Writing Advice of the Week

Reading Time: 13 minutes Sure we have innate storytelling skills, but if we’re not using those skills regularly, they get rusty. And rusty storytelling skills make for a clunker of a story. So, how can we pull those dormant storytelling skills to the surfaces of our overstimulated brains and make good use of them?

Reading Time: 12 minutes If the story is important enough to start writing, it’s likely to be important enough to finish writing… and more than 100 brand-new writing advice links from around the web.

Reading Time: 12 minutes Committing yourself to your writing, no matter what form that commitment takes, is a big part of successful writing. Plus: Over 100 all-new links to writing advice articles, videos, and podcasts!

Reading Time: 9 minutes Working hard is part of any success journey and continuing to push forward is key. Plus: 100 brand-new links to the best writing advice from around the Web.

Reading Time: 7 minutes Writing a book allows you to have a conversation with a reader you’ll never meet. So, what do you want to say? Plus: 75 all-new links to writing advice from around the Web.

Reading Time: 12 minutes I ask authors to let their imperfect scenes and chapters lie, especially until the rest of the story is on paper. And 100-plus links to best writing advice, videos and podcasts from around the web!

Reading Time: 12 minutes The writerly life isn’t as perfect as some would have you believe. Writing takes hard work, but you don’t need to burn out to put out.

Reading Time: 12 minutes When writing, it’s easy to isolate and disconnect from the passion the work used to bring. Plus: over 100 brand-new advice feeds from around the web!

Reading Time: 11 minutes When you write your first draft, you’re telling yourself the story, as you need to hear it, to make the best sense of it. That first draft is typically when you learn about your main character’s goals and motivations, the barriers or villains that hinder their success, and what the ultimate stakes are if they don’t succeed. You also meet the rest of the cast and get to know them, understand them, see them moving about in your story world. But when you tell your story to your reader, you begin to uncover what the reader needs.

Reading Time: 9 minutes During February, making time to write can feel extra difficult. Prioritizing your writing, getting the right pieces in the right places, and speaking to your readers are the goals.

Reading Time: 10 minutes Regardless of industry metrics and analytics, regardless whether you’re established or debuting, through thick and thin, writers write. And in this bizarre, yet hopeful, publishing landscape, writers create their own success.

Reading Time: 9 minutes Writing and storytelling are skills anyone can learn with a little practice, the right mindset, and a bit of help. And rejection isn’t the end of your literary road as long as you keep driving ahead. That’s because rejection is a powerful tool for growth — if you let it be one.

Reading Time: 11 minutes So, you’re sitting down at your computer or you’ve grabbed your notebook, and you’re determined to write. I’ll just check socials for a minute, you think. It won’t take long. Then a minute goes by. Five minutes. Ten. An hour. And that quick socials check turns into a rabbit hole of unproductivity such that you

Reading Time: 11 minutes In the digital age where authenticity reigns supreme, character transformation is a major tool for bridging the gap and creating an immersive, emotionally intelligent connection between character and reader. And at the heart of your character’s transformation is their character.

Reading Time: 11 minutes When writing your book, it’s easy to get bogged down by craft and stylistic advice, storytelling methods, and research on genre conventions, structural maps, reader trends, and more. But if you’re writing a book, especially if this is your first book, it may be best to put away the advice while you’re getting that first draft down on paper.

Reading Time: 10 minutes How to make New Year resolutions — and more than 100 links to writing advice articles, podcasts and videos from around the web.

Reading Time: 8 minutes If you find your book vision is more of a hazy, amorphous blob than a fully thought out story, it may be time to get back to basics to find gaps to fill.

Reading Time: 11 minutes This time of year, it’s easy to become overwhelmed and overloaded. For all the “most wonderful time” soundbites, it’s often the most stressful time of year for many. Get insight into how skill-stacking and focus can help you maintain your progress through the holidays and beyond.

Reading Time: 9 minutes Focusing all your energy on what the reader wants or needs is exhausting. And while you’re writing, it’s often not worth the effort. You simply cannot know exactly how another person will perceive your story. But there’s one thing you can know with absolute certainty: Do you, author, like your book?

Reading Time: 9 minutes If December brings about reflection in you, you, too, may be undergoing profound change as you decide what you want out of your life and how best to go ahead and get it. While undergoing fundamental changes in who we are is a part of many creative professional pursuits, the change process itself can come with its own set of gifts to help us get through the tumult of change.

