West
Email Sanity: How To Clear Your Inbox When You’re Drowning at Zen Habits
Cinderella Ate My Daughter: The Princess Culture by Margot Magowan
Fun Stuff
Male & Female Eye Candy (collection of actor photos)
FictFact – Track Your Favorite Book Series
Bookmarks From Hell by Lynn Viehl
10 Signs You’ve Attended Too Many Writing Workshops by Lynn Viehl
The Vampire Smythe (short story by Lynn Viehl)
Dark & Devastating Secrets (shot, funny story by Lynn Viehl)
Armor-ella (short fairytale retelling by Holly Lisle)
Link Feast For Writers, vol. 10
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.
On Writing
Scenes Must Grab Interest & Move Story Forward by Lori Devoti
Scene Structure: Goal, Conflict & Disaster by Lori Devoti
Blurb Critique by a Marketing Goddess by Edie Ramer
10 Secrets To Better Fiction by Bob Mayer
How Janet Evanovich Storyboards by Zanchary Petit at Writer’s Digest
How To Create Distinctive Character Voices by L.B. Gale
What Avengers Teaches Us About Heroes by Sarah Hoyt
I Wanna Be Evil (aka How To Do Antagonist Well) by Sarah Hoyt
The Hero’s Journey by Cornell De Ville
Paranormal Romantic Writer’s Pop Quiz by Lynn Viehl (sadly the examples here are from real books, some even bestselling series)
Tools For Developing Characters: Must-Haves For Your Writing Bookshelf by Kathy Steffen
Recipe For a Best Selling Book by Laura Miller at salon.com
13 Most Common Errors On Novel’s First Page by Catherine Rankovic
Editing For People Who Hate Editing by Rachel Aaron
What’s In A Name – Choosing The Right Book Title by Sarah Baughman at Write It Sideways
Fun & Inexpensive Ideas For Writing Retreats by Sherrinda Ketchersid at The Writers Alley
10 Secret Killers That Destroy Your Personal Productivity by Dries Cronje
The Comfort Zone Is For Pets, Not Professionals by Kristen Lamb
Your Author Platform
Why It’s So Stinking Hard To Sell Books by Stephanie Chandler (Average person reads only 7 books a year)
Why It’s So Stinking Hard To Sell Books – Part 2 (A Reader should have heard of you or your book about 6-8 times before buying)
Who Are The Big 6 & What Does Indie Really Mean? Answers To Not-So-Dumb Questions You Were Afraid To Ask by Anne R. Allen
Catherine Ryan Howard (author of Mousetrapped) shares her great tips for marketing books
Every Author Has A Unique Marketing Voice & Approach by Jane Friedman at Writer Unboxed
Marrying Marketing & Writing Goals by Monica Valentinelli
Tips on Setting Your Marketing Priorities by Michele Linn
The Number One Reason Why Marketing Tactics Fail by Monica Valentinelli
3 Steps To An Effective Social Media Strategy by Amy Porterfield at Social Media Examiner
Send Newsletters, Not “Me Me Me Letters” by Rob Eagan
8 Elements of Effective Newsletters by Rob Eagan
What Makes Word Of Mouth Work – Part 1 by Rob Eagan at Writer’s Digest
What Makes Word of Mouth Work – Part 2 by Rob Eagan at Writer’s Digest
10 Ways To Sell Books At Amazon by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Using Wattpad To Market Your Books by Edie Ramer
Wattpad Marketing Success Stories by Edie Ramer
Recommended Marketing Tools by Big Brand Systems
Cover Design Tips From Pros by Ruth Harris (Pros share the stock photo services they use)
14 Tips For Good eBook Cover Design by C.L. Smith
What Do I Need An Agent For Again by Gemma Holliday
Earn More Money With A Book: 10 Business Models For Non-Fiction Authors by Stephanie Chandler
4 Important Marketing Actions To Take On Amazon As Soon As Your Book Is Published by Stephanie Chandler
Blogging
An Original Blog Idea Is Overrated by Henneke Duistermaat
21 Warning Signs You Chose The Wrong Blog Topic by Jon Morrow
7 Dumbest Mistakes With a New Blog by Jon Morrow
Why Posting Every Day Is a Silly Strategy (And What To Do Instead) by Dries Cronje
How To Make Your Blog Writing Real by Brian Clark at Copyblogger
