Fiction Scribe

I wasn’t really planning on doing a ‘What I’m Reading’ post this week, but I’ve come across so many good and interesting posts that I can’t help myself. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

*My lovely friend Susan at West of Mars is having a bit of Thursday Thirteen block, so stop by and say hello. She doesn’t bite, but I would keep an eye on Trevor.

*Paperback Writer (can you tell I’ve become a big fan recently?) put up a post I love called The Seven Deadly Writing Sins. And no, it’s not like the other ones you’ve seen that have things like, “dialogue tag addiction.”

*Ecataromance has put up a lovely post welcoming new visitors that is filled with links to interesting things on site and so on. As they say, they are “pro ebook, pro romance” so you should check them out - especially if you are interested in those areas.

*There is a great post by author Marta Stephens at Murder by 4 called Grammar Made Easy… Believe me, it’s not quite what you’re thinking.

*The awesomely awesome (she gives away books every Monday!) Katrina Stronoff has guest posted at Happy Endings with excellent thoughts on figuring out your characters’ motivations. This could very well be exactly the advice I’ve been needing lately…

*Rather than mentioning a specific post, this is a link to a blog: The Intern There is absolutely no way I can put it better than she does:

“THE INTERN is the unpaid toiler on the publishing house floor, licking stamps, reading slush, and copy-editing your train-wreck of a manuscript (for free) because the “real” copyeditor is down with the genital crabs. THE INTERN wears mismatched socks, clunky glasses, the same shirt she wears every day and jeans she found in the dumpster. No bra—bras are expensive, and THE INTERN is unpaid. THE INTERN sees all, hears all—the tense phone calls, the well-oiled editorial meetings at which your manuscript is used as a receptacle for pretzel crumbs, the wheeling, dealing, and long hours of apathy that make publishing publishing. THE INTERN knows everything about—your ambitions, your secret shames. She knows you pee in the shower. Basically, THE INTERN has you dialed.

And—lucky you—THE INTERN is about to tell you everything she knows.”

Enjoy!

*Reposted from Paperback Writer

“Once again it’s time to begin planning PBW’s Fourth Annual Left Behind & Loving It, a series of virtual workshops I’ll be holding here at the blog this summer from July 13th through the 20th.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, this summer event is something I started doing back in 2006 for writers like me who don’t attend RWA National. We spend a week together online talking shop, sharing ideas, discussing writing and publishing and doing all the stuff you do at a writer’s conference except wait in long lines for bathrooms, elevators, coffee and official pins and ribbons. We don’t infect each other with anything but ideas, nor are we forced to eat bad mystery chicken, wear panty hose and heels, or arm wrestle some large chick in stretch pants over gratis Linda Howard hardcovers. It’s pretty much pure bliss.

Last year I offered an open invitation to any blogging writer to join in and hold their own virtual workshops on their blogs or web sites, and I’m repeating that again this year. If you’re willing to teach a writing or writing-related workshop(s) of any variety online at any time during that week, I’ll be happy to link to it every day I hold mine. I’ll give out more details on this later down the road, probably in mid-June.

Now it’s your turn — what sort of workshops would you like to see for LB&LI this time around? Let us know in comments.

(Update)

The details:

1. It’s open to all — anyone can hold a workshop; it doesn’t matter if you’re unpublished, published, agent, editor, employed, unemployed, student, retiree, whatever. If you’ve got something related to writing or publishing that you want to workshop, you’re in.

2. You run the show — you can do a single workshop or as many as you like, and hold them at any time during that week.

3. Linkage — if you hold your workshop on your blog during the week of July 13th through July 20th, I will link to it here on PBW for the entire week while I’m running mine.

My suggestions (all optional):

1. Keep your blog comments open so your visitors can discuss the topic of your workshop, ask questions and add their own ideas. The real fun of a virtual workshop is always the visitor participation.

2. If applicable, put together worksheets, outlines, or other helpful materials related to your topic for your visitors’ use. You can post these online as part of your workshop or have them available for downloading elsewhere (I recommend Scribd.com if you don’t have a website and/or need a place to park them; I’ve used it for the last two years to publish e-book versions of my workshops.)

3. Link to articles, web site pages and other sources on the internet that are relevant to the topic of your workshop. I especially like to find links to writers who have a different perspective than mine because they offer second opinions on the topic.