Reading Time: 9 minutes An ambition to write or edit a book without clear and quantifiable goals and a path to achieve those goals — whatever that looks like for each of us — is just a wish. And wishes don’t write drafts. Getting back on track doesn’t need to come with a headache, though.

Reading Time: 8 minutes If you find yourself spinning your writerly wheels without gaining traction, it may be time to step back from the project at hand. But this doesn’t mean you stop writing. Instead, it’s time to learn about storytelling, content structure, or other aspects of writing from life itself.

Reading Time: 7 minutes We’re just over halfway through National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and if you’re anything like the authors with whom I work, you may be hitting that mid-novel slump. And getting beyond the slump becomes the primary goal. So, how do you keep writing when the writing is hard?

Reading Time: 4 minutes One of the most common bits of advice given to authors is to humanize their characters. Give them flaws. Dreams. Fears. Desires. Yada, yada, yada. But if you’ve filled out character profile sheets, you know how little value this piece of advice actually provides.

Reading Time: 5 minutes We subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and gather the best posts for you every single Sunday. This week there’s plenty of advice about staying motivated through NaNoWriMo.

Reading Time: 3 minutes Whether it’s imposter syndrome that has you down, the stress of balancing writing against all the other things we do each day, feeling a lack of inspiration, or something else, I want to help you get out of your own way so you can complete your story and gain that coveted sense of achievement of having crossed off “write a book” from your bucket list.

Reading Time: 6 minutes We subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got 96 articles, podcasts and videos about motivation, writing, and business and marketing for authors.

Reading Time: 4 minutes Have you ever sat down with your computer or your notebook, fingers or pen poised at the ready as you set forth on your storytelling adventure, yet the words refused to flow?

Reading Time: 5 minutes We subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got 83 articles, podcasts and videos about motivation, writing, and business and marketing for authors.

Reading Time: 10 minutes National Novel Writing Month is just around the corner and many of us are ideating or planning for the big 50K. But if you find yourself doing anything at all except what you want to get done within the next week and a half, check out these articles about balancing priorities and meeting goals and pick up a few tips to get through writer’s block, too.

Reading Time: 11 minutes We subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, read about how to make your characters more human.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got lots of prep advice for NaNoWriMo, and how to sell books on your backlist — more than 100 brand-new links total.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got lots of advice about getting ready for NaNoWriMo.

Reading Time: 11 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got lots of advice about running Kickstarters and Amazon categories — as well as over 100 other articles, podcasts and videos about productivity, writing, and marketing.

Reading Time: 11 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got lots of advice about outlining and plotting.

Reading Time: 12 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got motivational advice, writing advice, marketing advice, and discussions of Amazon’s new AI policies.

Reading Time: 11 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. Lots of advice this week on honing character craft through impactful dialogue, emotionally resonant arcs, and complex relationships.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. We have 90 links this week, covering every topic imaginable, with quite a bit about AI.

Reading Time: 10 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. Lots of advice this week about AI.

Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. Today’s list has 73 articles, podcasts and videos that cover pretty much anything an author needs to know, from staying motivated, to creating scenes, to marketing books.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 180 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we’ve got advice about punctuating dialogue, writing scenes — and using AI for marketing and editing.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. We have 90 brand-new links this week to articles, videos and podcasts to help you be more motivated, more productive, and more successful.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. We have 86 links this week, covering every topic imaginable.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, we got an interview with Brandon Sanderson where he talks about the future of publishing — and what he thinks about AI.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best posts from this previous week for your edification. This week, lots of great tips for creating a writing habit, plus practical advice for using AI to help your marketing — and your writing.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 175 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, we’ve got some great videos from the 2023 AuthorTube Writing Conference.

Reading Time: 10 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, we’ve got all about deep point of view, the pros and cons of using ChatGPT as a writing coach, and more than 90 other advice articles.

Reading Time: 8 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, learn about impostor syndrome, self-kindness, and how to set better goals.

Reading Time: 9 minutes I subscribe to more than 170 writing advice sites and YouTube channels and lovingly pick the best advice from this past week for your edification. This week, more conversations about AI, but also the usual good advice about writing, publishing, and staying motivated.