The National Novel Writing Month blog provides inspirational posts for when you’re stuck with writer’s block and offers guidelines for everything from the publishing process to finding feedback.
The articles for writers on Write It Sideways outline real-life advice, like writing grants, author branding, and gift buying, as well as writing tips and tricks, like dialogue mistakes and how to build tension.
K.M. Weiland, the writer of Helping Writers Become Authors, is an award-winning author who shares creative writing advice on story structure, character arcs, common writing mistakes, and much more!
This website offers great advice for authors, bloggers, businesspeople, and students. Not only will you find writing advice and inspiration, but the site also offers a wealth of practical tips for honing your writing skills, finding work, and staying productive. If you’re looking for in-depth instruction, Inklyo.com also provides a range of courses and ebooks aimed at helping you learn how to write anything well.
Warrior Writers is run by best-selling author Kristen Lamb, who guides writers with comprehensive and detailed posts that have a humorous and easy-to-read tone.
Although this is technically a genre-specific writing blog, New York Times best-selling author Philip Athans has great advice for writers of all types, guaranteed.
Abidemi is an accomplished author who has decided to share her insight and knowledge of the writing and publishing world to help others become better writers. In addition to offering free resources in her blog, she also creates and sells writing courses.
Writer’s Lifestyle
The following writing websites are great for writers who have some extra time or need to take a quick break and want to spend it productively.
Write to Done clearly outlines useful topics for writers, like imposter syndrome, recovering from destructive criticism, and finding a pen name.
9. Brain PickingsMaria Popova’s writings on culture, books, and other eclectic subjects are always extremely interesting reading for any writer with some spare time.
While this might be more of a book website than a writing website, Novelicious also has advice for writers on retreats and for writing serialized novels—not to mention post about which books are being turned into movies this year (and reading that is time well spent for any writer, really).
The exclusive online commentary from the Draft section of Opinionator covers essays by journalists, novelists, linguists, and grammarians on the art of writing.
The Authors’ Nook houses relatable posts for writers along with advice on being a writer, allowing for a blend of good fun and useful advice for writing breaks.
Marketing/Blogging
These blogs help writers market their books and create blogging personas to engage an audience more effectively.
National best-selling author Jeff Goins shares real-life experiences and reflections about building an audience, shortcuts to success, and engaging a community in the age of Internet fame.
As stated in its tagline, The Book Designer gives “practical advice to help build better books,” which includes writing creative disclaimers, choosing the right platforms, and using social media efficiently.16. Angela BoothAngela Booth, a copywriter, ghostwriter, author, marketer, and writing coach, write ample posts to help authors improve book sales and ensure a book will be a financial success.
Carly Watters is a literary agent who provides advice on getting published in the 21st century. Her useful “Things I Wish I Knew” posts provide true accounts and tell how other writers can learn from them.
Publishing
The writing blogs below aid writers in the publishing process, from behind-the-scenes intel to publishing tips and tricks.
Jane Friedman has more than 20 years of experience in the book publishing industry. She provides informative articles on both the writing process and the publishing process.
Run by New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Joanna Penn, this site offers articles and other resources related to writing, publishing, and marketing books.
Publetariat gives practical information on networking, author websites, and the publishing process. It also shares links to big news stories in the world of publishing.
The Independent Publishing Magazine hosts posts about many different parts of the publishing process, such as growing a following, avoiding authorship problems, and finding the right editor.
Writing Inspiration/Prompts
These sites are excellent for writers who are stuck in a rut and need some inspiration or even concrete prompts to get them writing again.
Writing prompts are posted here daily, offering inspiration for writers in all genres. Some of the prompts focus on breaking through writer’s block, while others focus on building characters or refining your dialogue-writing skills. If you’re feeling as though you’re in a writing rut, the site also posts inspirational quotes from famous authors.
Positive Writer was created for writers with doubt—like the website’s author, Bryan Hutchinson—and to provide inspirational posts that help writers keep writing.
The Blots and Plots blog instructs writers to stay in the habit of writing, targeting specific problems and demonstrating how it’s possible to write a novel even with a full-time job.
This well-known and comprehensive site offers all manner of advice and resources for authors. Of particular interest are the site’s many creative writing prompts. New prompts are published weekly, and writers post their results in the comments section.
