Cool Resources for Writers

Helpful online resources

Scriptologist: This site combines the three most powerful elements of online marketing — content, commerce and community — for those in screenwriting.

Sips Card: This paying market puts short fiction and poetry in local coffee shops around the country. Each card has a quick response code loaded with a short story or set of poems from an independent writer meant to last as long as a cup of coffee. The card includes the author's name, story title and website/email.

Stoneslide Books: Launched in February 2012, this fiction press seeks narratives — primarily novels — that prompt readers to think, ask questions and "move the mind forward."

Teachers and Writers Collaborative (T&W): T&W sends professional writers into schools and communities to teach creative writing, and conducts professional development workshops for teachers and administrators. T&W has published more than 80 books, and publishes Teachers & Writers Magazine.

Writer's Bloq: This supportive site is about and for writers and their writing. Writers can create a portfolio and share their work with writers and gain a readership that can open publication doors. The community is based on creative cooperation and idea promotion.

Writers Conference & Centers (WC&C): This database allows writers to search for regional, national and international conferences, centers, festivals, residencies and retreats. Search by region and/or genre, and find scholarship opportunities as well. WritersNet www.writers.net/agents: This site helps writers showcase their work to be found by agents, editors and publishers.

Even More Great Resources for Writers

Great resources help make great writers

Literary Agent's Directory: This comprehensive listing of U.S.-based agents includes locations, phone numbers and websites.

LitReactor: LitReactor enables writers to improve their craft, gives readers a place gab about books and provides a platform to jump-start your writing goals. Offerings include monthly online classes, a great writers' workshop and a magazine filled with interviews, reviews and columns.

National Association of Memoir Writers (NAMW): The NAMW is a member-based organization for memoirists worldwide. This targeted memoir-writing community works on writing, marketing and publishing skills through events, teleseminars, articles and resources. The goal is to empower memoirists to develop and publish their stories in various venues.

PressBooks: Built on WordPress, PressBooks allows users to create e-books for any device, Web books for accessibility and promotion, and PDFs for print books and print on demand. The aim is an easy blogging-style way to get books into Kindle, Apple iBooks, Nook and other venues.

ProBlogger.com: This site gives bloggers a chance to collaborate, learn and network in a private forum. Whether you're looking to find readers, make money, write content, design a blog, collaborate, find technology help or get a critique, this eclectic site offers a bit of everything.

More Great Resources for Writers

Resources for writers

Byliner: Byliner is a digital publisher of compelling fiction and nonfiction written to be read in one sitting. Stories range from 5,000 to 30,000 words, and are sold as Kindle Singles at Amazon, Quick Reads at Apple's iBookstore and NOOK Snaps at BN.com.

Find a Literary Agent: This tool helps writers and agents cut through the red-tape of making a match

GalleyCat: Part of Media Bistro, this site helps writers, agents and publishers connect, and is building a directory of best agents on Twitter.

Help a Reporter (HARO): Looking for free PR? Nearly 30,000 media members have quoted HARO sources. Founded in 2008, HARO is one of North America's fastest-growing social media services, and is free to sources and reporters.

Great Resources for Authors and Publishers

Best resources for 2013

Here is the next installment of the January writers' resource list.

Association of American Publishers (AAP): AAP's 300 members comprise premier publishers of entertainment, education, scientific and professional content, and deliver that content to global audiences through the latest technology. Writers in various genres can use the site to find valuable contacts.

Association of Author's Representatives (AAR): While primarily for agents, the AAR is a site writers can use to confirm that the agent of interest has a solid reputation.

aStore: For writers seeking their own store featuring Amazon products, this site is worth investigating. aStore by Amazon is a quick way to create a professional online store that can be embedded in, or linked to or from, your website. Writers can choose products to complement or augment their current offerings.

Author Buzz: Founded in 2005, this fee-based marketing service links authors with booksellers, librarians, readers and reading groups. It gets the buzz out through key online publications, such as Book Movement, Dear Reader, Kindle Nation Daily, Publishers Marketplace and Shelf-Awareness. Author Buzz works with fiction, nonfiction, young adult, middle grade and picture book authors, and tailors its programs to their needs and budget.

New Year, New Information

Welcome to 2013. This month, we'll feature some great online resources for writers and editors. Some you may be aware of, and some not.

Archway Publishing

Archway, a venue for emerging writers

This comparatively new venue for emerging writers comes from mega-publisher Simon & Schuster (S&S). S&S teamed up with Author Solutions, a leading self-publishing company, to create Archway, which offers a specialized approach to design, formatting, editorial and marketing services through packages tailored to meet each author's objectives and audience.

Create the Best Scene to Propel Your Plot and Reveal Your Characters

Revise scenes to enhance the story

Actor Jack Nicholson often offers directors more than one version of a scene. Why? Besides the fact that he's an outside-the-box thinker, Nicholson's rationale for doing a scene more than one way is, simply, choice — to provide the best scene for the story. Writers can benefit from the same approach.

If you're writing a story whose plot lacks forward momentum, or have created a character that isn't fully realized, try this technique:

• Start with a blank page, and write a completely new scene, without considering for the moment whether it meshes with the rest of the story.
• Put the scene aside for a day or two, then repeat the process.
• Wait another day or so, then compare the three scenes — the original and the two new options.

Now ask yourself these questions:

• What does each scene reveal about your character(s)?
• How would each choice affect the story as a whole?
• Which option works best, or feels most real? Why?
• If you're fairly far along in the story, don't start over.

Simply note what will need to change as the thoughts come to mind, and continue writing based on what you know now. You can use what you've learned to inform Draft 2 during the revision process.

What story are you working on that could use a fresh direction?

Happy writing!

For more tips, visit Word for Words, or visit Adele's blog.

Break Writers' Block the Old-Fashioned Way

Get past writers' block

More has been said about writers' block than most writing topics. The problem usually isn't that people can't put a word on paper, but that they're afraid to.

Some writers thrive on deadlines. Others dread them. Some fear the blank page. To others, it's a perennial fresh start. Of the myriad ways to deal with writers' block, one is to simply begin, even if all you start with is, "I'm not sure what to say."

When I reach an impasse while writing a story, I often stop writing the story and start writing to myself. I'll write something like, "I'm not sure what to say here, and the reason is …" It's similar to using the prompt "and then" to keep the prose flowing.

My approach, however, is to explain the problem to myself, since I'm not always sure what the problem is. I may think I know, then find it's really something else. I may fear something, or lack a key piece of information. Whatever the reason, I'm usually better off addressing it by writing about it. That way I keep writing, address the problem and move toward a solution — all in one effort.

Suffering from writers' block? Send along your anecdote.

Happy writing!

For an online writers' workshop, visit Word for Words. For more on writing, visit Adele's blog.

Use a Point of View Change in Fiction to Reveal Your Characters

A POV change deepens your fiction

An MFA colleague recently explained how switching point of view (POV) from third person to first helped him relate to his main character. "I really got inside her head," he said.

The idea for the shift began as an exercise to deepen the story's main squeeze. In this case, what started as an exercise resulted in a much stronger character — so much so the writer revised the manuscript to reflect the new perspective.

To deepen your main character, try switching to first person from third, and from a distant perspective to one that's close, as in the following examples:

John walked into the crowed room and looked around at the unfamiliar faces. How could he make a personal call in front of all these people?

He edged into the crowded room. He couldn't make the call now, not with everyone listening.

You may not revise your entire story to reflect the new POV, but revising a pivotal scene will reveal and enrich your character, and your story. The approach also works for going from one gender to another, and one age or stage of life to another.

What story are you writing that could benefit from a deeper main or key secondary character?

Happy writing! For more tips, visit Word for Words, or visit Adele's blog.