Favorite Writing Blogs

The world of blogs about writing and publishing is a goldmine for writers and readers. Here are just a few recent posts from some writing blogs that I enjoy. What are your favorites? Feel free to share the link to your own blog about writing in the comment section!

Bree Ogden: This Literary Life

Everyone loves contests! Associate Literary Agent Bree Ogden’s latest contest is for a chance to win an advance review copy of The DUFF: (Designated Ugly Fat Friend), by Kody Keplinger. Bree represents graphic novels, young adult books, and children’s books.

While you explore Bree’s blog, be sure to look at  what she learned on a recent visit with New York editors about trends in children’s book and graphic novel publishing (for example, “While there are definitely still (a select few) editors who will do vampires and werewolves, there are a lot of editors who want fun, quirky, real life, average girl, ‘she doesn’t know her potential’ type of books”), and her report of R.L. Stine’s Twitter Press Conference.

Christi Craig: Writing Under Pressure

Does this description of summer, by Christi Craig, sound familiar?

“With two young kids at home, my days quickly fill up with outside activities and play dates. Writing takes the back burner more often than not. So far, I’ve managed to get a little writing done here and there, but pulling all those bits and pieces together into a substantial story takes more time and energy than I have during daylight hours.”

This week Christi wrote about using writing contests that accept year-round or summer submissions as a way to stay motivated when the weather—and time pressure—get hot. I also loved her “word of the day” flash fiction writing exercise about “Knitting at Littleton Elementary“:

“Like hoodlums! She thought. Boys and girls alike used the needles as swords and sparred back and forth across the room. Two boys jumped onto the teacher’s desk. One girl wrapped another in bright orange yarn and called her a Push Up. Or, was it a push over? Joyce didn’t know; she couldn’t hear over the yelling.”

Enjoy!

E. Victoria Flynn: Penny Jar: A heads up on being at the tail end

Victoria’s latest post, about how she has spent “an entire lifetime discovering how strange the people of the world think I am and how, secretly, many of them delight in the off-beat,” tugged at my heart. I especially found myself re-reading this paragraph:

“And it was art, and music, and poetry that drove me into myself.  It was writing that saved the soft bits, that firmed up the wants and dreams, that gave me permission to disregard expectation and head on out and be misunderstood.”

You will also enjoy the writing exercises she shares, such as “A Memory of a Haircut” which she wrote as a response to an exercise in Natalie Goldberg’s Old Friend from Far Away.

Anne Tyler Lord: Don’t Fence Me In

Want more contests and writing exercises or challenges? This week Anne Tyler Lord offered a list of new writing contests and challenges in her weekly Coffee Klatch post. Anne invites readers to send her news of contests, challenges, publications (print, ebook or online), or interviews (contact information is on her site). Also this week, she posted a terrific piece on “The Writer’s Life: Negative Thoughts“:

“Personally, I don’t care for the self-help movements that say, ‘just think positive, dream about what you want and it will come to you.’ Blah! There is so much of that stuff out there. I have developed a knee-jerk reaction to books or blogs that talk about thinking positive and realizing your dreams. Change is a little more complicated and this ‘dream and it will come’ approach tends to cause more problems than it solves.”

I have only begun to reap the rewards of Anne’s extensive writing and resources. Absolutely bookmarkable.