Here is a list of 10 sites and blog posts I favored over the past couple of months on Twitter. I wanted to share them with my fellow writers and authors:
2) @straynotes twittered about My Writing Nook, a new Google app for iPhone for writers. You can now write anywhere with having the other things writers crave such as a dictionary and thesaurus.
3) @DebraMars posted a tweet about a Q &A about what a MFA is…Master of Fine Arts and how it can help a writer. This post was via @writersdigest written by Brian A. Klems. One thing he mentions is the access to resources you gain by having a MFA, some you may not be able to receive without.
4)@alexisgrant retweeted @mariaschneider 5 Questions to Ask before you Write for Free To me, the big point Maria makes here is that “making a name for yourself online is a whole different game than the print world I came from”. She goes onto mention that one single post on a high profile blog can bring in thousands of new readers to your writing.
5) @Stephenbright posted a tweet about his friend Cindy’s new site called, Write Live. It is a new interactive way for writers to share your writing and passions.
7)@onlinewriters tweeted about their organization for Online Writers. A social networking site for, you guessed it, online writers. Even though it is fairly new, it is a place for online writers to come together and support each other.
8)@aswinn – Author Allison Scotch Winn wrote a blog post about Should you accept a low advance? . The one point I liked that she made was, Be proud of yourself because you got an offer. Some writers go for years and years without ANY offer. Also, know what your expectations are as a writer/author. This will help when the offers do come in.
9)@elizabethscraig chimes in about an editor who weighs in on what “well-written” means at Mysterious Matters. The editor writes about these elements:
a) properly spelled, grammatically correct, punctuation in the right place.
b) Good variety in sentence and paragraph structure
c) Simple and effective descriptions
d) sentences that stop you cold (this is a blog for mystery writers/authors)
e) good dialogue in the right places
f) a sense of control
g) an awareness of novel as story
h) a sense that the author is someone I would like to meet
First, let me start out with a link from a link. Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound, posted a link to The Daily ‘Dog article about how to submit material to the editors at The Family Circle magazine. Great insight and information. The one I really enjoyed was sticking to one form of communication. For instance, if you choose to email a query, don’t then call the editor asking if they have received your email. If you want to follow up, you follow up by email.
Next, I found a new organization online for writers and editors called the National Association of Independent Writers and Editors. You can join and receive some benefits such as:
You can receive your own NAIWE based website to showcase your work.
Get listed in the “find a writer/find an editor” database.
Receive legal information and responses on a individual basis for industry specific questions.
Discount on technical support services for one of your most valuable assets, your computer.
Opportunity to network with fellow NAIWE members.
And there are more benefits for only $149 per year to join.
Another interesting post came from Twitter from ASBPE (American Socity of Business Publication Editors) where Matt Bolch wrote an article titled, “Levering your Freelance Stuff”. I enjoyed this article because it started off by discussing the importance of establishing relationships between editors and freelancers. He gives some advice on how to get more out of a freelancer (not about money, but more concise work) and how to encourage a freelancer.
Then I would like to introduce you to a fellow twitterer I am now following, @10 Minute Writer (aka Katharine Grubb) who wrote a post called Canoeing Down the Illinois River: A Tribute. Katharine talks about how canoeing allowed her to enjoy a childhood memory and write about it (her passion). This then inspired me to write about how her story reminded me of a childhood memory and thus I wrote about it too.
I would like to end by sharing with you some work from one of my online friends, Sheila Finkelstein. Sheila is a wonderful person who is a gifted writer, photographer and artist.
Thank you for visiting my blog and sharing with me these websites and blogs. I hope you have a great weekend!
This week the list is focusing alot on not being afraid to write and how just taking the time to write will help you grow as a writer.
I will start off with Julie Roads of Writing Roads with her tweet about Copyblogger’s post on How to Get Copywriters to Mentor you for Free. I will say at first when I started reading his first paragragh about if you want mentoring to learn do write with great prose but you don’t have the money….”get into their heads”. However, knowing Copyblogger is one of the most predominant sites on copywriting and blogging, I figured there was more to this bit of a sentence and I kept reading.
And I received some great pointers:
1) Read and learn. Be the shadow of those who write well and take notes of the words they use. Of course not word for word, but study how they choose the words and how they structure words.
2) Take the time to physically write these lessons down. By taking the deliberate action of writing these lessons down, you can retain the value much better. 3) Growth will occur by writing down and studying how others write because it challenges your memory muscle.
And Dave offers a challenge in this post to writers—-check it out!
Then I noticed this tweet by Cathy Bryant on writing character emotion on April 10th. Now, when I clicked on the link to this post, I was taken to the most current post of today, which was an interview with Cheryl Wyatt. I was thinking this was the post for the writing character emotion so I started reading it…great interview and Cathy asks some great questions about writing. Then I went to the post about writing character emotions on April 10th and it is another great post where she creates a discussion around the emotion of anger and shares her answers with you.
Through my google reader, I found this post by Rebecca Benston of Benston Blogs about The Best Advice I ever GotRebecca discusses how in the book, The Right to Write, is explains sometimes just by putting your emotions or experiences in written form helps with your writing. At least you are doing the physical task of writing something and not stopping yourself by listening to your inner voice say, “why are you writing that down, no one cares about how you got angry at the guy who cut in front of you at the grocery store.” For me, I wrote down when I took my daughter to the doctor and what she was doing while we were waiting. It helped me think about describing things using my senses at the time–what I saw, heard, smelled felt.
Next, just found this one on Twitter—from @travellinda. A forum for women writers called SheWrites. A newly created ning group for women writers to gather and support each other.
Take a few moments (well it will probably take you about 45min to an hour) to read these posts below that I found this week via Twitter, Facebook and or Google Alerts.
Now, here is an “oldie” (from April 2008) but a goodie for writers—what NOT to do when pitching a story to Mashable. For those who may not know, Mashable is one of the highest blogged, rss feed, twittered social media sites on the internet. So if you are a writer and wish to write for them–be sure to read this!
Last and fabulously last….one of the best lists I have seen for the publishing, writing, reading industry on the web. tweeted by Book Gal Penny S.
Oooo-one more. Just found this one. Great post as a reminder regarding networking for writers and authors at conferences and conventions. JA Konrath, author of several books and short stories wrote a post called Con Etiquette.