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Resources for Fiction Writers: Read, Watch, and Listen

Last Update: December 10, 2019

TAKE ME STRAIGHT TO THE RESOURCES

This page is a constantly growing and updated list of fiction writing resources. If it is here and I have not noted otherwise, I have read, watched, or listened to it myself and feel that it is a good resource for those crafting fiction or for writers in general. Please comment at the bottom of the page with your own favorite fiction writing resources.

An asterisk (*) indicates a new resource since the last update.

Prefer a Visual Layout?

If you prefer a visual version of this list, I’ve started a Pinterest board that is a clone of the pinnable resources on this list. As of this writing, it’s not complete, but I’m trying add a little bit at a time until it is.

Want to Contribute?

Are you a writer who has found an awesome resource? If you would like me to review a resource to add to this page, please contact me with all of the details! (I am interested in proven resources from writers who have used them. Please do not contact me to promote your own page/article/tool. Thank you.)

More Resources

Don’t forget to visit my blog, Wordy Speculations, for more articles on writing, editing, and publishing!

Disclaimer

Please note that some of the links included on this page are affiliate links. This means that I receive a small percentage of sales through these links but at no extra cost to you. My editing, design and consulting services are paid for by clients, but affiliate links help me to provide you with blog content and resources at no cost to you.


Contents

Recommended Books

fiction, writing resources, fiction writing resources, writer, writing, editor, editingRecommended Websites/Blogs

General
Craft
Marketing

Recommended Podcasts & Podcast Episodes
Recommended Software
Recommended Videos and YouTube Channels

Channels
Videos

Recommended Blog Posts and Pages

Alpha/Beta Readers and Critique Groups/Partners
Business of Writing
Character
Dialogue
Editing
Fact Checking
General
Genre-Specific: Middle Grade
Genre-Specific: Romance
Marketing, Promotion, and Social Media
Narrative and Narrative Voice
Plot
Self-Publishing
Setting and World Building
Structure and Outlining
Theme
Writer’s Block
Writing Life
Writing Mechanics and Writing Rules
Writing Tools

Recommended Forums & Facebook Groups

Crowdfunding Sources


books, recommended books, books, on writing, writing, editing, editorRecommended Books for Authors

  1. 5,000 Words Per Hour: Write Faster, Write Smarter: Write Faster, Write Smarter by Chris Fox: Great tips on how to increase your writing productivity with the purpose of writing more books and generating more income.
  2. 2k to 10k: Writing Faster, Writing Better, and Writing More of What You Love by Rachel Aaron: A short book packed with advice not only on writing faster but on getting through writer’s block, creating characters, plotting, story structure, and editing.
  3. Crafting Unforgettable Characters: A Hands-On Introduction to Bringing Your Characters to Life, K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors. This ebook, which is free when you sign up for Weiland’s insightful newsletter, is full of essential information, including an in-depth character interview that you can use for your own characters.
  4. Dictate Your Book: How To Write Your Book Faster, Better, and Smarter (Growth Hacking For Storytellers #4) by Monica Leonelle. Here is my review.
  5. The Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester (Good for all kinds of fiction!)
  6. Master Lists for Writers: Thesauruses, Plots, Character Traits, Names, and More, Bryn Donovan. In an idea slump? Can’t quite find the right word? Need some good words for writing a steamy sex scene? This is the book for you.
  7. Newsletter Ninja: How to Become an Author Mailing List Expert, Tammi Labreque. I highly recommend this book. I haven’t finished with it, and it’s already helped me turn my newsletter for my fantasy pen name from a montly email going into the void to an interactive conversation with my subscribers (i.e., it’s helping me on my way to developing precious superfans!).
  8. The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley
  9. Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success by K. M. Weiland: Here is my review.
  10. Saving Money on Editing & Finding the Best Editor by Janell E. Robisch: Self-plug. Covers how to get your book in the best shape it can be before you send it to the editor, gives tips on automated editing tools, and helps you learn how to vet your editor so you don’t end up getting ripped off.
  11. Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
  12. Self-Publishing for Profit: How to Get Your Book Out of Your Head and Into The Stores by Chris Kennedy. Here is my review.
  13. Short Story Brainstormer: A Writer’s Outlining Journal by Janell E. Robisch: Self-plug. I created this book to give writers not only a place to write down all of their short story ideas but also as a guided workbook for creating stories that work.
  14. *The Story Grid: What Good Editors Know by Shawn Coyne: 4/5 stars. A good reference for both writers and developmental editors. Best for those that prefer a deep and organized dive into story structure.
  15. Structuring Your Novel: Essential Keys for Writing an Outstanding Story by K. M. Weiland
  16. The Successful Author Mindset, Joanna Penn. Here is my review.

website, blog, writing blogs, writing websites, writing, editing, editor, writerRecommended Writing Websites/Blogs

General

  1. The Writer’s Knowledge Base: A Search Engine for Writers

Craft

  1. The Editor’s Blog:Writing tips and advice for writers from fiction editor Beth Hill, author of The Magic of Fiction, for your novel, book, or manuscript.
  2. Fiction University: Plan, Write, Edit and Sell. Taking Your Story From Idea to Novel.
  3. Helping Writers Become Authors: K. M. Weiland provides consistent practical advice for fiction writers daily.
  4. JaneFriedman.com: Friedman covers a wide range of topics, mostly focused on the business side of writing in the digital age.
  5. This Itch of Writing: Emma Darwin is not afraid to dig deep to give information and explanations on topics that will help writers of fiction and creative nonfiction improve their craft.
  6. The Writer’s Dig: Brian Klems, online editor of WritersDigest.com, along with a host of other guest bloggers, covers myriad aspects of writing in short, informative posts.
  7. Writer Unboxed: “About the craft and business of fiction.”

Marketing

  1. BookFunnel: “BookFunnel delivers your books to your readers without the hassle. No matter what device your readers have, we’ll make sure they get their book.” Great delivery service for ARCs (advanced review copies) and can also be used for giveaways.
  2. The Book Genre Dictionary: Lists and descriptions of book genres. Pinpoint and categorizing your own book can help you narrow its focus as well as categorize and market it.
  3. Covervault: Free 3D cover mockups for use in advertising and promoting your book. You need Photoshop to edit these, but they make creating mockups fast and easy.
  4. Prolific Works (formerly Instafreebie): Reach new readers through individual and group giveaways. This is a great place to put your lead magnet (a free novel or short story).
  5. StoryOrigin: “Work together to build email lists, boost sales, and increase page reads.” Features a single dashboard from which you can organize newsletter swaps and join and create group giveaways, with the bonuses of integrating your email lists and your affiliate links. *Now includes mechanisms to distribute review copies for ARC readers in both ebook and audiobook formats.

writing podcasts, writing audiobooks, audiobooks, podcasts, writer, editor, writing, editingRecommended Writing Podcasts & Podcast Episodes

  1. The Creative Penn podcast: Friendly and personable Joanna Penn covers a broad range of topics in her weekly podcast and hosts a number of guests. “Podcast episodes will be posted every Monday and will cover interviews, inspiration and information on writing and creativity, publishing options, book marketing and creative entrepreneurship.”
  2. “How to Nail Character Voice in First Person,” Episode 12.2, Writing Excuses
  3. The Journeyman Writer podcast: From Storywonk, Alastair Stephens covers “the art and craft of writing, the ever-evolving publishing industry, and the stories that fuel our creativity.”
  4. “Retrofitting Structure into a First Draft,” Episode 12.20 (transcript), Writing Excuses
  5. Science Fiction & Fantasy Marketing Podcast: Hosted by authors Lindsay Buroker, Joseph Lallo, and Jeffrey M. Poole. Lots of great interviews and information for speculative fiction authors with a special emphasis to  help you “establish your author brand, increase the size of your audience, and sell more books.” *On hiatus as of March 2018.
  6. *Self-Publishing Authors “SPA Girls” Podcast: Entertaining and informative look at the ins and outs of self-publishing. It has a heavy emphasis on romance, but I find it useful for most aspects of self-publishing — “Cheryl Phipps, Trudi Jaye, Shar Barratt and Wendy Vella are four writers (romance & urban fantasy) from New Zealand who podcast weekly about self-publishing. Especially for those new or curious about self publishing, our podcast is full of full of tips, resources and honest tales from the trenches!”
  7. Self-Publishing Formula Podcast: A great series of guests and advice on “how you can make a living telling stories.”
  8. Write through the Roof: A podcast for writers who want to improve their writing. Host Madeleine D’Este zeroes in on the one thing writers profess brought their writing up to the next level.
  9. Writing Excuses podcast: Hosted by Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, Dan Wells, and the occasional guest, “Writing Excuses is like a master class in writing genre fiction.” I’ve spent many an hour listening and relistening to their tips and conversations.
  10. Writing Great Fiction: Storytelling Tips and Techniques (available on Audible, written by The Great Courses, narrated by James Hynes, Series: The Great Courses: Writing): My short review is here.
  11. “20 Podcasts for Authors on Writing, Publishing, and Book Marketing,” Diana Urbin, Bookbub.

writing software, writing tools, writing, editing, writer, editor, writing tips, scrivenerRecommended Writing Software

  1. Scrivener: Keep all of your writing, outlining, and research in one place and at a reasonable price. Here is my review.
  2. Lumen5: This free online software is designed to make creating short videos easy. It’s perfect for book trailers and even previews of your latest blog posts. Here’s a blog post preview I made with Lumen5. It took me less than ten minutes. Here is Lumen5’s own video trailer:


writing videos, videos, writing, editing, editor, writing, writing tipsRecommended Writing Videos and YouTube Channels

Channels

  1. Bookish Pixie: Publishing and craft from a traditional publishing point of view.
  2. Chris Fox:  “I’m the best selling author of 5,000 Words Per Hour, Write to Market, and numerous science fiction, fantasy, and thriller novels. Every Friday I release a video for authors discussing marketing, craft, and the business of publishing.” Great practical advice from a successful indie author in the trenches.
  3. The Creative Penn: “Information and inspiration about writing fiction, writing non-fiction, self-publishing, book marketing, and making a living with your writing.” Video versions of Joanna Penn’s podcasts plus.
  4. Garrett Robinson’s YouTube Channel: Fantasy author and Legacy Books publisher Garrett Robinson vlogs and talks about many topics relevant to indie authors, hitting topics on life, business, and technology.
  5. K. M. Weiland covers many of the same topics as her website, Helping Writers Become Authors, in short, digestible chunks.
  6. Kristen Marten’s YouTube Channel: This author of young adult fiction gives some great, sound advice on many writing topics and throws in some lifestyle tips along the way. Her goal to be a healthy, happy writer, instead of a long-suffering one, is appealing.
  7. Marie TV: Marie Forleo gives great advice for you to use your creative energies to build a business (because being an author is a business, after all) you love. “Her mission is to help you realize your greatest potential and use your unique talents to change the world.” Her videos are always upbeat and informative.
  8. Orna Ross’s YouTube Channel: “Advice on creative writing, creative publishing and creative living from Irish indie author and creativist, Orna Ross, Director of The Alliance of Independent Authors, the Indie Author Fringe online author conferences and the Go Creative! Show.”
  9. Self-Publishing with Dale: “Learn tips and tricks from an experienced self-published author. Get tutorials and insights about Kindle Direct Publishing, Createspace Book Publishing, Audiobook Creation Exchange and more.” Good channel for writers but also gives tips on other ways to supplement your author income.

Videos

  1. Brandon Sanderson’s BYU Lectures playlist (ongoing as of Summer 2016): Covers the bases of novel/story writing for fantasy and science fiction writers but with many tips that will help all fiction writers.
  2. “Brandon Sanderson Lecture 6: Three Goals of Meeting Agents,” Brandon Sanderson, Write About Dragons: Tips for what to say when you meet an editor or agent in person at a conference or other writing event.
  3. “Brandon Sanderson Lecture 7: Try/Fail Cycles,” Brandon Sanderson, Write About Dragons: The foundation for your entire plot!
  4. “Chris Baty: ‘No Plot? No Problem’ | Talks at Google”: The founder of National Novel Writing Month (NanoWriMo) discusses the origin of the event as well as its benefits and tips for writers.
  5. Dan Wells’ Seven-Point Story Structure playlist
  6. “Draft2Digital Review 2017 – Pros and Cons,” Self-Publishing with Dale L. Roberts YouTube Channel
  7. “My Six Best Autoresponder Tips (Writer Wednesday),” Garrett Robinson’s YouTube channel
  8. Indie Author Fringe 2016: A collection of videos from the free online conference sponsored by the Alliance for Independent Authors focusing on writing and the business of writing for indie authors.
  9. On Writing Playlist, Rachael Stephen’s YouTube Channel: If you don’t mind a bit of swearing, Rachael does an excellent job in her five-part How to Build a Story series of taking you through the outlining process by dividing it up into usable pieces and showing you how to put them together into a complete outline.

writing blogs, blogs, writing, editing, writer, editorRecommended Writing Blog Posts and Pages

Alpha/Beta Readers and Critique Groups/Partners

  1. “How to Spot Toxic Feedback: 7 Signs That the Writing Advice You’re Getting May Do More Harm Than Good,” Susan DeFreitas, JaneFriedman.com
  2. “The Importance and Limitations of Beta Readers,” Jen Anderson, Clearing Blocks
  3. “Writing Feedback: The Ultimate Guide to Working with Beta Readers,” Amanda Shofner, The Write Life

Business of Writing

  1. “5 Compelling Reasons You Need to (Finally) Write Your Story,” Julie Elise Andry, The Write Life
  2. 15 Places to Find Your Next Beta Reader, K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  3. Author Earnings: This website provides reports on author earnings, including print versus digital, traditional versus nontraditional, etc. “An increasingly popular resource for authors, shedding light on aspects of the publishing industry that were going previously unreported.”
  4. “Earning Money From Re-Cycled Short Stories,” Mark Leslie (Lefebvre), Mark Leslie’s Blog
  5. “Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright,” U.S. Copyright Office
  6. “How to Choose and Set Up a Pen Name,” Helen Sedwick, JaneFriedman.com
  7. “The Key Book Publishing Paths: 2017,” Jane Friedman, JaneFriedman.com
  8. “Pros And Cons Of Traditional Publishing vs Self-Publishing,” Joanna Penn at The Creative Penn gives an in-depth look at this important question.
  9. “A Tax Cheat Sheet for Kindle eBook Self-Publishing,” Intuit Turbotax
  10. “Tax Deductions for Writers,” Stephen Fishman, Nolo.com