This one’s pretty self-explanatory, but Writing Prompts That Don’t Suck tries to avoid boring and familiar writing prompts to provide fun and interesting ones instead.
I have actually. And usually in the context of a scam. They’re a vanity publisher, as far as I’m aware. Granted a vanity publisher with standards for submissions, and an editing team to make things shiny, but the last I heard of them they still want the author to foot the bill of publishing their book to the tune of several thousand dollars. Which is something you only find out after you request the “free” author submission kit.
And I’m not saying self publishing with an aim towards success is free or cheap. I’ve sunk thousands into making Phangs into all I can make it possibly be, but that was a personal choice on my part and partly because of the massive (read: overwhelming) “what do you mean it’s healthy polyamory and queer, take my money!” response it got when I first started playing with the idea of making it into something more substantial than a tumblr post and realized it has the potential to actually be something really cool. I even flirted with one or two indie presses, even my old house, but ultimately decided I was better off retaining as much control over the book as possible. I made a choice which made it harder for initial production, but ultimately will pay off more in the long run for what I want to do with it.
But the thing is, that’s me footing the bill of a *massive* project that I want to retain the full rights to and also includes the cost of production. Any *publisher* asking me for that kind of money just to get my book through the door, has not got my best interests at heart. Especially when they don’t list those prices up front.
Basic thing to look for when attempting to find an agent or publisher is: if they want money from you up front, it’s a scam.
Publishers, even small indie press, take the cut of their fee from your Sales. Not “on top of the $2000+ you just spent on marketing” which btw, you can do for substantially less on your own, and also, even with traditional publishing, you still wind up doing a lot of the footwork on promotions yourself. Unless you’re a big fish in this vast sea, you always end up being your best promoter.
Also Writer Beware is an excellent resource for people wondering how to avoid getting scammed when they start out:
Back when I was doing my MA program, I typed up a guide to writing query letters. It’s the post from this blog that I’m most proud of: a thorough step-by-step guide that combines days and weeks of research, and dozens of sources, into a neatly packaged 1,800-word post.
And I have to admit, I didn’t write it for tumblr. I needed to write a query letter myself for a publishing class, and my post was little more than compiled homework notes, saved as a Tumblr post for posterity.
I’ve actually had pieces of this in my drafts for years, but now I actually have to write a synopsis and I’m piling up the research, so I thought it was finally time for the sister to my query post to be published here.
But first…
What is a synopsis?
A synopsis is a 1-2 page summary of the events that transpire in a book, either proposed or already written. It’s used to give people who haven’t read your book a quick overview, so they know the story that’s being told in the book without having to read it.
When is a synopsis necessary?
Some literary agents request synopses along with query letters. More often, they’re used slightly later on in a writer’s career, when they have an agent or an editor and they need to submit a proposal for a new idea or project. A synopsis can also be used later on, in situations that don’t involve the author. For instance, when an editor pitches the book to the marketing and publicity team, who may not have time to read every book they’re working on. Unlike a query letter, the book doesn’t necessarily have to be written when you’re submitting its synopsis.
Basic Style
The job of a synopsis is to lay out the story with little fuss and no frills. They let the person you’re pitching know what they’re going to find in that giant stack of pages on their desk or in that obscenely long Word document (or else in the Word doc they’ll eventually receive).
Most professional synopses follow these rules:
They’re told in third person
They’re told in present tense
Characters’ names are CAPSLOCKED at first mention.
They are double spaced.
They tend to avoid descriptions longer than this sentence.
They focus on the central conflict and the protagonist’s emotional journey
They spoil the ending
They should be 500 words or less. (That is 1 page single-spaced, 2 pages double-spaced.)
HOW TO WRITE YOUR SYNOPSIS
The plot
Writing your synopsis, you have one goal: to tell a 50,000-100,000 word story in 500 words. It can be a little difficult to do this right. A great way to do this is to identify the key turning points in your protagonist’s story.
Do you remember those little plot roller coasters you’d make in elementary school? They’d usually be pointy witch’s-hat shaped things labeled with the terms: “beginning, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.”
