Hey, the good news is that most of us have a three-day weekend coming. The better news is that I'm back with five new writing links!
1. Here's an older post from Utterances of an Overcrowded Mind showing how to Become a Successful Writer in 2,000 Hours
2. Is procrastination killing your writing? Then you best check out this post from Charlie Nitric's blog.
3. Learning to deal with feedback is something all writers must do. This post will help: How to deal with critiques and editorial feedback
4. 4 Big Pitfalls in Story Openings by K.M. Weiland. Yeah, we've all done at least one of these at one point or another.
5. And finally, check out Digital Age Authors & The Ugly Truth About “The Good Old Days” of Publishing from Kristen Lamb's blog.
And that's it. Have a great weekend. Watch some college football and stay out of the heat.
August 30, 2013
August 24, 2013
Happy late birthday to the blog!
Wow, I just realized I've already been posting here for over a year.
It was something I decided to do shortly after spending a weekend at a writing conference and the first post was August 1, 2012.
All in all, it's been a pretty good year for me in both writing and in real life, so I just want to take a moment to say thanks to my reader(s) for visiting this blog in the last twelve plus months.
If even one word I wrote here in the last year helped make you a better writer or inspire you to find more success in whatever it is you do, then I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do.
I hope you stick around for another year and I'll continue posting my successes and failures in writing and share anything I happen to learn along the way
It was something I decided to do shortly after spending a weekend at a writing conference and the first post was August 1, 2012.
All in all, it's been a pretty good year for me in both writing and in real life, so I just want to take a moment to say thanks to my reader(s) for visiting this blog in the last twelve plus months.
If even one word I wrote here in the last year helped make you a better writer or inspire you to find more success in whatever it is you do, then I feel like I've accomplished what I set out to do.
I hope you stick around for another year and I'll continue posting my successes and failures in writing and share anything I happen to learn along the way
August 23, 2013
Five Links Friday 8/23/13
I'm back for another Five Links Friday.
1. If you're working on a new novel and having some trouble, you might want to read 25 Things You Should Know About Writing a Novel at terribleminds.com. Great advice there.
2. And if productivity or time constraints are holding you back, then read 7 Hacks That Will Get You Writing Faster at livehacked.com.
3. On Twitter? You should be. Here are 7 Reasons Every Writer Needs to be on Twitter from Kristen Lamb's blog.
4. Last week, Gothic City Press opened up a new section of their site called Gas Lamp, which publishes a weekly flash fiction story. It's a great idea; give it a look. And while we're on the topic of Gothic City Press, you should probably check out their latest anthology, Clerics, Charlatans, and Cultists
available now at Amazon.com. (I never claimed to be above a cheap plug, har har)
5. And finally, if you're into cryptozoology (and, really, who isn't?) then you should check out Cryptid Girl
by my friend JR Mallette.
It's always kind of fun sharing these links. I'll try to get back on track to doing this every week.
1. If you're working on a new novel and having some trouble, you might want to read 25 Things You Should Know About Writing a Novel at terribleminds.com. Great advice there.
2. And if productivity or time constraints are holding you back, then read 7 Hacks That Will Get You Writing Faster at livehacked.com.
3. On Twitter? You should be. Here are 7 Reasons Every Writer Needs to be on Twitter from Kristen Lamb's blog.
4. Last week, Gothic City Press opened up a new section of their site called Gas Lamp, which publishes a weekly flash fiction story. It's a great idea; give it a look. And while we're on the topic of Gothic City Press, you should probably check out their latest anthology, Clerics, Charlatans, and Cultists
available now at Amazon.com. (I never claimed to be above a cheap plug, har har)
5. And finally, if you're into cryptozoology (and, really, who isn't?) then you should check out Cryptid Girl
by my friend JR Mallette.It's always kind of fun sharing these links. I'll try to get back on track to doing this every week.
August 15, 2013
Update on writing and life
I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd just chime in with an update on writing and life in general.
Things are as busy as one can expect with a newborn, but I've really been making the effort to keep writing as much as possible. (Note: I should mention that it helps to have such a supportive wife.)
I did learn something new in the last month and that is that the key to productivity in busy times is prioritization. There's only so much you can do in a day, so you have to pick the most important thing and let everything else wait for a while.
Since we don't have a lot of free time, I had to rethink my goals and priorities for the next few months. One thing was for sure though: Outside of family and work responsibilities, writing would remain a top priority for me, even if it meant giving up TV all together and (temporarily) cutting my workouts down to 2 or 3 days per week.
With a more limited schedule, I had to modify my writing goals a bit to adapt. I decided that since I wasn't having a tremendous amount of luck finding representation for the novel it might be a good time to step away from it for a little while and then work on another revision of the novel, the synopsis and the query letter.
