50 Best Blogs for Creative Writing Students Posted on Monday September 27, 2010 by Staff Writers Creative writing students can learn a lot from others in the industry, whether they’re fellow students, educators, or successful writers. You can find advice, inspiration, and more, just by checking out creative writing blogs online, and we’ve found 50 of the best to share here. General Find information and interesting tidbits for writers on these blogs. Inkygirl: Inkygirl has daily diversions for writers.The Best Damn Creative Writing Blog: Get your literary life with the help of this blog.Literary Rejections on Display: See literary rejections on this blog.Three Guys One Book: These bloggers discuss books together.Like Fire: Like Fire is devoted to everything wonderful in literature. Advice You’ll find excellent advice for writing and more in these blogs. Success Check out these blogs to find the secrets to creative writing success. Education Educators, students, and more share their creative writing insight on these blogs. Resources Journals
25 Things Writers Should Stop Doing I read this cool article last week — “30 Things To Stop Doing To Yourself” — and I thought, hey, heeeey, that’s interesting. Writers might could use their own version of that. So, I started to cobble one together. And, of course, as most of these writing-related posts become, it ended up that for the most part I’m sitting here in the blog yelling at myself first and foremost. That is, then, how you should read this: me, yelling at me. Then go forth and kick your writing year in the teeth. Onto the list. 1. Right here is your story. 2. Momentum is everything. 3. You have a voice. 4. Worry is some useless shit. 5. The rise of self-publishing has seen a comparative surge forward in quantity. 6. I said “stop hurrying,” not “stand still and fall asleep.” 7. It’s not going to get any easier, and why should it? 8. 9. The mind is the writer’s best weapon. 10. Complaining — like worry, like regret, like that little knob on the toaster that tells you it’ll make the toast darker — does nothing. 11.
Setting of a story — The Writer’s Craft The following exercises will allow you to create a rich, vibrant setting of a story, giving the reader the full vicarious experience. 1. Use the setting worksheet we have provided. Sit in a quiet place, close your eyes and imagine a particular setting for your scene. 2. You can do this in any setting-—the mall, the grocery store, a bar, a city street. 3. 4. 5. 6. Character ExercisesCreative Writing Exercises
60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers June 20th, 2010 Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient. Professional Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines. Writing These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process. Research Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap. Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. Reference Need to look up a quote or a fact? Niche Writers
Questionnaires for Writing Character Profiles - Creative Writing Help Enter your e-mail to get the e-book for FREE. We'll also keep you informed about interesting website news. "I have searched the web and used different worksheets, but none have come close to your worksheets and descriptions of (what to do and what not to do). Both courses I have taken have with Creative Writing Now have been amazing. "As usual - I already love the course on Irresistible Fiction, rewriting a lot and improving greatly even after the first lesson. “Essentials of Fiction proved that I could indeed write and I wrote every day, much to my boyfriend's dismay (waa sniff).” - Jill Gardner "I am loving the course and the peer interaction on the blog is fantastic!!!" "I'm enjoying the weekly email course, Essentials of Poetry Writing. "Thank you for all the material in this course. "I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the lessons and feel they were very helpful in introducing new ideas and perspectives to my writing. "Thanks very much for this course. "Thank you so much!!
UW Madison Writing Center National Punctuation Day - StumbleUpon Poem Starters and Creative Writing Ideas Enter your e-mail to get the e-book for FREE. We'll also keep you informed about interesting website news. "I have searched the web and used different worksheets, but none have come close to your worksheets and descriptions of (what to do and what not to do). Both courses I have taken have with Creative Writing Now have been amazing. "As usual - I already love the course on Irresistible Fiction, rewriting a lot and improving greatly even after the first lesson. “Essentials of Fiction proved that I could indeed write and I wrote every day, much to my boyfriend's dismay (waa sniff).” - Jill Gardner "I am loving the course and the peer interaction on the blog is fantastic!!!" "I'm enjoying the weekly email course, Essentials of Poetry Writing. "Thank you for all the material in this course. "I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the lessons and feel they were very helpful in introducing new ideas and perspectives to my writing. "Thanks very much for this course. "Thank you so much!!
Random City Map Generator The Random City Map Generator creates a "random" city or town map suitable for fantasy and other role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons and Dragons, Pathfinder, GURPS, HERO and many others. Note: you can try out version two of this tool. Because the map is made from layered images, to save or print a map you need to either: Take a sceenshot (print screen key) and paste into an image editor; Or print the page to a pdf file (Macs have this built-in, PCs may need a product like "cutePDF".) Planned Features/Caveats Yes, the streets are too ordered for most cities... a couple of completely different street layouts will be added and they will be more random/meandering. Copyright 2010 Inkwell Ideas, Inc.
Polly Courtney: 'Now I'm back to self-publishing, I've regained control' You achieved the dream of many a would-be author when you were signed up by HarperCollins. Why are you self-publishing your new book? When I signed with HarperCollins, I thought "Great! "Brand Polly Courtney" was increasingly muddled, leading to confusion for readers. Tell us a bit about Feral Youth. Feral Youth is a fictionalised account of the summer leading up to the 2011 riots. Have you worked with an editor or designer on the novel? I have a brilliant editor called Joy, whom I came across during the research for my last book. Do you think this is important? The term "self-publishing" is a misnomer; it doesn't mean that the author takes on all the parts of the publishing process as well as the writing. Can you talk us through how you're publishing - print and ebook? My main goal is to have the book read and enjoyed by as many people as possible – not necessarily to make the most money. Has it been an eye-opener making all these decisions yourself? And the negatives? Every time.
Why Kafka Matters In the July/August issue of the Atlantic, Joseph Epstein uses the release of Saul Friedlander’s book “Franz Kafka: The Poet of Shame and Guilt" to pose the larger question of whether Kafka is still relevant. “Great writers are impressed by the mysteries of life; poor Franz Kafka was crushed by them,” he observes, noting that “Kafka’s small body of work, which includes three uncompleted novels, some two dozen substantial short stories, an assemblage of parables and fragment-like shorter works, diaries, collections of letters (many to lovers whom he never married), and the famous ‘Letter to His Father,’” represents an achievement so insular that it “cannot be either explained or judged in the same way as other literary artists.” What this means, Epstein goes on, is that, in Kafka’s universe, “illogic becomes plausible, guilt goes unexplained, and brutal punishment is doled out for no known offense.” What do we make of such an image?