Those turning points are the events you should be including in your synopsis.This is the structure you want to emphasize to your reader. You want to make abundantly clear that your story works like a story, that the events of your book have a beginning, a middle, and an end, that there’s an intriguing beginning, an exciting climax, a satisfying conclusion. You don’t want to just list out the events of your novel, but highlight the function of those events. X moment is important because it’s the inciting incident, the moment that takes the protagonist from their normal life and throws them into the story.
There are tons of great story roadmaps out there, that go into more specific story elements. The Hero’s Journey is the most famous example of a detailed, and mostly universal, story structure. There’s also the three-act structure that’s famous among screenwriters.
Find a structure that fits your story the best and use that to identify the events of your story that need to make it into your synopsis. I’ll link to different sources at the bottom of this post that will give you variations of story structure.
If you can correlate key scenes in your novel to the descriptions of these plot points, you’ll find an easy roadmap to navigating the many events of outlining your novel.
Your protagonist’s journey
Your protagonist is the heart of your story, and should be the heart of the synopsis, too. The protagonist’s emotional journey may not string all of these plot points together, but it’s going to be what makes them matter to the reader. The human element of your story has to be represented in your synopsis.
There’s no room for long descriptions, so you’ll have to be smart about finding a few terms that not only tell your reader who the character is, but what their story will be. For instance, if your story is about someone trying to get their critically-panned paintings in the Museum of Modern Art by breaking into the museum and installing the pieces themselves, you may want to introduce them with a sentence that begins like so: “When IGNATIUS, an ambitious and untalented struggling artist, discovers his work is rejected from yet another gallery…”
In addition to these descriptive terms, you should spell out what your protagonist wants (or wants desperately to avoid) and their stake in the events of the story.
Along the way, tell us how these key aspects of their persons change due to the events of the story, or else how they influence the events of the story. Tell us about how after raving reviews for his DIY MoMA exhibit came in, Iggy realized that though he still liked painting, his talents actually lay in performance art. Untalented to talented, struggling to successful, all because his ambition pushed him to try new and daring things.
Tips:
As in query letters, you only name the most important characters and locations outright. If you’re writing a synopsis for Harry Potter, you’ll want to use Harry’s name in the query, but most other people and places can be referred to by their function in the novel. Ex: Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon can be “his cruel relatives.” Hermione and Ron can be “his friends.” Even Hogwarts can be a “school for people with magical abilities.” This makes it easier for a reader to understand what’s going on in your story. Too many names in such a small amount of space can be overwhelming.
All telling, no showing. This is one piece of writing where you’ll want to tell, instead of show. You need to get to your point as quickly, as clearly, and concisely as possible; this isn’t the place for creative storytelling.
Oftentimes, synopses are given along with other materials, such as pitch letters and sample pages. While a synopsis should be captivating in-so-far that it’s well told, and it should maybe be a little stylish, being captivating and stylish aren’t its main goals. Additional materials like sample pages and pitches have more room for creative flourishes and can do a better job of selling the story, while the synopsis focuses on telling it.
Your synopsis should show that you know how to tell a story. While a synopsis doesn’t sell a story like a query, it should still illustrate the fact that you have an interesting, unique and well-structured plot. When finished, your reader should be able to think to themselves “that’s a good story. I want to read that.”
Your first draft will be too long. Your first draft of a synopsis will always be at least a page or two longer than it should be. Identify the sentences and paragraphs where you explain why a thing happens and ax them. Identify sentences where you repeat yourself and ax them. Identify descriptors that aren’t vital to understanding of the story and ax them. Once you make your first painful cuts and see that the story still makes sense without those things, you’ll start to get a better understanding of what can and cannot be taken out of your synopsis.
Ok. I’m tired of the typical vampire, werewolf and fairy.I’m also tired of the occidental-centrism in mythology. Hence, this list.
I tried to included as many cultural variants as I could find and think of. (Unfortunately, I was restricted by language. Some Russian creatures looked very interesting but I don’t speak Russian…) Please, add creatures from your culture when reblogguing (if not already present). It took me a while to gather all those sites but I know it could be more expansive. I intend on periodically editing this list.
Of note: I did not include specific legendary creatures (Merlin, Pegasus, ect), gods/goddesses/deities and heroes.