On the other side of the writing world, I have been finding much more success with the short stories. I just received my fifth acceptance letter of the year so far, bringing my number of published or soon-to-be-published short stories dangerously close to ten. With that, I decided to focus on finishing and submitting short stories until I reach a minimum goal of both ten published and ten pending. After that, I'll go back to working on the novels, but until then, the queries can wait and if I miss an occasional blog post I won't beat myself up over it either.
In other site-related news, I have some other plans for this blog running around in my head that I might be trying in the next year. We'll see how that goes and I'll do an update about it sometime in the future.
So until next time, I just want to say that no matter how busy you are, don't let it keep you from chasing your goals.
If I can do it, rest assured that you can too.
Things are as busy as one can expect with a newborn, but I've really been making the effort to keep writing as much as possible. (Note: I should mention that it helps to have such a supportive wife.)
I did learn something new in the last month and that is that the key to productivity in busy times is prioritization. There's only so much you can do in a day, so you have to pick the most important thing and let everything else wait for a while.
Since we don't have a lot of free time, I had to rethink my goals and priorities for the next few months. One thing was for sure though: Outside of family and work responsibilities, writing would remain a top priority for me, even if it meant giving up TV all together and (temporarily) cutting my workouts down to 2 or 3 days per week.
With a more limited schedule, I had to modify my writing goals a bit to adapt. I decided that since I wasn't having a tremendous amount of luck finding representation for the novel it might be a good time to step away from it for a little while and then work on another revision of the novel, the synopsis and the query letter.
On the other side of the writing world, I have been finding much more success with the short stories. I just received my fifth acceptance letter of the year so far, bringing my number of published or soon-to-be-published short stories dangerously close to ten. With that, I decided to focus on finishing and submitting short stories until I reach a minimum goal of both ten published and ten pending. After that, I'll go back to working on the novels, but until then, the queries can wait and if I miss an occasional blog post I won't beat myself up over it either.
In other site-related news, I have some other plans for this blog running around in my head that I might be trying in the next year. We'll see how that goes and I'll do an update about it sometime in the future.
So until next time, I just want to say that no matter how busy you are, don't let it keep you from chasing your goals.
If I can do it, rest assured that you can too.
August 9, 2013
Clerics, Charlatans, and Cultists
My short story "Tunnel of Darkness" is available today in the anthology Clerics, Charlatans, and Cultists, published by Gothic City Press.
From the dark recesses of churches, forested sanctuaries, and
unremarkable storefronts come a wide of assortment of characters looking
to recruit you into their particular doctrines. From a deific duck, to
a poison swilling monk, and down to a cult of pestilence, the variety
of stories found in "Clerics, Charlatans, and Cultists" makes this a
compelling anthology to have on your bookshelf – digital or print.
Gothic City Press delves into the darker side of faith with a collection of short stories from authors in the United States, Ireland, United Kingdom, and Australia.
Gothic City Press delves into the darker side of faith with a collection of short stories from authors in the United States, Ireland, United Kingdom, and Australia.
August 2, 2013
Five Links Friday 8/2/13
Well here I am still trying to catch up with life. I did manage to make a lot of progress in the writing world in the last few weeks, but more on that later. For now, here are five articles I read this week.
1. If you're a new writer, there's plenty of good advice out there. There's also plenty of bad advice. Here are the 4 Worst Pieces Of Advice For Young Writers from polymic.com
2. Having trouble with infodumps? Aren't we all. J.E. Tankersley has an article about it here: Let’s talk about dumping…
3. And opening sentences? Stephen King shares some of his thoughts in this article in The Atlantic: Why Stephen King Spends 'Months and Even Years' Writing Opening Sentences
4. Here's an article from Charlie Jane Anders looking at the 7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding.
5. And finally, for those of us searching for an agent, check out this post by Chuck Sambuchino at thewritelife.com: What Does a Literary Agent Want to See When They Google You?
And that's all. Hope you enjoy; have a great weekend. And wish me luck with my editing :)
1. If you're a new writer, there's plenty of good advice out there. There's also plenty of bad advice. Here are the 4 Worst Pieces Of Advice For Young Writers from polymic.com
2. Having trouble with infodumps? Aren't we all. J.E. Tankersley has an article about it here: Let’s talk about dumping…
3. And opening sentences? Stephen King shares some of his thoughts in this article in The Atlantic: Why Stephen King Spends 'Months and Even Years' Writing Opening Sentences
4. Here's an article from Charlie Jane Anders looking at the 7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding.
5. And finally, for those of us searching for an agent, check out this post by Chuck Sambuchino at thewritelife.com: What Does a Literary Agent Want to See When They Google You?
And that's all. Hope you enjoy; have a great weekend. And wish me luck with my editing :)
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