Feature Friday #2 (Bloggers & Books)

Welcome to another Feature Friday!  Today we’ll cast a glow on some bloggers who are consistently generating insightful posts about the written word.  As always, I try to dedicate time to broadening my understanding of the craft, and these folks seem to deliver on a regular basis.  As usual, I’ll also be compiling the books I used to generate my blog posts this week into a one-stop-shop.

The first spotlight shines for Jan, over at Writing your first novel – Things you should know.  Jan is always writing informative posts and it’s a shame she hasn’t been generating more views and comments.  She covers a number of different topics on her blog.  She also does an outstanding job of offering examples of writing, and then showing how it can be improved through the application of the tip she is providing.

One post she recommends (and I would agree), is her post about, On-the-nose Writing.  Surprisingly, this isn’t a topic I’ve ever covered here at QE.  As she points out, this is a common issue many writers grapple with.  I would encourage you to swing over and give her space some love.

The second blogger I wanted to talk about is Steve, over at Red String PaperCuts.  This space is unique because it’s a collaboration between three individuals: Steve, Jessie, and Marcy.  They work together to provide a range of creative content for their viewers.  Depending on the day, you may find a haiku, poem, book update, musing, or solid piece of writing advice.

Steve recently introduced the topic of marketing (an area where he has personal expertise).  The post is titled, Marketing Your Novel: Where to Begin?  For me, marketing has been an area where I have been struggling to find useful, writing specific, content.  I know from the interactions I’ve had with many of you here at QE that this is a subject many of us are trying to figure out.  I encourage you to swing by and sponge up some of the information they are offering.  It should be noted this post is introductory, and we’ll likely see more marketing tips from them in the future.

The last blogger I want to feature today is Thomas Weaver, over at North of Andover.  Thomas is a hilarious and exceptionally knowledgeable mercenary proofreader (freelance editor).  His page is almost a daily ritual for me.  His “Writing Glitch” series (which is up to #156 last time I checked) snags a sentence, breaks it down, and corrects it.  It’s simple, it’s often humorous (not in a mean way), and it’s a quick way to get a grammar fix.

I normally point people to a specific article when I feature them.  I’m not doing that with Thomas because I don’t even know where to begin.  If I had a recommendation, it would be to go to his home page and check out his Grammar Rants section.  If you dare, he also will take a look at an except from your story and incorporate it into his Writing Glitch series.  Click here, and become a willing participant.  In my opinion, you’re crazy to not accept free copyediting from someone as experienced as him.

I wanted to take a moment to thank Jan, Thomas, and the folks at Red String PaperCuts.  It’s humbling for me to be able to share other people’s work and learn from them.  One of my overarching goals with creating this space was to build collaborations with other creative minds.  You all are helping me achieve this goal.

 

These are the resources I used this week (Friday to Friday) to create my posts.  I’m a voracious eater of greens and believe in the power of self-study to improve writing skill and understanding.

Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott [Amazon] [goodreads]

The Writer’s Journey, by Christopher Vogler [Amazon] [goodreads]

A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting, by Mary Buckham [Amazon] [goodreads]

For a more comprehensive list of books I have utilized to build content here on QE, you can refer to this post.

That’s it for today!  If you would like to be featured next Friday, contact me.  It always helps if you let me know what specific post you would like to be featured.  My goal with Feature Friday is to connect like-minded individuals with one another.  The blogoverse is a giant place, and it’s nice to be able to provide some navigation. Until tomorrow, keep reading, keep writing, and as always – stay sharp!