(I have stumbled upon web sites that believed some of these mythical creatures exist today… Especially dragons, in fact. I just had to share the love and scepticism.)
This is perfect for my latest project ^~^
Idk if it’s stupid or what, but felt like contributing:
OP, Thank you so much for putting this reference together. I’ve been working on an original novel that involves dragons from all over the world, and I’ve been having a hell of a time finding good information on non-European dragons.
All the other information is sure to be helpful for the future, as well, I am sure!
May I contribute: la ciguapa (one of my personal favs)
Because OP added some things in Malay mythology (Malay here encompassing Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei with clusters of them in the entire Southeast Asia) I thought I also included some things pertaining the orang bunian !
I’m a very lazy person. I know my characters well, but every time I try to fill out a proper character sheet, I either get distracted or simply never finish them.
SO!
I made this! A silly, simple character sheet in which you only have to check boxes to get to know your dear puppet character. Use to your heart’s content, and if you’re going to repost, please credit! Enjoy~
-It doesn’t matter if you miss a day (or a week). Looking back I can’t even remember what days I did or didn’t write, and honestly? There were months where I didn’t touch the story. All I know is that I finished the damn thing, and that’s what matters.
-Have a routine. On days that I did write, I sat with my laptop and some hot tea next to a bright window and banged out 5,000 words before noon (due to the fear that if I didn’t do it first thing I wouldn’t do it at all). Figure out the place, time, and things that make you want to write, and use them.
-Make a schedule. I didn’t worry about writing every day because I blocked out a time frame of what needed to be finished when. Give yourself some leeway, but mark important dates on a calendar.
-Find what works for you. Don’t freak out if what you’ve written goes against “the cardinal rules” of writing. Your biggest objective is figuring out how to best tell your story.
-Fly by the seat of your pants. You can write complete and utter BS and still turn it into a good story that makes sense. Get rid of the idea that it has to sound perfect from draft one, and start taking pride in the fact that you wrote a crappy first draft at all.
-Embrace embarrassment. You’re going to have to read some of your story to people, and you’re going to have to listen to other people reading it out loud. If it gets to that point, try to reflect on how amazing it is that you’ve made it this far. Not every writer does.
-Don’t listen to your fears. What scares you now may not affect you in twelve months. In the beginning I told myself I’d put it out in the universe and let it exist without really acknowledging it (whatever gets you going, 2017 me). Now I have an author’s blog and am actively promoting giveaways and book release dates. Go figure.
-Know your audience. Don’t write something you think will please someone else- write for yourself, and you’re guaranteed to make one person happy (who hasn’t heard that before?). You are the audience. Know yourself.
-Stay healthy. If writing is getting in the way of your health- whether it be making you sleep less, skip meals, or spend long periods of time away from loved ones- it’s time to step back. Some of the best parts of my book came to me when I was out experiencing life, not sitting at a computer.
-Arm yourself against negativity. There are going to be people who will tell you what you do isn’t worthwhile, and that you’re wasting your time- until your book is published, then all of a sudden they expect a free copy. Surround yourself with supporters, and know who to ignore.
Currently Untitled Pairing: Nathan/Anna Rating: Teen Summary:
Anna’s never been to New Orleans. What better way to spend her first night than at a lounge enjoying good food, good drinks, good music, and unexpected good company?
Life Swap AU for AU Yeah August. Author’s Note: This is an AU based off the original story I’ve been working on. I’m no where close to publishing it (or even finishing the first draft), but I decided on a whim that this could be fun and I had a blast.
If you want information: Nathan is my werewolf and you can read his current introduction here. (And here is his first introduction in my head, should you be interested.) Anna is a human, though writing this drabble helped me finalize a few things about her backstory that were previously hazy. You can find everything pertaining to this work under this tag and it’s also what I was working on when I participated in Camp Nano in April.
I think that’s all I have posted, so here you go!
She loved new cities. They held new smells, new mysteries, new creatures. In the last four of her adventures, she’d met creatures she’d only heard of and here, in the heart of New Orleans, she was hoping to do the same.
