I enjoy Twitter – and what I enjoy most is sharing and finding new blog posts or resources to help me in my writing journey. I realize not all of us are writers as well as readers, but for those who enjoy both, here are the articles/posts I’ve found most helpful or interesting this past year.
(I read 99% of the articles I tweet out, but not all of them are worth going back to later. The ones below are worth the effort!)
The Authoring Landscape
The Man Behind the Mask: On the Creation of Batman—and Rewriting Authorship Itself,
by Sean P. Carlin (@SeanPCarlin):
A long and thought-provoking post about assigning authorship to intellectual property, the hazards of mob rule, “correcting for history”, and the baffling fact that someone has published a collection of Shakespeare’s works with Christopher Marlowe as co-author. Important read with telling worldview implications.
Protect eBooks Or Trust Customers To Do The Right Thing,
by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords (@MarkCoker):
A lucid post on DRM (digital rights management) and the future of books. DRM is an important issue in today’s publishing world, and deserves the time it takes to understand the implications.
In Defense of Short Games,
by Extra Credits (@ExtraCreditz):
This YouTube channel team posts videos primarily about game development and story-craft in gaming, but much of what they say is just as applicable to novelist entrepreneurs, or screenplay-writers, etc. This particular video affirms that sometimes it doesn’t take 10 hours of gameplay (or 200,000 words of a novel, or 3+ hours of running time) to tell the story you need to tell, and writers who deliver content in a shorter frame should be just as valued as the others.
Making Money in a World Addicted to FREE—What Do Writers DO?,
by Kristen Lamb (@KristenLambTX):
I like so much of what Mrs. Lamb writes – partly because her style is very different from my own, and thus challenges me – and this post talks about writers being worth payment for their labor (just like every other business providing a product), and teaches us how to take charge of our author brand and bring the technological advances of our day to heel!
Botched Beginnings: Common First Page Killers,
by Kirsten Lamb:
The first few pages/chapters of a book are always critical, and this post is an engaging walk-through of some common pit-falls to avoid.
5 Reasons to Pan Those 5-Star Reviews,
by Porter Anderson:
This post discusses everything that goes wrong when every book is either FULLY AWESOME or WORST THING EVER.
I’ve heard some authors determine to not write book reviews, unless the book is good, to avoid “hurting feelings”…but I can just say I’m very grateful for the thoughtful, intelligent writers who write thoughtful, intelligent reviews of their reads, thus helping the authors of those books and the rest of us to grow, learn, and improve our craft. Why would you cheat anyone of your constructive criticism, thus skewing the review-ratings and denying them the chance to make the next book better?
Should You Self-Publish or Traditionally Publish?,
by Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman):
If you’re an author weighing the options of which publishing route to take, this post can help you lay out exactly what you’re looking to achieve and help you make the best decision for your goals.
3 Ways Self-Publishers Fail at Cover Design,
by Joel Friedlander (@JFbookman):
Whether you’re trying your hand at making your own cover, or outsourcing the design, it’s important to remember the biggest pitfall authors face in this area: not considering the audience.
Common Writing Myths,
by Nat Russo (@NatRusso):
This post shows the weaknesses of axioms like “Show, Don’t Tell” and encourages all writers to take a deep breath, step back, and write for the story, not for the critics.
Using Twitter Effectively,
by Nat Russo:
This is a long series of posts, but it really helped me define my ideas of marketing and social media as I got started on Twitter. Because the landscape of Twitter – and marketing with Twitter – is so complex, also consider Kirsten Lamb’s post Twitter for Writers – Eight Ways to Nuke Your Brand.
Don’t Let A Glock Kill Your Book,
by Scott Hoffman:
A post by a literary agent explaining why agents read until they can stop, then do (specifically with examples from thriller manuscripts). When they get about 500 queries a week, it doesn’t take much ignorance or imperfection (in research, grammar, or editing) to make a busy agent drop your query and go on to the next. Get your stuff right!
Worldview Significance
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” – The True Cost of Survival in The Walking Dead,
by Extra Credits:
Again, this is a YouTube video primarily talking about the adventure video game The Walking Dead…but it’s talking about so much more than that. It’s talking about the ability of an art form to confront us with our humanity and challenge us to rethink crucial elements of who we are – while entertaining us at the same time. If you’re an author seeking to bring your work to a whole new level, this is a good exploration of what’s possible.
Superversive Blog: Life, Carbon, and the Tao — Part Two!,
by Tom Simon:
I go back to this post every so often because it’s such a shining explanation of the impact of stories, and why your starting point for interpreting the world (worldview) matters so very much – in everything.
3 Ways the “Blind Men and the Elephant” Story Backfires,
by Trevin Wax:
If you’ve heard this “just so” fable that talks about different perspectives on truth (or even if you haven’t), check out this thought-provoking analysis of where the analogy comes up short.
Kimia Wood has been writing stories since she was little. Now she writes to give the people living in her head a chance at life.
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Thank you, Kimia, for reading and recommending “The Man Behind the Mask” — I’m glad you found the piece insightful! It’s certainly a subject I’ve given more thought to since I published the post, as some of the comments (including a response from Bill Finger biographer Marc Tyler Nobleman) provoked a surprising amount of debate, one I’m always happy to have new voices weigh-in on, so I appreciate your spreading the word…
Thanks for commenting! We humans certainly like to redefine Truth based on our own agendas and feelings. Just because story creation is often such a collaborative process doesn’t mean we should reassign credit after the fact (especially, as you said, without objective evidence).