Character/Point of View

  1. “4 Ways to Motivate Characters and Plot,” Nancy Kress, Writer’s Digest
  2. “7 Ways to Write Thematically-Pertinent Antagonists,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  3. “12 Tips on How to Write Antagonists Your Readers Will Love to Hate,” Karen Woodward
  4. “25 Things a Great Character Needs,” Chuck Wendig, Terrible Minds
  5. “123 Ideas For Character Flaws,”  Writers Write
  6. “Are Your Characters Too Stupid to Live?” Janice Hardy, Fiction University
  7. “Beyond the Cliché: How to Create Characters that Fascinate,” Becca Puglisi, Write to Done
  8. “Creating Your Hero’s Fatal Flaw,” Laurie Schnebly Campbell
  9. “Deep POV—What’s So Deep About It,” Beth Hill, The Editor’s Blog
  10. “Don’t Know Your Story’s Theme? Take a Look at Your Character’s Arc,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  11. “Getting to the Core of Your Characters,” C. S. Lakin, Live Write Thrive
  12. “Going Deeper” (point of view), Carol J. Post, Novel Rocket
  13. “How To Avoid Writing Shallow Love Interests & Shallow Best Friends,” springhole.net
  14. “How to Build a Villain,” Jim Butcher, Magical Worlds
  15. “How to Write Character Arcs,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  16. “Master Lists of Physical Descriptions,” Bryn Donovan (also, see Master Lists for Writers in the Books section)
  17. “Motivation-Reaction Units: Cracking the Code of Good Writing,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  18. “The Nine Enneagram Type Descriptions,”  The Enneagram Institute. This personality spectrum is a great resource for creating characters with depth and motivation.
  19. “rphelper’s Giant List of Quirks,” rphelper Tumblr
  20. “The True Essence of Character,” C. S. Lakin, Live Write Thrive
  21. “Writing Teenage Characters: What You’re Doing Wrong,” Hannah Heath
  22. “Writing the Unlikable Character (and Why You Should),” Adrienne Crezo, Writer’s Digest
  23. “The Zero-Fuckery Quick-Create Guide to Kick-Ass Characters (And All the Crazy Plot Stuff that Surrounds ‘Em),” Chuck Wendig, Terrible Minds

dialogue, writing, fiction, writing dialogue, writer, writing, editor, editingDialogue

  1. “How to Write (and Not Write) Expository Dialogue,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  2. “How to Write Subtext in Dialogue,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  3. “Restraining Accents,” Beth Hill, The Editor’s Blog
  4. “Writing Fiction: Dialog Tag Basics,” Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn

Editing

  1. “Checklist for Editors,” Beth Hill, The Editors Blog, “Whether you’re a professional editor or a writer going through your own work, you probably either have a system you use to evaluate each manuscript or wish that you did.” Beth Hill gives you a running start here, with a more detailed version in her book, The Magic of Fiction.

Fact Checking

  1. “Weekday Calculator – What Day is this Date?” timeanddate.com
  2. Weather Underground allows you to look up the weather on specific days in history at specific locations.

General

  1. “25 Things You Should Know about Young Adult Fiction,” Chuck Wendig at Terrible Minds discusses the elements and assumptions of young adult fiction in his usual brash, funny, and in-your-face style.
  2. TVtropes.org: This site, dedicated to pop culture and tv tropes, is actually a great site for mining for ideas and also for making sure you don’t overdo tropes in your own writing. Just type in your subject area, such as romance, fantasy, or vampires, into the search box, and you’ll have plenty of reading to keep you busy and inspired.
  3. “Worksheets for Writers: Story Planning Worksheets,” Jami Gold offers a great collection of worksheets on story structure/story beats, writing craft, and the publishing process.

Genre-Specific: Middle Grade

  1. “4 Keys to Writing Un-Put-Down-Able Middle Grade Adventure,” Richard Ungar, Writer’s Digest
  2. “6 Golden Rules of Writing Middle Grade,” Erin Entrada Kelly, Writer’s Digest
  3. “Children’s Book Manuscript Chapter Length,” Mary Kole, kidliterature YouTube channel
  4. “Middle Grade? Teen? Where Do You Draw the Line?” Michael, Upstart Crow Literary

Genre-Specific: Romance

  1. “Ask the Editor – Sex Scenes in a Romance Novel,” Shelley Thrasher, The Blood Red Pencil
  2. “The Essential Elements of Writing a Romance Novel,” Leigh Michaels, WritersDigest.com
  3. “Show the Love—Genre Requirements (Romance),” Beth Hill, The Editor’s Blog
  4. “Women’s Fiction or Romance? The Differences, and 5 Reasons Why They Matter,” Linda Goodnight, WritersDigest.com

books, book promotion, book sales, sell your book, writer, writing, editor, editing.Marketing, Promotion, and Social Media

