Stacks of Useful Articles for Writers! #WritingCommunity #writers #WritersCommunity #writerslife

.... by me, and others.  It's ongoing; I will add to this list as I come across new ones that are particularly good.  I've sorted them into sections to make it easier to find those that will be of interest to you.  Just click the title of the article to read it.  Hope they help!

Sections:
Debut Author Advice
Editing and Proofreading 
General Writing Advice
Publishing
Reviews
Writers and Social Media/Promotion

ps, if you have come across another article that really helped you, please add the URL in the comments, and I will take a look at it with a view to adding it. Thanks!
 

Debut Author Advice

New Writers: Is this what you're doing on Twitter?

Pauses for Thought - ten pieces of advice for the new writer.

What to do if you have just decided to write a book by Lucy Adams on Nicholas Rossis' blog.

Helpful Advice for Aspiring Writers by Jacqueline Woodson

3 Misconceptions That Can Hinder New Writers 

My Top 10 Writing Tips, from Shelley Wilson's interview series. 

My Review of Back to Creative Writing School by Bridget Whelan

Dos and Don't for First Time Novelists

Ten Miscellaneous Tips for Debut Writers

7 Myths That Can Hold New Writers Back

The Number One Misconceptions Writers Have About Writing by Rachel Thompson

Three Mistakes New Writers Are Still Making

Not another 'how to write' article ~ but it many help new authors

Your first novel is ready to go - five things to consider 

Building an Author Platform (for the total beginner) by Shelley Wilson 

Writing Tips For Beginners by Shaz Goodwin - Jera's Jamboree blog (a series of tips from various authors, collated by Shaz over the years)

How Art Has Saved My Writing by Jodie Beckford

Top 10 Writing Tips on Shelley Wilson's blog (series of interviews with various authors, giving their own tips)

Editing and proofreading

Choosing the right proofreader and editor

How To Choose An Editor by Alison Williams

How To Find A Good Proofreader (And Avoid The Bad Ones!) by Julia Gibbs


Content Edit by Linda Acaster

What being an editor taught me about writing by Anna Pitoniak

The Five Most Common Errors to Avoid in your Writing by Alison Williams

All you need to know about Proofreading by Julia Gibbs 

Authors - please choose your editor CAREFULLY by Alison Williams 

Is the editor you hired actually doing the editing?  by D G Kaye

General Writing Advice

10 Dangerous Critiques by Anne R Allen

The Greatest Menace to the Writer is the Reader by Emily Temple/Shirley Jackson

On Writing Sequels

5 parts of your writing personality that need to die now by Colleen M Story

4 Character Traits that will Derail your Writing Career by Colleen M Story

#amwriting ~ or would be if I could string a sentence together 
(what to do when the words just won't come) 

Please learn from my mistakes - someone should by D E Haggerty

Writers - Respect Your Readers by Alison Williams

Historical Fiction: Info Dumps and how to ditch them by Deborah Swift

The difference between 'Imply' and 'Infer' by Alison Williams

The importance of a good ending by Cryssa Bazos

Writing Action Scenes - Quick Tips by Alison Williams

Ten Things About Show and Tell  by Joanne Harris

The difference between a phrase, an independent clause, a subordinate clause and a sentence 


10 Tips on Writing That First Chapter by Anne R Allen

How to show what a character looks like without having them looking in the mirror and describing their reflection by Neha Yazmin

The Blurb and the Synopsis by Alison Williams

6 Ways To Create Characters That Readers Will Care About 

Do your characters talk too much? by Anne R Allen

Excellent article on outlining your novel before you start - and why you should by Meghan Barnard

3 Things To Omit From Your Dialogue by L M Lily 

Em dash versus ellipsis by Kathy Steinmann

8 Mundane Elements You Should Cut From Your Story by Jane Friedman

How to Handle Writers' Block by Alexandria Szeman

What Reading Has Taught Me About Writing

Three Writing Rules to Disregard by Benjamin Dreyer

Stephen King's 10% rule and the Secret Power of the Delete Button by Anne R Allen

The Grammatical Error That Even The Most Intelligent People Make

Turning Your Back On The 'Rules'

Links to lots of general writing/editing advice,  by Linda Acaster

An article about professional jealousy on Girls Mean Business

Publishing

The Myths of Publishing by Jan Ruth 

An A-Z of independent publishers (ongoing) by Jill Doyle (book blogger)

28 Things I've Learned About Publishing by John Boyne

Publishing scams to watch out for in 2021 by Anne R Allen

Amazon exclusivity or publishing 'wide' - which is best? 