The air was musky, smelling of wet earth and marsh even though she was in the middle of the French Quarter, sitting outside a cafe and enjoying the sounds of a band as they played. The cafe — it really was a lounge with the smoky haze outside and the menu boasting beautifully mixed cocktails, but Anna had never been able to adapt the new language against what she grew up with, so because this lounge didn’t offer the company of young, single women with fluctuating morals, it was a cafe.
Funny how she could lose herself in thought when the world was standing right there for her perusal.
I want to add in something I learned from music theory that goes along well with writing theory.
You always start with the rules. They’re guidelines to help you build a foundation to stand on as you’re learning the craft. Once you have those rules in place, you start to learn more rules and more rules until finally, you realize the music you love breaks most of those rules.
The thing about theory is learning which rules to break, when you can break them, and why. In early music history and theory, seventh and second intervals were never used because they didn’t sound good to the human ear at that time. Learning that rule establishes a strong sense of dissonance. When you understand that dissonance, you can ‘break’ that rule by using those intervals to create unresolved tension. It’s why the Jaws theme is so captivating – because that minor second interval (an inverted seventh) invokes anticipation and suspense as the audience waits to hear the resolution.
Books and articles are going to teach a classical foundation of writing and it is in your best interest to learn that, to adopt those rules and figure out how to abide by them. Once you understand those rules, you have a better grasp of writing and can use those rules to manipulate your work in ways that invoke strong reactions from your readers.
Rather than focusing on what rules are broken in published books, try and figure how why they were broken and what impact they have on the story.
Why Just About Every Published Book in the World Does 57 Things That Just About Every Book About Writing Tells You Not to Do
#1 The author has made a name for themselves and can do anything they want.
Publishers aren’t as discerning about literary quality if they’ve got a writer who they know is going to sell books. Whereas a newbie might get rejected for having 200 pages of backstory and 16 prologues, an established writer with a sales record can get away with it.
#2 Mainstream readers are not as discerning as people who write books about writing would have you believe.
Books about writing are often written by learned literary folk, whose advice is then (sometimes mindlessly) repeated by everyone else. On the other hand, bestselling novels are often written, and read, by regular folk who don’t give a crap about high literary art. It’s kind of like the difference between what they teach in film school and the reality of blockbuster movies.
#3 Really good writers can do anything they want.
The most hackneyed, clichéd, classically do-not-ever-do-this stuff can be made into pure stylistic genius in the right hands. Two chapters of nothing but dialogue? A book written from the point of view of a dog? Excessive footnotes? Run-on sentences? It’s all been done, and been done brilliantly, by really, really good writers.
This can be frustrating for new writers, who want to be able to follow a clear set of rules in order to be successful. That’s why so many of my posts have caveats like “in general,” “as a rule of thumb,” and “most often.” Because the honest answer to every single question I get is It depends. Which is why I really recommend that writers try to connect with a mentor, editor, or teacher who can read your actual work and give customized feedback. This is rarely cheap. But one or two exchanges with a professional can be worth months or years of reading writing advice books with all their generalized Dos and Don’ts.
Which leads me to…
#4 Writing is art. There are no rules in art.
This truth is what makes writing great, and also what makes writing difficult. It’s also why writing books that claim to have all the “answers” sell so damn well. I’m not saying those books aren’t full of mostly true, super helpful guidelines. Back before I had access to any other kind of help and lacked experience, I learned a lot of the basics by reading. So keep reading them! But pay attention to the overstatements, the exceptions, the reality of what excites readers, and, perhaps most importantly, the reality of what excites you. Is a writing book telling you not to do something that sets your soul alight? FUCK THAT BOOK. Do whatever you want. Have fun. Figure out how to be one of the ones who gets away with it.
This inspirational message brought to you by the end of a long day at the end of a longer week. May it rekindle your spirit as it has mine ❤
Yes, you are perfectly right, I guess. An advanced Writer is allowed to break the rules because he knows what he’s doing. A beginner will never succeed that way: you have to know the basics, before you are able to play with them.
And when the beginner, as all beginners do, point to all the rules broken and question why other people can do this when they’re told not to, this is why.
I’m not advocating for someone to break the rules right off the bat; my post is intended to show the end result of learning the rules.
You have to show a writer the benefit of the journey to entice her to make it.
Nikki Bradley 