Community Community Community!

Happy July!

The TV show Community was renewed… But that’s not the ‘Community’ I am referring to. Though I think that was worth mentioning.

The month of June, where did it go? I think I missed it. It was really crazy with my birthday, graduating from college, and my close friends wedding. The 4^th of July is around the corner and I always spend it at my family Lake House, so I’m getting ready for that now but then things should start slowing down…maybe?

As things get busier and out of hand, I don’t know about you, but that is when I find it the hardest to focus on writing. Soon you feel swept away with life type things and any down time you manage to get you would rather spend burrowed under your covers.

So what are you supposed to do to combat falling further and further from writing? The most useful thing for me is being embedded into a community!

Having a writing community you are active in is so great on many different levels. You are talking and communicating with others who know exactly what you’re going through and understand your passion, obsession, and struggles with writing. Not only is making new friends/acquaintances in the writing world invaluable to your own writing but its also amazing for your psyche. They help you not go insane and feel more grounded.

You have others cheering you on and relying on you to cheer them on. With a community they are pressuring you in a positive way to keep at it! See, peer pressure can be good sometimes. There’s an exception to everything!

Below is a list of a few community’s I know of you can try out! If I miss any that you are especially fond of, don’t hesitate to leave it down in the comments section.

Blogs (Like this one)

AbsoluteWrite

SCBWI’s Blueboard

Figment

Nanowrimo

Writers Digest

Critique Circle

Fiction Press

 

Cheers,

Missy

Point of No Return

Aloha reader!

I am back from Hawaii, exceedingly sunburned, and ready to return to writing!

I’ve been looking into a few writers’ conferences to attend this year that I’m really excited about! Reason being, I have met some of the coolest people there. Not to mention the amazing tips and tricks I learned. And to top it all off, conferences are really good at getting me excited about writing again! I even took my mom to one (she’s not a writer) and she felt the energy and excitement about writing.

One of the best tips I have learned at a conference I have attended was about plot. Suspense author Brandilyn Collins was leading a seminar and what she said, sounded so simple, and yet changed the way I wrote forever. In your book you want to make a big punch. Whether you’re writing suspense or a romance, this tip will benefit all the genres. She told us to bring our character all the way to the point of no return, and then bring them out of it. Nothing will hook your readers like that.

The ‘point of no return’ is different for every book. It all matters on your protagonist. You need to think, what is the absolute worst thing that could happen to my character? It doesn’t have to be the death of the love interest necessarily. It could be they were served divorce papers, to they lost their house, to no more coffee on the face of the planet! Or maybe no coffee would be my own personal point of no return. The point is, what ever your character is working towards; yank the carpet out from underneath their feet. The tension and interest from the reader will instantly heighten and take your novel to a whole new level of awesome.

Have you been to a Writers Conference? And if so, what is one of the best tips you learned?

 

Cheers

Missy

My Top 4 Writers Resources

Happy Thursday!

Along with my last post that I gave 4 links to websites that are helpful when trying to research Literary Agents, I decided to post 4 websites (in no particular order) that I have found the most helpful with writing in general!

http://nanowrimo.org/ -The first site is Nanowrimo! It stands for National Novel Writing Month. It’s intended that every November is a competition where writers of every kind converge and cheer each other on to write 50,000 words in 1 month. (They have a few other events throughout the year as well). If that’s not your thing, the Forum is still very helpful anytime of the year!

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/ -Numero 2 is a fantastic blog by past agent and now author Nathan Bransford. This blog has absolutely everything! It’s pretty much my holy grail of information. I have refereed to this blog countless times. Because Nathan Bransford has not only been a Literary Agent but is also an author, his information is invaluable because he’s been on both sides of the business.

http://www.publishingcrawl.com/ -This website is great for anyone interested in books! You don’t need to be a writer to enjoy what this site has to offer. It has a tab especially for ‘readers’ with interviews and other book news. But it also has a ‘writers’ tab that has articles written by professionals in the business about everything from coming up with a book idea to articles about how to prepare for your first book signing. It’s a great resource with hidden gems you wont find anywhere else.

http://susandennard.com/blog-2/ -Last is YA Author Susan Dennard’s blog. I recently stumbled across this blog and boy do I wish I knew about it earlier! Much like Nathan Bransford’s blog, it has amazing information on everything from being a productive writer to multiple posts on crafting a query letter. On top of great informational posts, she makes them really fun and entertaining to read where you need more and more! I just have to say, her post on how to write a synopsis made me almost cry with joy. Check it out!

I hope these websites help you out! If there’s a website that you have found especially helpful, let everyone know about it in the comments section.

Once again, best of luck!

Missy

 

You only fail at writing if you stop.