How to Self-Publish an ebook by Alison Williams

 

Signing with a small publisher? Here's what to look for by Alison Williams

Novel, novella, novelette - the differences explained

How to self-publish a book: tips from indie authors on BookBub

Choosing Amazon Keywords  by Dave Chessan/Kindlepreneur

Publishing: A lot of smoke and mirrors by Jan Ruth

Why there is no point querying a book that has already been self-published by Meg La Torre

15 Things I Learned after reading 100 Query Letters by Ryan Lanz

Read This Before Signing With A Small Independent or 'Hybrid' Publisher

It's A Jungle Out There - article about vanity publishers, by Alison Williams

New Writing Scams to watch out for in 2019 by Anne R Allen

Self-Publishing and the Snobbery Issue by Alison Williams

Why Self-Publishing is a Creative Choice, not a Last Resort

Yes, We Do Judge A Book By Its Cover by Alison Williams

Writing a Blurb by Alison Williams

Book Blurbs: As Hard as Writing the Book Itself?

The Only Post You Need To Read About Getting That Novel Finished

Reviews

My review of Getting Book Reviews by Rayne Hall

A Beginners' Guide to Requesting Reviews by Lilyn from Scifi and Scary

The DNF by Alex from Spells and Spaceships

Ten Reasons Your Book Is Getting Ignored by Book Bloggers by Rosie Amber

How To Deal With Bad Reviews

Why You Shouldn't Ignore Bad Reviews by Alison Williams

64 Book Bloggers who will work with self-published authors by Jo Linsdell

Spotlight on Rosie Amber, book blogger 

Authors Reviewing Authors - it'a a Minefield! 
(what to do if you're expected to review a friend's book and it's... just not that great) 

Writing A Book Review by Joan Hall

Tips on writing a book review by Shaz Goodwin

Addressing some of the recent book blogging BS by Sarcastic Enigma 

Reasons why a blogger declines your review request and doesn't want you on their blog by Sarcastic Enigma

Writers and Social Media/promotion

Why won't you buy my book?  by Leonard Tillerman

Don't be a 'humble-bragger' by Julie Haiselden

To Go Free Or Not To Go Free? 

BookBub's Top 10 Marketing Articles of 2019 

The Scourge of Auto DMs (Twitter) by Lisette Brodey

Why does my book not sell by Jan Ruth

Basic Tips For Writers Using Social Media For The First Time

Dos and Don'ts for writers new to Twitter 

Great tips for taking your books to book fairs and signings  by Judith Barrow

9 Reasons your book was rejected for a BookBub Featured Deal

How to Get the Best out of Twitter - please note, whereas the principles remain the same, the occasional bit of practical info may be out of date, as these articles were written in 2016. 

How to put the joy (and the impact) back into Twitter by Helen Baggot, for the Alliance of Independent Authors 

Twitter Tips for Newbies by Emma Lombard - truly excellent and up-to-date post (March 2019) for writers using Twitter for the first time, every tiny nuance explained. 

More Twitter Tips for Newbies by Emma Lombard
 
Make Your Own Luck by Lizzie Lamb

How to change your Twitter handle by Alison Williams

My review of Twitter for Writers by Rayne Hall

5 No Good Reasons Authors Resist Marketing by Rachel Thompson

No, you don't need superfans, 'street teams', mass tweeting sessions or newsletters by Anne R Allen (nb, this is not the title of the article)

Had to include this, though it is for book bloggers rather than writers:
Advice for new book bloggers by Mrs Bloggs 

Boost Your Blog/Social Media: services provided by Suzie Speaks - I wouldn't post a link to services of this type without personal experience, but Suzie is currently running a social media site for me (not Twitter, I hasten to add), and I can most definitely recommend!  

And finally....

Before I started this Self-Publishing thing I used to....

How to Write a Romcom in One Easy Lesson!

7 myths that can hold new #writers back

1. Your writing community is all important

Um.... yes, and no.  It's good to have writer friends, online or otherwise, for support and advice (particularly the practical, like how to get beta readers, and which promotional practices are worth spending money on), but writing itself is a solitary activity.  In order to produce a good novel, you have to spend hours and hours alone, motivated only by your will to write it.  Yes, it's lovely to mull over plot points with other scribes you meet via the internet; the writing/blogging community on Twitter is particularly friendly and supportive, but essentially you're on your own.  

All those lovely people who retweet your angst about your 'imposter syndrome', send you gifs to show you that yes, their first draft is rubbish, too, and give you advice on how long a chapter should be (the answer: as long as it needs to be) aren't going to get your novel finished; writing isn't about being in a fun social media club.

As Zadie Smith said, don't rely on gangs, groups and cliques.  The presence of a crowd won't make your writing any better than it is.

2.  Motivational quotes make it happen!

Related to the above, I recently saw a tweeter asking for inspirational memes and quotes to motivate her to get on with with her novel.  

In order to be a prolific writer you will sometimes have to open that Word doc when you would rather watch telly or scroll through Twitter, when you have reached a plot point that isn't working, or are scared that you've just written 10K words of total garbage, but if the desire to write is strong enough, you'll do it.  If it's not, all the motivational quotes in the world won't get your novel finished.  That's okay.  You don't have to write.  You might want to go back to it five years time, instead; maybe now isn't the right time.

