Yee-Haw! It’s Another Blog Round-Up!

This week we climb back onboard that dragon, learn to ask appropriate questions, and revel in writer/librarian love…

Black Gate has done it again with their ongoing writing series “Climbing Onboard the Dragon” and “On Writing Fantasy”.  This latest entry by Michael Japser talks about climbing into your protagonist’s head to shape the conflict of your story.  In the “On Writing Fantasy” series, John R. Fultz talks plot: what it is, how it works (or doesn’t), and its relationship to character.  Great, useful, stuff from both authors.

Mur Lafferty‘s “I Should Be Writing” blog and podcast is an invaluable resource for new writers.  Blogger “planetx” (aka Jared Axelrod) provides this excellent piece on “The Appropriate Questions to Ask Oneself While Writing.”  I’m a notorious “revise as I write” writer, which gets me into trouble.  By asking the right questions at the right time in the process, you can keep your writing and your revising on-track.

I am an utter n00b at this writing thing.  I think I’ve got some chops but I’m constantly trying to learn more.  And there is so much more to learn.  J. Martin (yay…another librarian/writer!) recently signed on with the Andrea Brown Literary Agency and passes along a few of things that she’s picked up in “One Writer’s Steep Learning Curve“.  This is a great list of lessons learned (and continuing to learn).  I especially identified with #4 (“Gestures…are often poor substitutes for true emotion…”).  The famous dictum of “show, don’t tell” sometimes drives me to try to describe a character’s emotion through their actions (as if you’re watching them on a stage) instead of using one of the classic strengths of writing a story which is the ability to get into a character’s head.  It’s a fine line that I think I end up crossing and then have about ten too many instances of “quirked eyebrows”. 

Elizabeth S. Craig continues the library/writer love at the “A Good Blog Is Hard To Find” blog of Southern writers with her piece on “14 Reasons Why Libraries are Writers’ Best Friends“.  Craig covers not only the obvious research benefits but also talks about the library a good place for writing as well as an opportunity to promote your book(s).

In the meantime, I’m on track with my newly devised content schedule for the blog.  I’ve got a novelette approaching final revisions, and I may try to enter another writing contest. 

Until next time, stay classy Internets!