4. Consider having a giveaway(s) for your visitors. Published writers, if you’ve got some extra author copies sitting around and you can swing the postage, have a drawing for a signed copy or two. Unpublished writers, if there’s a how-to book, magazine or other resource that has helped you, consider giving away a copy of it during your workshop. Or think up your own unique giveaway — whatever you do, it will be appreciated.

Along with my usual goodie bags, this year I’m putting together some surprises. Since these are still in the works I’m going to keep quiet about them for a bit longer, but stay tuned for more details.

I’ll be posting my workshop schedule as well as another reminder on July 1st, and a call for participating bloggers to send me their workshop links beginning on July 12th (I’ll also accept links whenever you all send them to me, up through July 20th.)

Does anyone have any questions about LB&LI? If you do, please post them in comments.”

As I’ve said in the past, quoting a quote that is somewhere in the chaos of my desk, you have to make time for things because you’ll never ‘find’ time. Well, I’ve made time for more blog reading, and I have come across some interesting posts.

I’ve also decided to add an ‘E-Publishing’ category, as there is no doubt readers here will consider e-publishing as a possible publication route just as much as they consider traditional publishing or self-publishing.

On to the good reads!

*InkyGirl has a fantastic category on her blog called Rejections, which features famous authors and how many times they were rejected before getting published. This is a sure category to help build the confidence of aspiring writers.

*Paperback Writer touches on the subjects of writer superstitions and rituals (a subject I’ll probably post on later), and things she avoids putting in her stories. Are there any things you avoid writing about in your stories?

*Nice Mommy~Evil Editor has put out an informal call for submissions, so if you have a holiday-themed story, head over to this post for further details.

*Dear Author has a poll regarding e-publishing and the results may surprise you. How many readers have bought an e-published book?

*EcataRomance asks if ebook publishing is a bad career choice…

*Have I mentioned Query Shark before? If you’re looking to submit a query any time soon, I highly suggest you go through the Query Shark archives - run by an actual agent - and give your query a professional polish before sending it in.

When it comes to NaNoWriMo, I am all about the good intentions. Three years I tried, three years I finished the novel in about May… about nine months too late. Even so, I always sign up because the original boost of adrenaline and confidence takes me through long enough for it to be worth something.

But in the end, typing thousands of words every day for work makes typing thousands more

I need more confidence-boosting, bite size, easily digestible daily challenges. Apparently, I’m not the only one either.

I am happy to announce that InkyGirl, wonderful creator of Will Write for Chocolate and other writerly comics is introducing not one but two daily word count challenges for those of us who like the challenge but get overwhelmed.

“Too often, I find that writers start motivational challenges like NaNoWrimo with enthusiasm and good intentions, but give up when they start missing their daily targets for more than a few days in a row…undermining their confidence and defeating the purpose of the original challenge.

Hence, the 1000 Words A Day Challenge.”

To make an awesome idea more awesome, she threw open the virtual floor and let people request other word counts in case 1000 words was a bit too much to try to achieve on a daily basis.

You can check out both challenges: 500 words or 1000 words

I started last night and got in over 500 words. I’m just trying to finish up on work tonight in time to get some more writing in tonight. 500 words is the perfect size for me to go for, as it’s a challenge that I can usually meet. Confidence boost instead of bummer. I’m hoping to have completed my current novella and start into revisions by the beginning of August.

How about you?

I haven’t had nearly as much time as I would have liked over the past few weeks to keep up with bloggers, blogs and blogging, but I am trying my best. I have come across a few gems I would like to share with you…

*Bookends, LLC has a must read post filled with publishing industry terms you’d do well to familiarize yourself with. Beyond that, you should have a browse around the blog anyway. It is filled with a lot of fantastic posts.

*14 Posts on Writing and Blogging from Get Paid to Write Online. While the post strays into posts about freelancing - which I don’t touch on often here - there is still a lot of information great information there.

*I have been working on romance novellas lately, and I found an older post but a great one from Redlines and Deadlines. Your heroine might be TSTL (Too Stupid to Live) if…

*Author Sandi Kahn Shelton is making me completely jealous by posting about the writing workshops she hosts in her own home.

*EREC - Erotic Romance E-Publisher Comparison shares the news that Mundania Press has acquired ebook ‘veteran’ company Hard Shell. (Probably a post only of interest to those who keep up with e-publishing.)

*Miguel from Wisdom and Life has a lovely post called 5 Rules for School Homework that I found quite useful for my usually cluttered writer-ly brain.

