10 Best Articles This Week for Writers 9/23/11

Happy Friday, everyone! A little housekeeping today before we get into the round-up.

The copy of Jennifer Brown's BITTER END goes to Anne Greenwood Brown.


The copy of Susan Beth Pfeffer's BLOOD WOUNDS goes to Halli Gomez.


And courtesy of the fabulous Georgia McBride, one copy of Pittacus Lore's THE POWER OF SIX goes to Lydia Sharp.


The other copy of Georgia's donation of Pittacus Lore's THE POWER OF SIX goes to Holly Dodd.

Ladies, please email me your smail addresses and Georgia and I will get your books out!


Happy reading,


Martina


After the Sale

• Book Trailers — Are they worth the effort? [Ripping Ozzie Reads]

Book Reviews

• New Releases: Week of September 22 [Katie's Book Blog] Great stuff here!
• Book Review: Dear Bully, 70 Authors Tell Their Stories [Mundie Moms] Everyone must read this.
• First Page: BEYOND LUCKY [First Page Panda] Sounds like a book even non-soccer fans will like.
• ASK THE EXPERT INTERVIEW AND GIVEAWAY OF FOREVER [Literary Rambles] Great perspectives from teen book bloggers.
• Book Review: The Daughter of Smoke & Bone [Mundie Moms]
• Tension-Filled Books [The Bookshelf Muse]
• Review - Witch Eyes [Mundie Moms] A 5 star must-read.
• A Quest for That Final, Missing Element [Harry Potter for Writers] Brilliant. Just amazing.

Congrats

• Chris Riddell's top 10 author/illustrator double acts | Children's books | guardian.co.uk [www.guardian.co.uk]
• Great News and a Giveaway! [Where Fantasy and Love Take Flight] Congrats, Nicole! @NicoleZoltack

Contests

• Worst Query Letter Ever Contest [Buried in the Slush Pile]

Craft of Writing

• An Observation On Character Development [Pub Rants]
• Does Your MC Get the Best Lines? [The Character Therapist]
• The Crying Game [The Sharp Angle] Do your characters cry too much?
• Benefits of Outlining [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors] Excellent!
• Is your YA Setting hitting the wrong nerve? [YA Confidential]
• Write. Revise. Rest. Repeat. [The Bluestocking Blog] With links to help you through each step!
• Avoiding Stop-Action Description [Artzicarol Ramblings] What's the limit on description before your reader starts skimming?
• Katrina Kittle Guest Post: Writing Tough Subjects for Young Readers [Iggi & Gabi]
• Emotions: Show, Don't Tell [*Lynnette Labelle* @Chatterbox Chitchat]
• Hidden venom [The League of Extraordinary Writers] Great question about villains in this post.
• Hermione Sneaks a Clue [Harry Potter for Writers] Alerting your readers about what's coming.
• Tragic Monsters [Paranormal Point of View] The villain you can't get out of your heart.
• A strategy for plotting and creating tension when you write a novel [Time to Write]
• What Makes a Novel a Page Turner? [The Kill Zone]
• 5 Elements of a Riveting First Line [Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors]
• Why Writers Write and Readers Read [Writer Unboxed]
• 10 Tips Writers can Learn from Bad Movies [.W.I.P. It]
• Finding your voice - a SCBWI masterclass with Beverley Birch [Notes from the Slushpile]
• 5 Free College-Level Writing & Lit Videos [GalleyCat]
• What Makes a Chapter? What Makes a Scene? [How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book]
• If a character screams while off the page, does anyone hear them? [Magical Words]
• Publishing Information Right Here! [Rachelle Gardner]
• Twisting in the Wind: Plotting Red Herrings and Other Distractions [The Other Side of the Story]
• Friday Filler! Margaret Atwood and Endings! [The Literary Lab]
• Best Advice I Ever Got: Hilari Bell [Anna Staniszewski]
• Sentences: Control of Voice [Fiction Notes]
• What's In a Name? [Glass Cases]
• Changing names: character name hell, H.P. Lovecraft and the freight of fate « Dad Who Writes [dadwhowrites.wordpress.com] Great post!
• 20 Writing Quotes From Famous Authors – From Hemingway to Jong [Quips and Tips for Successful Writers]
• TO PLOT OR NOT TO PLOT: Part 4 – Types of Plot [Ingrid's Notes]
• Introducing…Backstory [Beyond The Margins] Make the reader crave it!

