Tag Archives: Jessica Faust

In the Blogosphere: 9/20-10/15

Posted in This Week in the Blogosphere by

“In the Blogosphere” is a series, which lists links to writing-related blogs I’ve stumbled upon throughout a given week (usually).

I’m admittedly behind with my Blogosphere posts—I have about 50 links saved, dating all the way back to May/June-ish (oh noes!)—but they are all still worth a look.  I’ll catch up eventually, right?

AGENT STUFF

Author and D4EO agent Mandy Hubbard gives a bit of unorthodox advice . . . about how one line can change your career.

Here, another agent-turned-author, the fabulous Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown, Ltd., talks about “undercooking” a novel.

Here, Bookends, LLC, agent Jessica Faust offers some query don’ts.


CRAFT & MANUSCRIPT PREP

Over at Write Anything, Annie Evett did a nice little series on voice and dialogue.  Here’s the last of those posts, that contains links to the others in the series.

At League of Extraordinary Writers, Angie Smibert discusses handling readers’ baggage and creating the appearance of truth that readers can find believable.

At Novel Matters, Patti Hill demonstrates how to weed your manuscript.

One of my favorite features over at YA Highway, Amanda Hannah talks about passive sentences one “Sentence Strengthening Sunday” (you don’t have to be a YA writer to appreciate the fabulosity of this) right here.

Confused about manuscript formatting?  Author Louise Wise gives you a crash course here.

Here, YA author Jamie Harrington talks about constructive criticism.  Can you handle it?

Middle-grade author Janice Hardy discusses a subject near and dear to my heart—grammar.  Just what are the basics everyone needs to know?

PEP TALKS

We all need a good writerly pep talk now and again.

Here’s one from YA author Elana Johnson.

Here’s another from freelancer Heather Trese, for good measure.

EXTRAS

You’ve got just over a week left to enter my scary story contest—freak me out in 1,000 words of less!

Over at Savvy B2B Marketing, Wendy Thomas discusses a subject that fascinates me these days: online writing vs. old school journalism (being that I used to teach journalism . . . and now I do a good bit of online writing!).

Here, Writer’s Digest Books’ own Robert Lee Brewer offers a Twitter cheat sheet for those not “hip” to all the “lingo” (hehe) or not quite sure how to optimize your use.

In the Blogosphere: 11/30-12/4

Posted in This Week in the Blogosphere by

“In the Blogosphere” is a weekly series, which lists links to writing-related blogs I’ve stumbled upon throughout a given week.  Most posts will be from that week, but if I find some “oldies but goodies,” I’ll throw those up here as well.

I never find as much time to read blogs as I want, but here are a few posts that struck me this week.

AGENT BLOGS

Here’s a great post on literary agent Nathan Bransford‘s blog.  It would be of particular use to writers in the I’m-signed-to-an-agent-my-book-has-been-sold-and-I’m-now-editing stage of publishing, but it can also be helpful for anyone at any stage who has received feedback on a manuscript.

This post on lit agent Rachelle Gardener‘s Rants & Ramblings blog struck a chord with me.  Despite what some disgruntled writers believe, literary agents aren’t out to get them.  Gardener reflects on a blog conversation gone “snarky” with poise, class, and compassion—and everyone out there with a Web presence can take a lesson from her with regard to the power of words.

Here is a post from Bookends, LLC lit agent Jessica Faust, which complements the above Rachelle Gardener post.  It addresses the issue of the us-vs.-them attitude writers and agents sometimes have as well as self-censorship and the idea of acting, speaking, thinking, e-mailing, blogging, Tweeting, etc., with professionalism.

Professionalism is the name of the game this week.

This post from a few weeks ago by Waxman Literary’s agent Holly Root quelled some fears I recently had.  A firm believer in “the rules” and a people pleaser, I often get bogged down in all the do’s and don’ts out there.

In this post, Greyhaus Literary’s agent Scott Eagan clears up some questions all fiction-writers have had about fictionalization…

IN THE NEWS

…and this news story about New York Times best-selling author Haywood Smith’s libel suit shows why the aforementioned advice is important.

RESOURCES

Freelancer Debbie Ridpath Ohi lists Twitter chats for writers in this oldie-but-goodie post from July, complete with days and times.  These weekly (and, in some cases, daily) online chats are great way resources for writers, so you’ll definitely want to bookmark this one!

JUST FOR FUN

Lastly, here’s YA author John Green‘s videoblog take on New Moon.  I don’t wholly agree, but he amuses me so.