  1. “7 Instagram Tips for Self-Published Writers,” Lorna Sixsmith, Self Publishing Advice Center
  2. Beginner’s Guide for WordPress: I’ve used this site and its accompanying videos many times for building both my author website and this one with WordPress.
  3. “The Best Way for Writers to Use Amazon’s Preorder Feature,”  Penny C. Sansevieri, Live Write Thrive
  4. “Free Book Promotions: Are They Worth It?” Frances Caballo, The Book Designer
  5. “How to Leverage the Power of Someone Else’s Platform (Without Being Smarmy),”
  6. “How To Write Back Blurb For Your Book,” Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn
  7. MailChimp Alternatives for Authors,” Ricardo Fayet, JaneFriedman.com
  8. “Marketing Advice Roundup: Best of the Last Year,” Jane Friedman, JaneFriedman.com
  9. “Sell More Books And Reach More Readers. How To Market Your Book,” Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn (a collection of resources)
  10. “Social Media Content: Feeding the Beast,” Jana Oliver, Fiction University
  11. “Using Amazon KDP Ads to Sell Your Ebook on Amazon,” Rob Kroese, JaneFriedman.com
  12. “Writing Your Book’s Back-Cover Copy,” Jessi Rita Hoffman, JaneFriedman.com

Narrative and Narrative Voice

  1. “3 Ways to Make Your Writing More Visual,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  2. “5 Wrong Ways to Start a Story,” Courtney Carpenter, WritersDigest.com
  3. “10 Killer Chapter Breaks,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  4. “A Trick for Keeping Your Plot (and Story) on Target,” Janice Hardy, Fiction University
  5. “Casting the Spell,” Donald Maass, Writer Unboxed
  6. “Story Tropes: Should We Avoid Them?” Jami Gold, JamiGold.com
  7. “A Question of When: Indicating Time Passage in Our Stories,” Jami Gold, Writers Helping Writers
  8. “Weaving Backstory Into Frontstory,” James Scott Bell, Writer Unboxed
  9. “What’s the Story on Backstory?” Rachelle Gardner, Books & Such Literary Management
  10. “Writing Tips: 7 Strategies For Writing Suspense,” Joanna Penn, The Creative Penn

Plot

  1. “Coincidences in Fiction: What You’re Doing Wrong,” K.M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  2. “Does Your Story Need Subplots?” K.M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  3. “Dramatic Structure and Plot…or How to Keep Your Story from Circling The Drain,” Hallie Ephron, Mystery Writers of America
  4. “How to Build Tension and Heighten the Stakes,” Jessica Page Morrell, Writer’s Digest
  5. “How to Plot a Romance Novel,” Now Novel

Self-Publishing

  1. CreateSpace: Print on demand. “Publish your words, your way. Tools and services that help you complete your book and make it available to millions of potential readers.”
  2. Draft2Digital: Platform to help indie authors publish their book through conversion/formatting, ebook publishing, and distribution.
  3. “How to Get Reviews for Self-Published Books,” Joel Friedlander, There Are No Rules blog, Writersdigest.com
  4. IngramSpark: “From print on demand to e-book publishing, IngramSpark makes getting your content to readers across the planet as easy as 1,2…well, you get it.”
  5. Kobo Writing Life: “One-stop, do-it-yourself publishing portal.”
  6. “A Quick Lesson About Publishers, Imprints, CreateSpace, and Bowker,” Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer
  7. “The Self-Publishing Checklist: Editorial, Production, and Distribution,” Jane Friedman, JaneFriedman.com
  8. Smashwords: “The world’s largest distributor of indie ebooks. We make it fast, free and easy for any author or publisher, anywhere in the world, to publish and distribute ebooks to the major retailers and thousands of libraries.”

Setting and Worldbuilding

  1. “Writers Are World Changers,” Beth Hill, The Editor’s Blog.

