2014 The Year of Marvellous Writing - January Round Up

I mentioned  in a blog post at the end of last year that I would be refining the posts in this blog, not only focusing on e-book publishing and marketing, but also on what makes a great book, what you need to make sure your writing is the best it can be before releasing it on the unsuspecting public. We all get so caught up in the technicalities and multiple avenues of publishing and marketing that we forget what makes a writing career is gold plated, highly polished, unicorn blessed, narratives. And how do you get that? You may ask. By checking out the regular blog posts I’ll be sending your way.

 So this post will be the first of my regular Awesome Writing Advice, Kick Your Creativity Into Gear, Round Ups. This post will list both my own and other posts by awesome writers on the craft of writing marvellously rather than just good. My grandmother wiped her butt with good. Marvellous will help you take over the writing world! The world I tell you! Aherm…

So, this week’s writing advice can be found below.

January Round Up Of All Good Writing Blog-y-things:

The Naming of Things: As writers, we tend to get a little drunk on our God like powers when creating our worlds. This blog looks at the do’s and don’ts of naming characters and places in your stories.

Begin At The Beginning & End At The End, Then Cut Them Both: If you’re like me, I get paralysed any time I am looking to start of end a piece. I’m like a piece of not too interesting modern art. This post should help you get past the statue phase in your own writing.

Pare Back The Emotion– Overwriting Round 2: In my first drafts I climb into my paranoid ‘but what if the reader doesn’t get what the character is really feeling’ clown car. The problem is, I go over the top with the emotion, something you must delicately balance in your writing. This blog goes into how you pare back that overwriting. Remember, your readers are smarter than you.

Good Writing is Not About You Being God: This blog delves into the issue of how you tell a story. Sure you know everything, but does that mean the story is best told with the reader knowing everything? Probably not, what would be the point of reading from the first page to the last?

Fiction Writing:Dialogue Tag Basics: Never seem to be able to make your dialogue flow? Or does it not sound realistic? Then this post on Joanna Penn’s Creative Penn blog should help.

Scott Sigler: Five Thing I Learned Writing The Infected series: An awesome post from Scott Sigler on Chuck Wendig’s blog. Scott takes lessons from the writing of his series which include talking about creating believable dystopian worlds and using science to make all the make-believe seem real...

Enjoy and happy writing!

Have you found any great posts on improving your writing this week? Share them in the comments below: