Muse, Rant, Rave: This Week in Favs......

On the MP3 Player: Seven Nation Army (The Glitch Mob Remix) by The White Stripes. <-- Lurve this song!!

Ah, the first Friday round-up post of the 2012. Know what that means? A lot goal setting, new ideas, and fresh perspectives on old writing tricks! ;)

Needless to say, I am very excited about this week’s round-up ‘cause I’ve found a lot of really great posts from this week, and because not all of them can make the Top Ten, I have created a space below the regular round-up for Honorable Mentions.

Happy Reading!

10) “Kindly, Kindly Look Toward the New Year” by Barbara O’Neal on Writer Unboxed. What’s better than New Year’s Resolutions and Goals? Three simple pieces of writing suggestions to start you off into the new year with a fresh relationship with your writing. What can you do to obtain that new relationship? Open your mind a little, click on the link for this article and absorb the simple yet awesome advice Barbara unleashes there. PS: My favorite is the first suggestion: show up!

9) “Authors Interacting with Readers Online – More Controversial Than I Thought” by Roni Loren on her writing blog, Fiction Groupie. Do you think it’s okay for an author to say thank you in response to a reader’s review? Roni has made some very good points in this post about what effects an action such as this (and others) can have on a book review forum. I had never realized until this article that the possibility of turning off your readership by responding to their comments and/or reviews could actually hurt you in the long run. Maybe I didn’t realize this because as a writer and a reader, I welcome comments and exchanges with the authors of my favorite books. This is exactly why this particular post is a must read for all writers. Oh, and while you’re out on the web today don’t forget to order your copy of her book, Crash Into Me, that was released this past Tuesday. *smiles*

8) “A Peek Into J.K. Rowling’s Writing Process in Her Own Words, Part 1 and Part 2”, guest post by Shelley Souza on Harry Potter for Writers. In true J.K. fashion, thses post has left pretty much no stone unturned when it comes to the genius author’s writing process. While I’ve read plenty of articles here and there on JKR, I’ve never actually pulled it all together and compiled it into one place like this. The best part is that Shelley has pulled the ‘writerly’ clips from those interviews and arranged them in such a cohesive manner that every writer should print this out right now and post it on their Wall-O-Writing. After re-reading JKR’s words, most I had read before and some very new to me, I can’t help but sit back and say, once again, “Incredible!” Here’s yet another must read for every writer out there.

7) “25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing” by Chuck Wendig on TerribleMinds. Yet another genius post and awesome 2012 writing advice that every writer should read and take to heart: what you should STOP doing right NOW! As I’ve said before I really enjoy reading Chuck’s posts, but this one truly did hit a sore spot with me this week. Maybe it’s because I sat back like the rest of us and thought about my writing process and what I should start and stop doing, or maybe it’s because I feel like he’s talking – er yelling – directly at me on some of these points? I dunno, but please get over there and check out this one out. You will not regret it!!

6) “Writing Lessons Learned from THE HELP” by Julie Musil. I’ll be the first to admit that I make up the – oh say, 10%? – that hasn’t read this book, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t valuable writing lessons that you can take away from this article (And it may help to know these points before going into the novel so you can be on the lookout for them). Julie’s found some ‘writing diamonds’ within this novel and once again, she is sharing the wealth of knowledge with everyone else. Go check it out!

5) “The Road to Success Part One – What King of Author are You?” by Kristin Lamb on her blog, Warrior Writers. In this first part of Kristen’s series, she addresses how we can make the most of our time on social media so we can spend more time writing. What’s more important than that? Nothing. This is one of the reasons why I’ve been fairly absent on Twitter and Facebook lately, so I really enjoyed pulling these nuggets of greatness out of Kristen’s post to help with something that’s going to be vital when it comes to time to actually sell the books that I’m spilling my guts into. Go over there and pull some out for yourself, you’ll definitely learn a little something that will take you a very long way!

4) “Back to Basics: Every Scene Must Have Conflict” by Lydia Sharp on The Sharp Angle. Live it, learn it, love it! I absolutely cannot resist sharing a post where a fav writer/blogger takes a ‘basics of writing’ point and adds their own spin that makes you feel as though you’re learning that skill for the first time. Lydia always does such a wonderful on posts such as this, so this was definitely a must share for me to all of you…and it has been printed and added to the ‘Book of Writing Tips.’

3) “Every Writer (Should Be) a Sadist” by Ava Jae on Writability. Hehe! *evil grin* Is it bad that I do that every time I read the title of this post?!? Nah. One of the best parts of being writer is being in control and having the ability to throw the most impossible situations at your characters. Ava even provided one of the best possible examples to prove this point: Harry Potter. Go over there and take that example and learn (or be reminded of) how to be a bit of a sadist when it comes to your characters.

2) “Pitch Prep: How to Write a Pitch” and “Pitch Prep: What Makes a Great First Page” by Jami Gold. In the first post Jami addresses one topic: writing a pitch. However, she not only tells you how to do this, she gives multiple strategies in which to tackle this small amount of writing that seems to scare a few writers’ socks off from time to time. This particular post should now be the #1 post on where to go if you need information on how to work up a pitch, and I think it comes as no surprise that Jami was the master mind behind it. In the second post, Jami takes a look at what you can with your first page that will keep the reader interested in your story by taking a look at what works at pulling the reader in. In the comments section, she has even opened it up to those participating in the pitch sessions to post their first 100 words (to be included with their pitch) for critiquing. With her Pitch Your Shorts pitch session coming to her blog on January 10^th, Jami has done the leg hours (hours of it, I might add) and helped her followers to make their pitches and first pages the best they can possibly be. Now I’m just worried for the editors of Entangled Publishing. With as many great pitches and openings as I think there will be, they have seriously got their work cut out for them! Go over there and thoroughly read these posts, print them out and put them away for safekeeping – you never know when you’re going to need those pitching skills in the future!

1) “What’s Your Value?” by Scott Nicholson on The Writer’s Guide to E-Publishing. And here we have struck a bit of gold in writing motivation: taking a look at what your value is and what you can bring to the table for your readers. I truly loved this post, and especially loved a few lines in particular: “The reader makes sense of the story. The reader works much, much harder than the writer. The reader is the most previous part of the telepathic creation of imagination.” Wow! Never thought of it that way! But still, I think all of us writers have actually been writing for this purpose to begin with, Scott just found a new and fairly powerful way of getting it into our heads deeper than it’s ever been.

Honorable Mentions to Also Check Out: