Here you will find a selection of the best of the blogsphere from the past week. Starting this week you’ll find a NaNoPrep section about halfway down. Grab your coffee, straighten the glasses or spritz those contacts and above all – enjoy!
Inform & Inspire
Steven Pressfield: Resistance and Self-Loathing. “Hang on while I make the case that self-loathing is a good thing. I don’t mean only within the comedic-material sphere, within which self-loathing has been mined for years by Woody Allen, Howard Stern, Richard Lewis, and the godfather of them all, Philip Roth in Portnoy’s Complaint.”
Writing
Anne R. Allen: Sex Sells, Right? Maybe Not. Why you Might Want to Rethink those Steamy Scenes in Your Novel. “When my publisher asked me to remove the explicit sex scenes from my upcoming novel, The Lady of the Lakewood Diner I thought he was nuts. Sex sells, doesn’t it? Maybe not so much anymore. That screeching sound you hear is the abrupt U-turn the publishing industry is taking away from erotic material. A number of factors have contributed to the change…”
Jami Gold: Does Your Writing Have Rhythm? “We’re probably all familiar with the idea that poetry, music, and song lyrics can have rhythm. But prose writing—our normal, everyday writing with sentences and paragraphs rather than lines, stanzas, and verses—can have a rhythm too.”
Darcy Pattison: Point of View: Techniques for Getting Inside a Character’s Head. “A story’s point-of-view is crucial to the success of a story or novel. But POV is one of the most complicated and difficult of creative writing skills to master. Part of the problem is that POV can refer to four different things, says David Jauss, professor at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, in his book, On Writing Fiction: Rethinking Conventional Wisdom About Craft.”
Marcy Kennedy: 7 Ways to Develop Your Voice. “A distinct voice seems to be the thing that everyone wants but no one can tell you how to get. And I have to admit this annoys me. I’m a very practical person. If you can clearly tell me how to do something, I’ll get it done for you. If it’s ooey gooey and you tell me “it just has to develop over time,” I’m going to be cheesed. I’m also going to set out to figure out how to do whatever you’ve just told me can’t be taught and has to develop organically.”
Kimberly Brock: Look Away, Away – Creating Unforgettable Settings. “I think writers of any ilk can benefit from a healthy appreciation of setting, but regional – particularly southern writers – are haunted by our connection to, love of, loss of, and clawing crawling, desperate journey back to – the land.”
Writer Support
Kristen Lamb: Author Success—The Laws of Sowing & Reaping. “Life has many irrefutable truths. One? We get out of life what we put into it. We will get out of our writing what we invest. We cannot expect large returns from a social media platform if we rely on robots (automation) and connect randomly and half-heartedly. Social media is about relationships and being fair-weather friends has limited effectiveness.”
Jeff Goins: You Don’t Need to Become a Better Writer. “Every day, I get a message from a writer who wants to be “better.” They want advice on how to improve their craft or what it takes to get an agent or how to break through their creative blocks. But often what they really want is affirmation that they’re good enough. And they’re missing the point.”
Ava Jae: Scrivener’s Version of Track Changes. “Remember that time I said that I didn’t know if Scrivener had a track changes feature, but I suspected it probably did and I hadn’t found it yet and my Scrivener n00bness was showing? Well, I was right—Scrivener does have a track changes feature. Or at least, it has it’s own version of it, and I happen to have fallen in love with it.”
Phi Tran: Adult Swim App Seeking Funny Writers for User-Submitted Bumps. “The funny guys at Adult Swim are asking for your help with with creating their iconic, 15 second Bumps which airs on the evening television program from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. (ET/PT). The app brings the user-submitted Bump builder to smartphones…”
NaNoWriMo
Grant Faulkner: Five Tips for NaNoWriMo: Week One. “Studies to discover the key ingredients of NaNoWriMo success have been conducted by data scientists, wizards, alchemists, two plumbers from just outside of Cleveland, one rodeo rider, and a winemaker from Tours, France. In our endless search to find the recipe for success, we’ve concluded that because everyone is different, there is no one formula to cross the finish line. The main thing is to keep trying new approaches, so here’s the magic NaNo recipe that works for me.”
Alexandra Sokoloff: Ready, set, Nano!! “Well, the point of Nano is to write so fast that you – sometimes – forget that your hands are dripping blood. It’s a stellar way of turning off your censor (we all have one of those little suckers) and just get those pages out. I’ll be posting Nano prompts throughout the month, but here’s a list of helpful hints if you find yourself stuck.”
Bob Mayer: The Kernal Idea: The Alpha and Omega of Your Book. “You have to start somewhere. Have you ever listened to a writer who just recently started a new project? They are practically jumping out of their pants with excitement. Their eyes light up and oddly enough, they break out of that introverted shell and start babbling away about their latest novel. This is at the core of the Kernel Idea.” Also from Bob: Conflict the Fuel of your Story.
Marcia Richards: 6 Things I’ve Learned From My First 6 Days Of NaNo. “In my first 6 days, I’ve learned a few other things that might help you: whether you’ve begun NaNo or not, whether you’re a first-timer or not whether you’re participating in NaNo or just slogging through your work in progress on your own schedule.”
Publishing
Kristine Kathryn Rusch: The Business Rusch: Reality Check. “Writers are writers are writers, and the one thing we do really, really well is make stuff up. For some reason, writers believe that if they finish something, it should not only sell but sell millions of copies. Musicians aren’t that delusional. Just because they learn a piece of music doesn’t mean they can play it well. Just because they’ve managed to give a concert doesn’t mean the audience enjoyed said concert—or even showed up to hear it.”
Phi Tran: Five Free eBook Templates from HubSpot. “Publishing your own eBooks can be a daunting task – especially if you don’t have layout ideas or know enough design software. To help you publish your eBook on a budget, we’re sharing this useful set of five basic eBook templates from the advertising gurus at Hubspot.”
Marketing
Joanna Penn: Book Distribution: How To Make The Most Of Direct Sales. “No-one else cares about your books as much as you do, and they never will. It’s well known in the content marketing world that you shouldn’t rely on a third party platform for your long term marketing success – it’s known as ‘digital sharecropping‘. Facebook might disappear, free blogging platforms can shut you down, and that’s why I am always talking about setting up an email list on your own self-hosted site.”
Dan Blank: Hoping to Grow Your Audience? Focus on Narratives. “If you are a writer or creative professional, narratives matter when you consider developing an audience. For many people: narratives are our we define ourselves, it is how we filter the world, it is how we search for meaning. Narratives are the stories we tell ourselves. Two key aspects to consider…”
Social Media
Jeff Goins: 3 Steps to Building a Killer Tribe. “We’ve talked before about why you need to find your tribe — a unique group of fans, friends, and followers who resonate with your worldview. This can be done through a blog, radio program, or speaking platform. But really, the medium is irrelevant; what matters most is the trust you establish with people. The hard part isn’t defining the message; it’s creating a community that wants to hear from you.”
Christine Tyler: Building Your Community With Youtube. “Creating Youtube videos is one of the most effective ways for a writer to enhance his or her community. First, we’re going to look at what groups make up our writing community, what we give them, what we gain from them, and most importantly, what we should not expect to get from them. Then, we’ll look at how Youtube benefits every group individually.”
Joel Friedlander: How to Build an Awesome and Relevant Twitter Following in 6 Minutes a Day. “If you’re like lots of other authors, you might feel a bit conflicted about Twitter. On one hand, you know that Twitter has become something more than just another social media network. It has started to function as the information network of choice for millions of people around the world.“
Gene Lempp ~ Writer 
Coming to your Writing Resources party is like going to a Chinese Buffet. I’ll take one of everything, please! Thanks for putting my post on the menu, Gene!
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