Good Links, April Edition

Oops! I missed posting these at the end of April. However, they are still good links, so up they go.

On Writing:

Best Ever Article in Terms of Improving Your Writing: The Ten Mistakes over on Holt Uncensored. If you are a writer, read the article, then go look at your manuscript and edit. Seriously. Almost everyone is going to find something they can improve.

Agent and author Donald Maass talks about originality over on Writer Unboxed. He finds “many manuscripts go wrong… [if they] …do not go far enough in mining the author’s experience for what is distinctive and personal.” As well, if you (the writer) “ignore yourself…your story will be weak.”

Romance Writers of America (RWA) online classes. Everything from classes on writing the synopsis, to making a book commercial, to writing queries, to making a kick butt heroine, to how a forensic lab operates…. The list is endless and the classes are affordable (most expensive one I’ve seen so far has been $30 US). You don’t have to be a member and you don’t have to be a romance writer. You also don’t have to leave your house–all class lectures and assignments come to your email inbox.

Come In Character Blog: Come as one of your characters. Regular blog posts include prompts to get you thinking about who your character really is. (Or maybe even yourself.)

Autocrit has a free trial of their wizard. Pop in a few paragraphs from your manuscript and it will spit out info on the length variation of your sentences, overused words, repeated phrases and more. (You get EVEN more with a subscription.) It’s a great way to mix up your writing as well as pinpoint where you might be echoing yourself.

Along the same lines is Topicalizer which is quite the little analyzer as well. This puppy checks a section of pasted text for most used words, phrases, etc. Similar to Autocrit but also includes readability level of the pasted text.

Business Side:

Editors, Agents and Blog, Oh My! A blog with interviews with agents and editors. A great place to learn more about those folks in the world of books as well as the world of publishing.

Penguin Authors Guide to Online Marketing. This is a big ol’ 64 page PDF with piles of tips on how to get noticed online.

For fun:

Author Diana Peterfreund takes on the character of Prince Charming (who is flat and without personality) in this amusing guest blog feature over on the Knight Agency blog.

Enjoy!