That is all for the moment. Of course, if you know of any posts you find valuable around the internet that you think I should read, feel free to leave me the link. I’m sure there are thousands of great websites I have never seen before that readers have.

It’s been a while since I have told you about what I’m reading, hasn’t it? There has just been so many good posts being cranked out across the blog world lately that I can’t help but share a few that have caught my eye recently.

Creative Writing Contests - The posting can be a bit sporadic and I can’t vouch for the validity of the contests, but it is a good resource to plug into your feed reader.

Critiquing Art: It’s All Subjective - Author Phyllis Zimbler Miller talks briefly about how, when it comes to critiquing, the reader’s good or bad opinion of our work might not have much to do with the actual quality of our work…

The Tao of Publishing - “Everything you really need to know about the publishing business can be learned from a garage sale.”

Redlines and Deadlines - A post of informative links. I always pay attention to links list from people who are well in/close to the workings of the industry and other industry people.

Stone Soup - Katrina does what I would absolutely love to do if I had more money for shipping - gives away a lot of books! This is definitely a blog to put in your feed reader.

And speaking of winning books, West of Mars Book Contests is growing even more popular! If you want to win books, this is the blog you need to pay attention to.

Tips for a Harmonious Work Life and Space - My work space gets so utterly cluttered and disorganized so often…

I hope you enjoy these links as much as I have. If you have any links you think I should take a look at, be sure to let me know.

Christmas has come a couple days early for me. Woohoo! I received four books in the mail today! I am one happy little scribe.

In other news, I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the various blogs I follow and people have been saying interesting things…

Rena at Depressive Talk muses about that long held belief that you have to be mentally ill in some way (most often depressed, addicted or both) to be creative.

Pari on Murderati is like me when it comes to almost obsessive drive to create an awesome first line. This post outlines her attempt to create a sexy beginning that also is genuine to the character.

I’ve been reading on the EREC (Erotic Romance E-Publisher Comparison) to get a better idea of what’s happening in that part of the publishing world. It’s quite interesting.

The Rejecter has a holiday reminder for anyone who wants to give their agent a gift for the holidays.

The Rejector also posted a response to a particularly long email he received. I was very amused. Then again, I didn’t have to answer it. “Usually I get emails with very specific questions. Sometimes I get these.”

The Book Deal is a fan of self-publishing and talks about “The unvarnished truth about self-publishing”.

ReadingWritingLiving has been dealing with all the right inspiration in all the wrong places.

ReadingWritingLiving also has an excellent system for finally clearing out your email inbox.

Men With Pens gives you advice with how to deal with cranks, flamers and trolls. The advice is especially good to writers who seek out online forums and groups for critique.

If someone gets me this for Christmas, I will love you forever and ever. I will also consider naming my first child after you.

Happy holidays.

Christmas is next week. I just got the memo. Oy. You’d think I would have paid more attention with the massive amounts of giveaways happening.

I’ve been learning lately that I should keep my mouth shut. People will believe what they want to believe in no matter what evidence there is to the contrary. If you’re looking for any sort of decent debate with someone on the internet, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Meh.

On to what I’ve been reading!

Editorial Anonymous has a post about connections in the industry and your chances of getting your manuscript read.

Janey Reid, Literary Agent talks about something I didn’t even know happened: Surrogate Queries. All I can ask is, “Why?” I would never have someone do that for me and if s/he did it without my permission, I would be very angry.

Redlines and Deadlines posts about the Black Wednesday of the publishing industry. Be it cutting jobs, freezing pay rises or other measures, there are quite a few publishing companies who are feeling the squeeze of the economy.

CopyBlogger lists Twenty-Seven Commonly Misused Words.

The Golden Pencil uses The Power of 15 to jump start her muse…

Write Anything has a large selection of things to read in their December 2008 Creative Carnival.

Write Anything also has a writing meme that I just might have to participate in…

The Query Shark shows you how to not format an email query using an example query.

That’s all I have for today. I hope you enjoy reading those posts as much as I did. If there are any posts you think I should check out, be sure to leave the link in the comments section.

While I’m still meandering around, working normal hours and odd hours, trying to figure out exactly what I can do to make the whole ’student loan debt’ thing go away faster and taking the occasional bubble bath, I am still reading. And watching things as well.

I thought this video from Meg Cabot about her ‘typical day’ was quite amusing and a good way to start the week off.