Critiquing

• Writer’s Den: Writing a Good Critique [Fantasy Faction]

Inspiration

• Nanowrimo Prep: First, You Need an Idea [Alexandra Sokoloff]
• Tuesday Ten: Signs You’re Not Writing Enough [Cheryl's Musings] I love this quiz!
• Why You Should Write What You Love [Franklin, Ink]
• The Things I've Learned [YA Highway]
• Writing VS. Writing For Publication [YA Author Elana Johnson]

Issues, News, and Trends

• Agents Are Not Your Employees. You Are Not Their Customers. [Between Fact and Fiction]
• Fresh Ink: How One Indie Bookseller Gets Teens And Tweens Reading [Mitali's Fire Escape]

Just for Smiles

• Buy Art! Help a Good Cause! [Mad Woman in the Forest] Hurry and help out, lovely tweeps! :D

Self-Editing

• An Observation On An Observation [Pub Rants] Agent tip
• Dissecting Your Novel - Part 1 [Writing Fiction Right from novelist Gail Gaymer Martin]
• WEEDING OR EDITING [Help! I Need a Publisher!] A self-editing checklist by @nicolamorgan
• The Rulebreaker’s Guide to the Semicolon [Fantasy Faction]
• Get Out of My Way: The Awkward Things we do to Avoid Certain Words [The Other Side of the Story]
• Flat Adverbs Are Flat-Out Useful [Daily Writing Tips]
• Time and Space: Creating a Long Distance Relationship With Your Manuscript [YA Highway]
• Character Voices Shouldn’t Sound Like Yours [The Editor's Blog]
• The power of suggestion – what can you leave the reader to fill in? (With help from Victoria Mixon) [Nail Your Novel] Great visual example!

Social Media

• What Is The Point Of Writing A Book If You Have No Online Presence? [BubbleCow]
• Is Blogging Dead? [* Roni Loren - Fiction Groupie *] Fantastic post by @RoniLoren.
• Why Twitter Chats Can Be Hard for Introverts- Part 1 [Cat's Eye Writer Blog | Judy Dunn | Blogging Coach | Social Media Copywriter]
• How to Find Your Readers & Keep Them: The Basics of Audience Development – Live Webinar [Writers Digest University]

To Market

• Open Call for Submissions to YA Humor Anthology [Mitali's Fire Escape]
• Things You Think That Don't Happen [Nothing Cannot Happen Today] After you sign with an agent.
• The 2012 Guide to Literary Agents [Rachelle Gardner]
• Agent Spotlight: Kathleen Rushall [Literary Rambles]
• Agent News and Contests [Falling Leaflets]

Other Weekly Round-Ups:

• Jane Friedman of Writer's Digest does a wonderful list of best tweets of the previous week. 
• Alice Pope does a Wednesday Tweet Roundup for the SCBWI Children's Market Blog.
• Northern Colorado Writers do This Week in the Writing World every Friday.
• Jennifer Roland does a Writing Roundup on Fridays.
• Ricki Schultz does an "In the Blogosphere" post on Fridays where she lists posts she's enjoyed during the week.
• Elizabeth Craig posts a weekly list of all her helpful Twitter posts.
• And don't forget to check  Nathan Bransford's blog later this morning for his weekly recap of publishing news and information.
• Saturday Link Party [Forever Young] Jessica rounds up fun and interesting links.
• Stina Linddenblatt does a Cool Links Friday. This week, she caught a lot I wish we had on ours. I know what I'm doing for the next few minutes!
• DuoLit does a weekly list of links with some emphasis on self-publishing and marketing.
• YA Highway's Friday Road Trip hits the high points of the publishing industry, writing craft, submissions process, and other fun stuff.
• Cynthia Leitich Smith at Cynsations does a Cynsational author and book news review.

Did we miss anything? Anyone? Please leave a comment!

Happy reading and joyous writing,

Martina, Marissa and Clara