Which brings me to...

3.  You have to really, really want to be a writer.

In author interviews I am often asked if I have a good piece of advice for would-be writers.  Maybe too often, I say that they need to make sure they want to write, rather than be a writer.  If you fantasise about seeing a new Netflix series based on your (as yet) rather sketchy first draft ... if you tell everyone you're an author as soon as you've completed chapter one of your first novel and love sitting in cafés with your laptop because it makes you feel writer-ish, if you've spent the morning thinking up a fun #WritingCommunity poll for Twitter but haven't actually added any words to your story, it's possible you want to 'be a writer' more than you want 'to write'.

Let me illustrate this further.  Mary (not her real name) says her goal is to be a best-selling author, and describes herself on social media as a writer.  She has a huge following on Instagram, where she posts daily photos of herself in gorgeous clothes surrounded by books, typewriters and clever word pictures.  They're beautiful, creative, and she gets thousands of 'likes' on each one; well-deserved, as she clearly puts a great deal of work and thought into them.  But writing?  She spent three years co-writing a 60K word novel, self-published three years ago.  She has published nothing since, aside from the odd half-hearted short story on her blog.  She says she wants to be a writer.  She does not yet realise that what she really wants to do is take wonderful photos and become a social media star; at this, she works very hard and is successful.  Mary likes the image of herself as a writer.  She does not actually want to write.

 

Zadie Smith again:

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.


4. Getting that 'yes' from a publisher means you've arrived. 

Not necessarily.  Publishers range from the Big 5 (HarperCollins, MacMillan, Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster and all their offshoots/imprints), to large independents, to smaller independents, to mainly e-publishers, to two guys working out of their spare room, to vanity publishers who advertise themselves as 'hybrid' in order to kid the author that paying to be published does not mean it's a vanity press.  Big 5 book deals are incredibly hard to get, but some smaller publishers have no clout with retail outlets, are not that fussy about what they take, or indeed about how they produce your book ~ or pay your royalties.  I've written more about this HERE.

 
5. Once you've got a publisher, you can forget all that marketing stuff and just write.

No, you can't.  

Recently, I've seen a few tweets by 'aspiring' authors declaring that they're going to look for a publisher rather than self-publish because they don't think they'll be any good at self-promotion.  

Bad new, folks.  Unless you're a major publisher's next big thing (which will still mean interviews, book tours, etc.), most of the marketing will still be on you.  One Big 5 published author told me that signing her contract was when the work started.  She is required to have profiles on all social media sites (not just idly chat on FB writers groups, as before!), and use them on a regular basis; it's part of her working day.  Many small publishers do next to no promo.  Vanity presses do none at all, because they've already made their money from you.

6.  You can ignore legalities and the laws of physics, etc.; readers will suspend their disbelief because it's fiction.

A lot of them won't.  Yes, we know that zombies don't exist (one day, one day...!), but we don't want to feel that the writer thinks we're stupid.  If X would not explode at Y temperature, we don't want to be told it will.  If professional bodies would not be legally allowed to do Z, we won't be convinced by the story.  Similarly, it rarely works to change a character's personality in order to fit the plot, or to suddenly shoe-horn in a couple of unlikely revelations in order to construct the end twist you've just thought of.  Readers notice.  Part of the skill of writing a novel is working out ways to make your plot work within feasible boundaries.

7. Reviewers should give constructive criticism.

Sorry, but they're not obliged to.  It's lovely when you get sensitive, tactful, balanced reviews that help you with your future writing, but it is not a reader's job to tell you how to write.  The time for a full, constructive critique is before you publish.  Once your book is out there it is an article for sale, and if the reader doesn't like what he's bought, and wants to say nothing more than 'It was a bit boring', it's entirely up to him.  Take heart; a few less than brilliant reviews won't stop your book selling.  


Feb 28
I'd like to just add 3 more myths, suggested by Barb Taub, below.

You will achieve immortality through your writing.
Yeah, your book will still be around when you're dead.  So will millions of others... and, sadly, these days, if you don't publish frequent new titles, that book of yours will soon get pushed back onto a dusty bottom shelf of the vast, ten hangar-sized book store that is Amazon, and forgotten.

Writing classes, blog posts, books and online courses can teach you how to be a great writer
Um, no, they can't.  They can teach how not to be a bad writer, and how to structure a novel, but the talent needs to be there in the first place.

Everyone has a book inside them.
This may be partly true, but, sadly, many of them should stay where they are.  Doesn't mean you can't get better ~ most people's first novels are a bit rubbish; I'm talking the first ones they write, not the first ones they publish.  I'll expand on this in a future list.

Good luck!