*I am very amused by this idea. “Other People’s Rejection Letters will feature reproductions of all kinds of rejection letters. Whether typed form letters or handwritten in a fit of rage, whether sent by text message, email, or scrawled in crayon, any kind of rejection is fair game: You didn’t get the job or the loan or the membership; you’re not the right fit for our dentistry school; you’re my son but I never want to see you again; your restaurant failed its health inspection; your parole has been denied; we had a good time together but you cheated on me so this is goodbye.”

*Write or Die from Dr. Wicked would have been an excellent tool for NaNoWriMo. You can even set it to start deleting your words if you pause too long. Wicked and funny - I like it.

*Ball and Chain by Cornelia Read on Murderati shows us that you don’t have to put up with anyone telling you that you shouldn’t be writing.

*Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware! talks about Publishing’s Week of Gloom.

*Libba Bray tells an amusing story about how writing a novel is very much like falling in love…

And there you have it for today. I hope you enjoy reading those pieces as much as I did.

This has become more of a regular thing than I thought it would. There is just way too much going on with all the blogs I read to dedicate a single post to all of them. This is proving to be an excellent solution.

Paperback Writer has found a free holiday read. Click on the link to find out the details of how you can get the free ebook The Rat Catcher by Kate Rothwell.

She also knows all the cool places to go to custom create things for your books - even trading cards! (Just ten more ways I’ll be able to procrastinate instead of writing my novel. Must focus!)

Literary Agent Janet Reid has listed eight ways you’ve managed to shoot yourself in the foot when you query her. Take a look because if you’re doing the wrong thing with queries to her, you’re likely doing the wrong thing with all your queries…

Author Sandi Kahn Shelton talks about her recently released book Kissing Games of the World and the feeling of sadness when you have to see off your published novel as it goes into the real world…

InkyGirl has discovered that your spam email folder doesn’t have to reside permanently in the realm of ‘just an annoyance’. In fact, your spam email folder is a great source of inspiration…

Stone Soup is giving away a copy of M.J. Rose’s The Memorist. All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment.

If you have any sites/blogs/articles/posts you think I should be aware of, please let me know.

It’s not exactly new news that the world has fallen on tough times. What started as problems in the US economy quickly morphed into problems for the world economy. Some people are fine, but more and more people are hitting hard times and losing what they have worked so hard to keep. People, if they physically can, are taking on second and third jobs just to break even.

Even then, sometimes they don’t.

With the world in its current state, it’s hard to find anything positive. Even if we try, the media finds whatever ways it can to turn us into fearful, sorrowful creatures.

Now, more than ever, people are probably asking you, “Why do you want to write?”

Maybe they’re making snarky comments or are just plain asking what in the world you think writing will do for anyone when there are ‘so many more important things’ to think about and do.

Today I found this inspiring piece by Toni McGee Causey on Muderati. It’s titled ‘Comfort Reading’, but the title does not even begin to reveal the emotional, dramatic force the content has.

If you are feeling negative about the world, if you are feeling uneasy about the news, if you are just plain unsure of your writing and whether or not you should continue on… Read this piece. Print it off and put it up on your wall. Give it to anyone who asks you why you’re writing when you could be doing something else.

You won’t regret it and you just might find the inspiration/motivation you need to keep writing in a world where nothing is sure.

I’m behind, I have a migraine, and I’m trying to get work done. What does that equal? A post about all the things I’m reading.

*Stone Soup - Another Monday, another giveaway.

*The Great American Query Letter - Very funny view on how query letters are getting so much better while manuscripts are not.

*Creative Writing wonders: What do you look for in a book review?

*Grammar 101: I Could Care Less - I can’t help but feel amused when people have the same Pet Peeves I do.

*Write From Home tells you why you need to take a day off already. There is also talk of pizza, cookies and cream ice cream and the occasional serious comment about the topic.

*Red Lines and Deadlines is a blog I have recently found and subscribed to. I especially like the interviews they have with editors.

Quick Fiction Scribe tip: Make friends with editors.

*West of Mars - Win a Book - There is nothing like waking up in the morning to find a dozen more ways to win books.

*Give Yourself Permission to Suck - Short and sweet advice found on Janet Reid’s (Literary Agent) blog.

*West of Mars - The Meet and Greet - Susan has a rant about something we can all feel for: stupid people revealing the identities of the anonymous bloggers we come to love. It’s a shame that so many people have to miss out on something they love because of the actions of one person.

