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)

Link Feast Vol. 5

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.

(P.S. My apologies for missing the Friday and Monday posts. On Friday morning I headed to a fun weekend cruise and returned with a nasty tonsillitis. If the next time comes when I’m unable to write my own blog posts *knocks wood*, I’ll take Jenny Hansen’s advice on how to reblog.)

 

On Writing

Uber-Cool Unboring Writing by Margie Lawson

How to make character change believable by Kay Keppler

Force your characters to go against their principles by Lisa Hall-Wilson

Action scenes with female characters: We’re Not Men by Linda Adams

7 tips for increasing creativity by Marcy Kennedy

How to edit by Nathan Bransford

Nathan Bransford’s 10 commandments for editing someone else’s work (works for critiqueing too)

5 ways to make more time to read by Michael Hyatt

 

How To Be A Serial Writer

Why authors should write a series: lessons learned from Patricia Cornwell by Joanna Penn

How to develop an enduring series character by James Scott Bell

Going deeper with a series character by James Scott-Bell

Lee Child talks about his best selling Jack Reacher series

Does familiarity bring contempt or comfort? by Elizabeth S. Craig

Building series novels by Lynn Viehl, author of Darkyn series (and 46 books in total under various aliases)

Outlining novel series by Lynn Viehl

Series Separation Anxiety by Lynn Viehl (how readers react to series cancellation)

Best selling YA author Cassandra Clare shares the themes for each books of her series

How to write a rockin’ sequel by Laura Pauling (example used is YA novel from Hex Hall series by Rachel Hawkins)

Writing a series by Kara Lennox (her genre is romance so she talks about connected characters between books)

Challenges of writing series

Secondary characters who keep demanding their own book by Lynn Viehl

How to create a series bible by Nathan Bransford

How to sell a series to an agent by Rachelle Gardner

How To Write A Series – A course by Holly Lisle

I have taken this myself and highly recommend it. Feel free to ask more in the comments or how ever you prefer if you’d like to learn more 🙂

Holly says in her course pitch that there are 192 different kind of series. To clarify a little, the 192 kinds are variations of 4 different factors:

– How closely connected your books are to each others

– How big is your world

– Do events from one book affect the characters in the next/another book

– What kind of a character cast do you have (size and level of bullet proofness)

 

Your Author Platform

The one thing you should do to sell more books by Nick Thacker

How to help your favourite authors by Lindsay Buroker (and vice versa, you can ask others to help you in these ways)

Why should I read your blog? by Jeff Goins

Who is your ideal blog reader? by Annabel Candy

G is for Blogging Goals by Annabel Candy

Why Amazon tagging and liking are not enough by Ezra Barany

What Mascara, Thai Food & Julia Child can teach us about Social Media Success by Kristen Lamb

7 reasons why your posts aren’t getting retweeted by Pushing Social

Cover Art Tips by Gemma Halliday

The way an agent reads by Book Lit Agency

 

Social Media

22 ways you can make time for Twitter in everyday life

Reaching readers (not writers) in Twitter by the Chipper Muse

Be A Tweep, Not A Tool (on hashtags) by Kristen Lamb

Renée Pawlish’s mashup for book promotion in social media (Twitter, Triberr, Facebook & Google+)

 

Collected Wisdom

Blog Treasures by Gene Lempp (April 21st)

Twitterific by Elizabeth S. Craig (April 21st)

Writing on the Ether by Porter Anderson (April 19th)

 

Deep Stuff

The anti procrastination diet by Roni Loren

Organization for creative people by Lateral Action

Emily Asher-Perrin demonstrates how common the female back pose is in the pop culture (with lots of pictures)

Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED talk on nurturing creativity

 

Fun Stuff

If you haven’t yet seen Inkygirl’s aka Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s hilarious comics for writers, check them out.

Phrases we owe to Shakespeare

Boyfriend of the week: Vin Diesel by Roni Loren

 

Since I devoted so much link space to writing book series, I’d love to hear about your favourite series. What hooks you to it? Do you like it when the character changes and grows? Do you want just more of the same but with different trappings?