Spice Up Boring Blog Posts Into Delicious Content by Brian Gardner
How To Improve Your Website Trust Factor by Chris Garrett
A Popular YA Blogger Turned Out To Be a Plagiarist (at Gossamer Obsessions)
From Blogger To Book Author: The 4 Step Guide by Jeff Goins
How To Plan Your Blog Posts For A Year In Advance by Laura Roeder at Content Marketing Institute
Write An Article In 20 Minutes by Jim Estill at Copyblogger
How To Host A Blog Event & Why You Should by Lori Devoti
7 Free Places To Submit Your Website by Fred Campos
Blogging Tips A-Z: Networking by Annabel Candy at Successful Blogging
Stephen King’s 20 Tips For Becoming A Better Blog Writer by Jon Morrow
Social Media
Finding Your Voice In Social Media by C. Hope Clark
20 Ways To Build Your Audience In Twitter by Stephanie Chandler
Frequency and Timing of Twitter Posts by Fred Campos
8 Ways To Get More ReTweets by Brian Gardner
25 Ways To Gain More Likes On Your Facebook Fan Page – Part 1 by Fred Campos
Pinterest For Writers by Beth Gwazdosky
5 Tips To Increase Interest On Your Books On Pinterest by Fred Campos
How Pinterest Can Increase Traffic For Your Blog by Brian Gardner
Get More Viral Traffic From Pinterest With This Simple Strategy
Collected Wisdom
Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp (May 26th)
Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig (May 27th)
Friday Features by Yesenia Vargas (May 25th) (her link collection blew me away & I feature some here)
Writing on the Ether by Porter Anderson (May 24th)
Build Your World: 10 Resources by Lynn Viehl
Writing Hero: Martha Alderson (aka The Plot Whisperer) [Must See Links]
10 Must Have Templates For Content Creators
Deep Stuff
8 Reasons Paper Books Will Become an Endangered Species by Marcy Kennedy
Safeguard Your Files by Lynn Viehl
Top 10 Relationship Words That Aren’t Translatable Into English by Pamela Haag at Think Big
What Advice Would You Give To a Kid Choosing a Future Career? by Sarah Hoyt
Those Who Can’t Create by Sarah Hoyt
Find Out The Price Of Your Desire & Commit To Paying It by Johnny B. Truant
Half An Ass Does You No Good by Emma Burcart
If you love history of Scotland, this post by Emmie Mears is for you:
Who’s different, Rob Roy’s wife Mary, William Wallace’s wife Murron or Merida from Pixar’s Brave?
Fun Stuff
Nebula Awards Winners (tor.com) – Aka the Best of Fantasy This Year (you can read the short stories awarded through the links)
Romantic Comedy Movie Generator by Fabio Bueno
The Brain Of The Beginning Blogger (Infographic)
How To See What a Blog Is About At Glance by Lynn Viehl
Eau d’Olde Book (a fascinating video) by Lynn Viehl
What If Famous Authors Had Written Advertising Slogans by Lynn Viehl
Would you be surprised by this loo? (Huffington Post)
Link Feast Vol. 7
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.
On Writing
In the beginning: How to draw the reader in by Susan Bearman at Write It Sideways
How to make your writing stronger by mixing hard and soft words by Roy Peter Clark
Using Style Sheets for consistency by Carol Riggs
Plot Fixer – Part 2: How to fix a weak opening by Kara Lennox
7 Tools For Pacing Your Novel (Writer’s Digest)
Creating Memorable Dialogue by Patrick Kirkland at Script Lab
Creative ways to kill a character (Writer’s Digest)
10 Fantasy Cliches That Should Be Put To Rest (Fantasy Fiction)
4 Biggest Mistakes at Writing Contest Entries by Jennifer Crusie
How to avoid/keep at bay repetitive strain injury by Roz Morris (your body is your most important tool, take care of it)
Beating the 3 Ps That Lead To No Writing by Pia Newman
How to find your daily writing motivation by James Chartrand of Men with Pens
Fear Is The Writer’s Worst Enemy by Bob Mayer
5 Things Before You Quit The Day Job by C.J. Lyons
Randy Ingermanson’s Ezine (PDF)
Formatting Your Manuscript Like a Pro | More Magic in The Hunger Games | What To Do With Your Horrible Reviews.