That’s it for today. I hope you enjoy the links. Comment if you feel inspired, of course.

No, I’m not starting a new meme or anything like that, but I may have to bring back “Sunday Short Picks”. I’m actually managing to keep up with reading the blogs in my feed reader, and there is entirely too many good posts for me to feature them all on their own. So, for now, I’ll share these today. Don’t be surprised if you see a return (and revamping) of Sunday Short Picks.

The Rejecter reminds us that there is no “right” way to start (or write) a novel, despite numerous people trying to convince you there is.

“There is no “right” way to write a novel, though there are plenty of wrong ways. As writers, we all have to learn an important lesson: When you are a writer, people will give you blanket advice about writing and insist you take it as gospel. It will take a long time to figure out their advice was really dumb.”

Write Anything is more prepared for NaNo than I have ever been and has a series of posts to help you prepare for the madness.

Write From Home has some Hump Day Reading for the Restless Soul, which is a post similar to this one but with different links.

Write From Home also has a Netiquette Rant that has swearing, sense, and an overall high enjoyability rating.

Men With Pens has the NaNoWriMo spirit as well and explains how to create fantastic characters for the NaNoWriMo challenge.

Sandi Kahn Shelton, the woman I credit with helping me along to find a lot of success, proves that writers can cook and write. This doesn’t actually have anything to do with writing, but blonde chicken chili sounds fantastic.

I hope you enjoy the reading feast here. I promise to get more organized and not spring posts like this on you in the future.

Another Monday, another… post on Monday.

Hm. I need to think of a better opening.

I would probably have something more interesting here today, but with Velvet Verbosity on sabbatical, I don’t even have a creative 100 words. (Yes, this is a ‘note’.)

*I had fully planned on starting my Conflux-inspired posts this week, but I have been limited to typing with one hand for most of the time due to my pained left wrist. While I can type at a reasonable rate with one hand, it’s annoying and wears out my right hand pretty fast.

I will be going to the doctor in a couple hours, however, so hopefully he can fix it up easily. Just in case, be prepared for a guest post tomorrow.

*With my wrist problems and other things going on, I don’t yet know for sure if I’ll be participating in NaNoWriMo. Either way, I’ll be supporting all participants here while it’s going.

*Mr. JM and I are planning on holding a writing contest here, so look out for the announcement in the next few weeks for the official announcement and details.

*I’m checking out a site called Wrideo at the moment. If you have experience with the site, please let me know how you feel about it. (I’m not sure how I feel about it just yet.)

*My blogversary here at Fiction Scribe is coming up fast. What do you think I/we should do for it?

*Check out The Books Stacks Monday Game for your chance to win a book and an Australian postcard.

That’s all for today. I hope you all had an excellent weekend and an excellent start to the week.

I’m back. Scary, isn’t it?

Before I do anything else, I would like to thank the generous authors who donated their time and writing to keep this site alive while I was gone. I appreciate it.

As you have probably guessed, today is not my first day back. However, I had the Scribes Carnival to put up so I didn’t want either post - the carnival or the “I’m back” post - to trump each other, so I left my hello for today.

I am safe and sound back from Conflux (and the holiday after that). I was (and am) so inspired by the beautiful landscapes I’ve seen that I have made what is probably only the first of many calendars. Southeastern Australia is a beautiful place to live.

I have a lot of conference notes, quotes and other such fun stuff to share with you, but I’m still getting organized (and am procrastinating a bit). So while I get my behind in gear, I’ll share with you a few interesting tidbits I’ve come across.

What I’m Reading:

*Blogging on a Holiday - This is actually something I have been thinking about because a company I work for will be shutting down over Thanksgiving… and I no longer observe Thanksgiving. I’m also planning on taking off Melbourne Cup Day, Australia Day, etc, but do I need to let people know that…? James makes some good points with this one.

*Kiva - Not actually something to do with writing, but an interesting site where you can sponsor up and coming entrepreneurs. It’s something you could do for Blog Action Day.

*Six Things I Never Want to See in a Query by Literary Agent Janet Reid - Pretty self-explanatory.

*Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Conquering Stress Addiction at Write From Home - At the moment I am trying to get my life straightened out to a point where I will be less stressed and more happy. It’s interesting to read other people’s views on being a stress addict.

That’s it for today. Have a good one.