Structure and Outlining

  1. “The 4 Story Structures that Dominate Novels,” Orson Scott Card, WritersDigest.com
  2. “How to Structure Scenes in Your Story (Complete Series),” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  3. “My Writing Process, Pt. 1 of 2: How I Use Scrivener to Outline My Novels,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  4. “Parts of Story: Try–Fail Cycles,” Karen Woodward
  5. “Start Your Outline with These 4 Questions (How to Outline for NaNoWriMo, Pt. 2),” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  6. “A Useful Four-Act Murder Mystery Story Structure,” John P. Murphy
  7. “Want to Write Romance? Layer Your Scenes for Success,” C. S. Lakin, Writers Helping Writers
  8. “Writing a Novel: Chapter Breaks,” Courtney Carpenter, Writer’s Digest
  9. “WRT: Rules of the Road – Chapter Length and Chapter Length Consistency,” Ken James Howe, The Writer’s RoadTrip

Theme

  1. “25 Things Writers Should Know About Theme,” Chuck Wendig, Terrible Minds
  2. “Don’t Know Your Story’s Theme? Take a Look at Your Character’s Arc,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors

Writer’s Block

  1. “Sometimes Writers Block is really Depression,” Mary Robinette Kowal, MaryRobinetteKowal.com

Writing Life

  1. “Don’t Picture Your Readers in Their Underwear: Writing Stage Fright,” Allie Larkin, Writer Unboxed
  2. “Why Writers Could Give Up… And Why They Shouldn’t,” Scott Reintgen, Fiction University

writing tools, editor, editing, writer, writing, fictionWriting Mechanics and Writing Rules

  1. “Is Perfection Possible?” Beth Hill, The Editor’s Blog
  2. “Tips for Creating Sentences that Flow,” Jodie Wrenner, Resources for Writers

Writing Tools

  1. “My Writing Process, Pt. 1 of 2: How I Use Scrivener to Outline My Novels,” K. M. Weiland, Helping Writers Become Authors
  2. “Sync Scrivener with Android Devices for Writing on the Go,” Mattias Ahlvin, Tall Tech Tales

*Forums & Facebook Groups (in progress)

These are groups that I’ve found useful for authors, particularly self-published authors. Feel free to contact me with your recommendations. For all groups and forums, please be sure to read their rules and guidelines before posting. Also, rare is the group that allows self-promotion. The purpose of these groups is sharing between colleagues, not selling to them, so keep that in mind as well.

  1. 20BooksTo50K: “Safe place to discuss how to ethically make money as authors.” Enormous group that is well-moderated and filled with information. There is a bias toward authors who want to write and publish quickly, but there are still lots of great nuggets of information as well experience sharing that most self-published authors will find helpful.
  2. Self Publishing Books: Hosted by Dale Roberts of Self-Publishing with Dale, this group covers much of the business of self-publishing but also covers other related passive income opportunities such as low-/no-content books and merch.

Crowdfunding Sources for Writers

This is the only category of items that I have not verified personally (beyond visiting the websites). However, if you are considering crowdfunding any part of your project, I wanted to give you some places to start so that you can explore them to find out which one fits your needs. Contact me if you experience any problems (or successes!) through these sites, and I will make a note about or remove the resource as needed.

  1. The Artist’s Partner: “The Artist’s Partner is a crowdfunding consulting service. We have helped artists and entrepreneurs raise over $150,000 for their creative projects through Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Since 2013 we have specialized in providing consulting to the 85% looking to raise up to $20,000 through crowdfunding.”
  2. Indegogo: “At Indiegogo, our mission is to empower people to unite around ideas that matter to them and together make those ideas come to life. With the help of our Indiegogo community, we’re redefining entrepreneurship—shifting it from being a privilege to a right. Because every inventive idea should have its shot, and every creative entrepreneur should have their moment. Together, we can do anything.”
  3. Kickstarter:Kickstarter is the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects. A home for film, music, art, theater, games, comics, design, photography, and more.
  4. PubLaunch: “It starts with a crowdfunding platform but it doesn’t end there. We’re combining a crowdfunding platform with a collaborative work environment that connects writers with the trusted industry professionals they need to make their book a success.”
  5. Publishizer:Publishizer is a crowd-funding platform that matches authors with publishers.
  6. Unbound: “Creators pitch their ideas. Readers decide which books get written. It’s that simple.”

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