I subscribe to dozens of writing advice sites and new advice articles come into my news reader at a steady pace. You can see some of my favorites at my Writing Advice Sites resource page.
Here are the best writing advice posts from this previous week. Occasionally I include an RSS feed. To subscribe to an RSS feed, add the feed URL to your RSS reader app. The most popular is Feedly, which is the one that I use. It has a website and mobile apps, and it keeps track of which articles you’ve read, synched across all your devices.
You can see all the previous writing advice of the week posts here and subscribe to the RSS feed for this writing advice series here (direct Feedly signup link).
This week, I’ve decided to divide the list into three categories.
The first, for the beginning writer, is about getting the writing process down. Finding time to write, discovering your own writing rituals, learning how to overcome your inner critics, fighting writer’s block, and how to finish what you start. Experienced writers sometimes hit these speedbumps as well, but they can kill a career for a new writer before it even starts.
Second, for the writer who’s already started getting the hang of the mechanics of getting the words down on paper, is improving the quality of the writing. Of course, you can’t improve writing if you don’t have any to improve, so the previous step is critical. But once you’re getting words down, you can start asking yourself if they’re the right words, or maybe you can find better words. And you can even start thinking about sentences, paragraphs, scenes, chapters, plots, character arcs — all that stuff that goes into writing readable work. And even experienced writers probably have areas where they can improve, or new things to learn.
Finally, for the writer who’s finished stories or books that are ready for the public, there’s the question of finding your publishing platform, producing the actual book, finding copyeditors and cover artists, marketing, and advertising. For beginning writers these are mostly theoretical questions, but for experienced writers, they are critical for success. And the answers keep changing as the industry changes, so staying on top of things is critical.
So here we go.
Productivity, mood management, and battling the demons inside
- Is the key to creativity “unlearning”? by Scott Myers
- 6 Habits to Boost Creativity When Writing by Nicholas Rubright
- How I Learned that Finishing the Book is its Own Accomplishment by Kari S. Rogerson
- Unlearning the Sunk Cost Fallacy, in Writing and in Love by Hazel Hayes
- Double Down on your Writing Goals, a Worry-Free Approach by Kris Maze
- Your Best Writing is Lonely Writing by C. Hope Clark
- Think Concepts by Scott Myers
- Making Time to Write by Brenda Wilson
- How you can use learned HOPEFULNESS for your writing by Daphne Gray-Grant
- Five Tips for Finishing Your Novel by Joni Di Placido
- Why Everyone Should Do a NaNoWriMo by Nick Coveney
- Staying Positive by Setting Reachable and Reasonable Goals by Elle E. Ire
- Find Your Writer’s Voice by Scott Myers
- How to Stop Being an Impatient Writer by Marilyn L. Davis
- How to Prevent Writer’s Block Before You Start Writing by Chelsea Terry
- How I Found a Writing Cohort Without an MFA by Veronica Klash
- Five Ways to Resist the Inexorable Forces Pulling You from Your Writing by Sarah Van Arsdale
- Go Ahead and Write That Book, but What’s Your System? by Lawrence Matthews
- The Incurable Disease of Writing by Scott Myers
- Learn the Craft by Scott Myers
- 3 Sins Beginning Writers Must Avoid — Or Not? by Peter Rey
The art and craft of writing
- 7 Do’s and Don’ts for Natural Dialogue by Christina Lee
- Creating Characters Using Collaborative Storytelling collaborative storytelling by Kris Hill
- Useful Tips for Self-Editing a Manuscript by Emily Nemchick
- Internal Conflict: Connecting With Your Characters by Avery Nicole
- The 5 Types of Lines We Use to Craft Stories (and How to Use Them to Reveal Character) by September C. Fawkes
- 6 Questions to Help You Avoid Repetitive Scenes by K.M. Weiland
- 4 Tips to Writing Expanding a Novel into a Series by Vivek Hariharan
- Should My Side Characters Stick Around? by Oren Ashkenazi
- What Are Pinch Points and Where Do They Go? by Sue Coletta
- How Should You Name Your Characters? by Alison Stine
- The Importance of Subplots by Scott Myers
- Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Create an argument by Scott Myers
- Writing Good Gore by Peter Derk
- The 7 Best Writing Apps by Jackie Pearce
- Follow the White Rabbit: A Pantser’s Tale by Patricia A. Jackson
- How to Write a Cli-Fi Novel by Alison Stine
- A Case for WAS: The Much-Maligned Passive Voice by Kathleen Baldwin
- Five Important Ways Episodic Stories Are Different by Chris Winkle
- How Horror Can Improve Our Writing in ANY Genre by Kristen Lamb
- 5 Ways Trauma Makes Your Character an Unreliable Narrator by Lisa Hall-Wilson
The business side of writing
- 9 Self-Published Authors Who Made It Big by Sarah Rexford
- The Ultimate Guide to Pitching for Independent Authors by ALLi Editorial
- Do you know your competition by W. Terry Whalin
- The Easy Part about Queries (And the Hard Part) by Al Pessin
- Make that Email Worth Their Time and Energy by Penny C. Sansevieri
- The Anthology Odyssey: Should You Join The Bandwagon? by Rod Martinez
- 5 Strategies for Getting Early Feedback on Your Book Idea or Manuscript by Nina Amir
- How to Publish a Book with Lulu Book Publishing by Clayton Noblit
- On Learning to Let Go in the Publishing Process by Christopher Parker
- Book Contracts: Let’s Talk Rights by Kate McKean
- Keeping the Perspective: Marketing Versus Writing by Cynthia Hilston
- 17 Pros and Cons of Traditional Publishing vs. Self-Publishing by Rick Lauber
- 5 Tips for Scoring More Book Reviews by Veronica Mixon
- The best ways to get author and book publicity by Sandra Beckwith
- 11 Good Author Bio Examples by Bryn Donovan
- How to Publish a Book with IngramSpark Publishing by Clayton Noblit
- How to Market Your Book with Reviews to Get Stronger Engagement by Penny Sansevieri
- How a Proposal Guides Your Book by Jessica Faust
- Four Big Ways To Fail At Publishing Your Book by Cate Baum
- Halloween Is All About Fear. Turns Out, so Is Publishing by Heather Webb
- How to Tell If You’ve Found the Best Book Marketing Niche by Colleen M. Story
- 9 Paying Gaming Markets For Writers by Karoki Githure
- Why You Should Start Blogging by Lucie Ataya
- On Regional Dialogue and Locations by Reavis Wortham
- How to Get Discovered When Nobody Knows Who The Heck You Are by James Scott Bell
New videos
If you prefer to get your writing advice in video form, check out these new video releases on YouTube.
- Too Scared to Call Yourself a Writer? This Is How to Get Over It by Lauren Sapala
- How to Know an Agent’s Not Right for You by BookEnds Literary Agency
- The Write Question 203: How to find an angle for writing by The Publication Coach
- 60 Second Screenwriter: How to come up with story ideas? by Scott Myers
- Procrastinating on Your Writing? Why Every Writer Needs Accountability to Keep It Going by Lauren Sapala
Am I missing any useful writing advice sites or video channels? Let me know in the comments or email me at maria@metastellar.com.
MetaStellar editor and publisher Maria Korolov is a science fiction novelist, writing stories set in a future virtual world. And, during the day, she is an award-winning freelance technology journalist who covers artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and enterprise virtual reality. See her Amazon author page here and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn, and check out her latest videos on the Maria Korolov YouTube channel. Email her at maria@metastellar.com. She is also the editor and publisher of Hypergrid Business, one of the top global sites covering virtual reality.