Writing Class

Resources for those of us who have to get their “degree” in creative writing online!

Note that if an article or post kicked off a series of articles or posts, I’ve only linked to the first one. I’m always open to adding more links, so if you think I’ve forgotten something, let me know!

General/Multi-topic:

http://www.writingexcuses.com/

YouTube videos of Brandon Sanderson’s writing class at BYU

https://gailcarsonlevine.com/blog/

http://www.hatrack.com/writingclass/index.shtml (Orson Scott Card’s essays on writing–many good, some dated)

writerunboxed.com

Writing Excuses: MICE quotient infographic

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/ (KM Weiland’s site)

https://thinkingthroughourfingers.com/

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/blog/ (Language warning LDS friends)

http://litreactor.com/

Writing Excuses season 11: Elemental Genre

Nerdwriter on YouTube–a channel with some thought-provoking videos about writing and stories

My Pinterest board on writing–160+ articles, infographics, lists, inspirational sayings, etc.

 

Story Structure:

https://timstout.wordpress.com/story-structure/blake-snyders-beat-sheet/

Dan Wells Seven-point Story Structure videos

 

Prose:

Nuts and Bolts by Chuck Palahniuk

Four Quick and Dirty Tips for Cleaner Prose by me (for beginners)

This brilliant quote about sentences by Gary Provost

https://kathysteinemann.com/Musings/strong-verbs/

 

Outlining:

A video by Charlie N. Holmberg (scroll down, but also take a second to look at the resources she has linked, some of them are not listed on this page)

 

Picture books (credit for gathering these resources goes to Janet S. Johnson):

The 12×12 Picture Book Challenge/Community

https://susannahill.com/for-writers/making-picture-book-magic/

https://www.joshfunkbooks.com/resources-for-writers

https://www.writingpicturebooksforchildren.com/ 

 

Chapter Books (credit for gathering these resources goes to Janet S. Johnson):

https://kidlit.com/2010/10/22/early-reader-chapter-book-market/

http://greatstorybook.com/how-to-write-a-chapter-book/

 

Middle Grade (credit for gathering these resources goes to Janet S. Johnson):

http://www.kidlit411.com/

http://middlegrademinded.blogspot.com/

http://www.middlegradeninja.com/

http://www.fromthemixedupfiles.com/

http://www.right-writing.com/middle-grade.html

 

Fantasy and Science Fiction:

Sanderson’s Laws of Magic

Fantasy world generator

Patricia C. Wrede’s world building questionnaire

 

Romance:

Jami Gold’s Romance Beat Sheet

My blog posts on sexual and romantic tension

 

Mystery/Thriller/Suspense:

A list of writing books on Goodreads

 

Horror:

Lit Reactor articles by Richard Thomas (scroll down)

 

Historical:

Online Etymology Dictionary (gives dates for when words first appeared in the English language)

 

Current culture and context:

Writing Excuses: Colonialism (ep. 11.46)

People of color speak about writing people of color

On writing people of color — how to describe skin tone

A collection of stories about and by people with disabilities

Writing with privilege by Ali Standish

 

Places to find critique:

Meet writers on Twitter (no link, just a suggestion)

Search for writing groups on Facebook (again, suggestion)

https://www.scribophile.com/

Maggie Stiefvater’s CP match group

 

Online writing conferences, contests, and events:

https://writeoncon.org/

https://www.rwa.org/chapterevents

http://pitchwars.org/

https://nanowrimo.org/

 

Resources for Querying:

queryshark.blogspot.com

How to write and format a query letter by Nathan Bransford

Manuscript Wishlist (#MSWL)–Where agents tweet about what they’re looking for

https://querytracker.net/

Examples of successful queries by Writers Digest

 

Self-publishing and marketing:

Jane Friedman’s blog has a whole list of resources

20 Books to 50K Facebook Group

Let’s Get Digital (and Let’s Get Visible) by David Gaughran

Mastering Amazon Ads by Brian Meeks

Help! My Facebook Ads Suck by Michael Cooper

 

Miscellanious:

Increasing your daily word count (2K to 10K), by Rachel Aaron/Rachel Bach

Conventional word counts for Adult novels

The difference between Young Adult and Middle Grade novels

Name Generator for Fantasy and other

Another name generator

The Pain Lexicon

 

Recommended books:

Damn Fine Story by Chuck Wendig

The Plot Whisperer Workbook by Martha Alderson

How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

On Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card

The Plot Thickens by Noah Lukeman

The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maas

Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maas

The Anatomy of Story by John Truby

Save the Cat by Blake Snyder

The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi (any of their thesauri are a good bet)