8 Best Articles This Week for Writers 6/17/11

After the Sale

• The Pubbed Writer’s 7 Deadly Sins [Writer Unboxed] Take care of the most important thing you control: your ability and desire to write.
• Book Marketing Q&A With Joanna Penn [The Creative Penn] Great answers to FAQs on book marketing from an expert.

Book Reviews

• Twitter Tuesday - Myra McEntire [Mundie Moms] Five brilliant reasons to RUN and DIVE into @MyraMcEntire's HOURGLASS.
• Story Is All That Matters [The Sharp Angle] Read it before you recommend it.

Congrats

• Have You Posted Your Work Online? [Jami Gold, Paranormal Author] Congrats to @JamiGold for winning the Mega Awesome First Page Contest! WOOT!
• Three YEARS! [christina lee] Congrats for the three-year blogiversary, Christina. Plus a great contest!
• Natalie C Parker - This is the post [nataliesee.livejournal.com]  Congrats,
  Natalie for nabbing a fabulous agent.

Contests

• Interview & Giveaway: Ordinary Beauty by Laura Wiess [Confessions of a Bookaholic] Enter by 7/5 to win ORDINARY BEAUTY. Plus a great interview.
• FORGIVEN and FAITHFUL by Janet Fox Giveaway! [ROOTS IN MYTH] Enter by 6/24 to win FORGIVEN and FAITHFUL.

Craft

• Character Quiz: Does Your Character Have Trust Issues? [The Character Therapist] Trust me: take this cool quiz from @jeanniecampbell to see if your characters have trust issues.
• That Pesky Exclamation Point!!! [Rachelle Gardner] Something in this sentence makes us look like amateurs!!! What is it?!?!
• WRITER WEDNESDAY: The Last Line of The First Chapters [Oasis for YA] Rarely considered but important: the last line of the 1st chapter.
• The Conflict of Choice [The Sharp Angle] The harder the choice, the more people involved, the greater the conflict in your novel.
• Writing and it's progression [Unedited] Beyond getting words on the page, plot is about making the words and actions matter.
• Three ways readers will judge your work [James Killick's Blog] Believable? Coherent? Conventional? What will readerssay about your ms?
• To delve or not to delve that is the question [Janet Reid, Literary Agent] Great dialogue isn't about what a character could say; it's what a character WOULD say.
• Scenes are about change [edittorrent] BRILLIANT! Using body tags to demonstrate character change within a scene.
• Tips for Writing a Sequel [Mystery Writing is Murder] Graceful backstory in a sequel, reintroducing recurring characters, and more from @ElizabethCraig.
• Elana Johnson: Creating a Dystopian Setting [The Bookshelf Muse] Three things critical to a solid dystopian world.
• Forty Questions for a Stronger Manuscript [Adventures in Children's Publishing] How do you make your ms more saleable before you even write it?
• Must writers be natural storytellers? [Julie Musil] The best resources for writers? @JulieMusil's got them linked right here.
• 7 Things I've Learned So Far, by Suzanne Hayes [Guide to Literary Agents] Take the advice on the basics, and six other important tips on getting published.
• What Went Wrong with the Star Wars Prequels? [Kristen Lamb's Blog] Six things you can learn from mistakes in the Star Wars Prequels.
• WIP Warning Signs [Anna Staniszewski] Writer's block? Could be a you've taken a wrong turn in your WIP. Don't ignore it.
• How to Characterize Wrong, in 3 Easy Steps [A. Victoria Mixon, Editor] Give your protag big, opposing needs. Make her choose.
• 9 Things I Learned from Other Writers [Guide to Literary Agents] Nine brilliant thoughts on writing. Tape them up somewhere.
• The Emotional Structure of Tangled: Part One [Seeing Creative] Great emotional and beat breakdown of the movie Tangled. Learn from it.
• Writing in 140: What Makes Your Story So Special? [The Blood-Red Pencil] What seven things do you need to sell your story?
• Strengths and Your Protagonist [QueryTracker.net] A character's strength can bring them down as much as their weaknesses.
• Forest and Trees--Balancing the Long View and Short View as a Book Writer [How to Plan, Write, and Develop a Book] So wrapped up in details you don't see the big picture (or vice versa)? Try a storyboard.
• Dictate Your Story – An Unconventional Method of Completing A First Draft [Let The Words Flow] Speaking your manuscript instead of typing it. Tried dictation?

Critiquing

• Contest Monday with a 5K Critique [Sisters in Scribe] After signing with her agent, Natalie Parker offers 5k crits to all.
• 10 Tips for Critiquing Other People’s Writing [Daily Writing Tips] Critiquing someone's ms? Here's how to make it a positive & productive experience for both of you.
• Beta Readers–A Writer’s Secret Weapon [Write Anything] Beta reading from both sides of the manuscript. Ten things to keep in mind.

Inspiration

• When it's ok to quit [Janet Reid, Literary Agent] The true measure of whether you want to keep writing is whether you feel joy.
• Defining Success In Writing [YA Highway] Climbing the ladder? What are you most proud of in your writing right now?
• THE 5 SIGNS THAT SAY YOU MUST BE QUERYING [Grab a Pen] Got the querying crazies? It's all part of the process. Never give up.

Issues, Trends, and News

• On Darkness in YA Literature [Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent] Darkness in YA from an agents side of the desk.

Self-Editing

• 7 Solutions for Repetitive Sentence Structure [Daily Writing Tips] Fix repetition within your sentences as well as within your paragraphs.
• 5 Cases of Mistaken Meaning Cured by a Comma [Daily Writing Tips] What does your sentence really say without the extra comma?
• Beginning Workshop #1 [Kidlit.com] Great line-by-line analysis of an opening page by agent Mary Kole.
• Simple Edit [edittorrent] "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe." Do you know how to make this sentence stronger?

Social Media

• Blogging Solution For Those Who Hate To Blog [* Roni Loren - Fiction Groupie *] Not the blogging kind? Try Tumbler and just click your favorite stuff while surfing.
• 5 Excellent Tips for Platform Building [There Are No Rules] Pick one thing and try it for a while--and other great social media tips.
• First Impressions and the Social Media [Babbles from Scott Eagan] While building your online platform, consider the impression you are leaving.
• How to Blog: Seventeen Tips from Elizabeth S. Craig [Anne R. Allen's Blog] Want a blog but don't know where to start? 17 tips for new bloggers
• Twitter Tuesday #21–The Power of Names [Kristen Lamb's Blog] Two great tips about making friends, on Twitter and in life.

To Market

• Agent Spotlight: Mandy Hubbard [Literary Rambles] Agent Mandy Hubbard seeks MG/YA with heavy focus on romance, humor, or issues.
• When you have been rejected... [Coffey. Tea. And Literary.] Rejection sucks. The do's and don'ts for when it happens to you.
• Developing the Hook in a Query Letter [Guide to Literary Agents] A tagline can sell your query as well as your book.
• If you have an agent, then why are you querying? [Behler Blog] Is it ever okay to query an editor once you have an agent?
• Email Etiquette [BookEnds, LLC — A Literary Agency] Seven email tips to keep in mind when sending or replying to an agent.
• How Do You Know When You're Done? [YA Muses] Six signs your ms is ready to query.

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