How technology has transformed short fiction by Charlie Jane Anders at io9.com
Writing Short Stories by Liv Rancourt
Tips for creating a series character by Alan Rinzler
How do you know when your book is good enough to publish? by Talli Roland
Your Author Platform
How to discover and build your author brand by Joanna Penn
Elements of a Succesful Author Platform by Christina Katz (Writer’s Digest)
The YA genre is killing itself by trying to create marketable books
How to create Reader Profiles to inspire and inform your blogging by Darren Rowse at ProBlogger
Author Blogging 101: How to listen what your audience really wants
Blogging bling and tips on blogging by Jen Talty
19 ways to build connections with blog comments by Marcus Sheridan at Social Media Examiner
15 Tips for Guest Bloggers by Anne R. Allen
How to feature on the most influential websites of the world by Joanna Penn
How much should writer’s charge for their work? by Jenny Hansen
Social Media
9 ways to use social media to launch a book by Michael Stelzner at Social Media Examiner
The danger of authors being too cliquey on Twitter by Roni Loren
How to promote your writing on Pinterest by Chris Robley at BookBaby
YA Authors on Pinterest by Kirsten Hubbard (see what other writers are doing with their boards)
Collected Wisdom
Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp (May 5th)
Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig (May 6th)
Writing on the Ether by Porter Anderson (May 3rd)
Top Picks by Kerry Gans at Author Chronicles (May 3rd)
How to write fight scenes – Delicious links by Linda Adams
Deep Stuff
Your Clutter Is Killing Your Creativity by Jeff Goins
Four Most Powerful Types of Creative Thinking by Mark MacGuinness
When bad things happen to good people by Ginger Calem
Happiness Is by Melinda van Lone
How do you define success? by Louise Behiel
Is This Really What You Want? (Life Changing Moments Series) by Jeannine Bergers Everett
If Twilight and Fifty Shades are wish fullfilment by Kait Nolan
Fun Stuff
Hatch’s Plot Bank – funny plot ideas for writers
Internet Writing Workshop’s Archive of Writing Excercises
Avengers Review by Script Lab (warning: contains serious spoilers)
World Tour of Wonderment: Philippines – Part 1 (Fantasy Faction)
World Tour of Wonderment: Philippines – Part 2 (Fantasy Faction)
May releases in Urban Fantasy (tor.com)
May releases in Fantasy (tor.com)
What happens in the outhouse doesn’t always stay in the outhouse by Coleen Patrick
Humor mashup by K.B. Owen
Potty humor & Our Military by Jenny Hansen
Goblins – A webcomic where the monsters are the protagonits. Tickles the funny bone of D&D fans.
Link Feast vol. 6
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.
On Writing
Better writing through pressure by Lara Schiffbauer
How to make your book pop out from the sea of same by P.W. Creighton (btw, notice how every picture in this blog has the same misty look than the blog’s background)
Book review of John Truby’s Anatomy Of A Story by Jennifer Jensen
Wonders happen in the writing world too. How Jennifer Jensen’s writer’s blog got her an agent.
How to create a remarkable writing voice by Les Edgerton
Elements of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Act One by Alexandra Sokololoff
Are you a craft junkie? by Jillian Kent
Man against nature – how to make it work by Kristen Lamb
What parts of your life are not homogenized, pasteurized, FDA-approved, plastic-wrapped, unscented, tasteless, pablum? by Holly Lisle
Escalate the scale of your story by Donald Maass
Why you should be writing short stories by Anne R. Allen
10 ways to spark creative connections by Cheryl Reif
25 realizations writers need to have by Chuck Wendig
Your Author Platform
What should you blog about? by Anne R. Allen (from February but one of the most helpful blogs about the topic that I have seen)
8 ways to build a loyal readership for your blog by Judy Dunn
Killer Flagship Content by Chris Garret (free 17 page PDF book)
Quote: “What we really want is
one trusted resource
that fully answers the question,
in a language we can understand,
in a place we can easily find”
And I would add to that: in a site that looks good. That means both the website design and the structure of the blog post (grammar, subtitles, having white space, great pictures etc.)
So, what questions are your blog posts answering (and asking)?
279 days to overnight success – An unconventional journey to full time writing
A free 79 page PDF book by a blogging guru Chris Guillebeau
1000 days after overnight success by Chris Guillebeau
How to profit from your creative work, not by teaching ‘how to’ by Chris Garrett
Has social media handicapped our social skills? by Bri Clark
Author Branding Plan: The Icon by Jen Talty
How to build a reputation by C.J. Lyons
Ruth Harris Reports: Covers & Cover designers (part 1)
Book Marketing: Why I gave up trying to build a huge Social Media following by J. Steve Miller
Social Media
How to become a Twitter Ninja by Michael Hyatt
Twitter chat tips for introverts by Judy Dunn
5 ways to enchance your Facebook timeline with images
The Power of Photos: How to get more traffic from Pinterest by Judy Dunn
Tumblr tips for writers (check out best selling YA writer Cassandra Clare’s Tumblr blog to see someone acing it)
Collected Wisdom
Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp (April 28th)
Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig (April 29th)
Writing on the Ether by Porter Anderson (April 26th)
Fill me in Friday by Roni Loren (April 27th)
Deep Stuff
The greatest girl characters in literature by Mari Ness at tor.com
Everybody’s a Bitch by Emma Burcart
Catie Rhodes gets nostalgic and gives us a glimpse on how life was like in 40s and 60s – and now.
Fun Stuff
10 bestselling authors of all times (can you guess who they are?)
Jenny Hansen has gathered fun random facts about women
Everything I need to know about Sci-fi, I learned from Star Trek by Piper Bayard
Neologistically speaking by Julie Glover (have you ever heard these words before?)
And oldie but goodie by CC MacKenzie: What if Bill Gates built a car & Ford’s response
K.B. Owen’s hilarious post about raccoons
Boyfriend of the week: Paul Wesley by Roni Loren
Best American Idol performances ever by Roni Loren (with videos!)
Spoiler free Avengers movie review
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog by Joss Whedon (YouTube video)
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