Blog Roll-up: Best from the Week's Writing Blogs

Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent, blogs All About Backstory. Learn the right way to bring the backstory into the book.

Chuck at the Guide to Literary Agents blog presents "20 Tips on Query Letters," as told by Janet Reid (aka the Query Shark herself) of FinePrint Literary Management.

Also on the Guide to Literary Agents blog, guest blogger Lisa Katzenberger writes about How to Get an Agent's Attention. These nuggets come from the South Carolina Writers Workshop (SCWW) agent panel discussion "What Gets Our Attention."

Janet Reid was one of the agents in attendance at SCWW, and shares her Notes From the Effective Query Class at SCWW. She also reminds us all that no matter what anyone says, we ARE writers. The opinion of those who disagree is worth Less Than Zero.

Jennifer Lawler at Finding Your Voice explains why shoving your first novel in a trunk—even when you love it—is the smartest thing you can do. Find out why in Moving on to the Next Thing.

If your "Next Thing" is freelance writing, Freelance Writing Jobs will help you get started. Read about Step 1: What Will You Write. Also helpful in getting those all-important first clips is How to Make Free Writing Pay.

Diane Bator shares her computer woes and positive attitude over at her Pens, Paints and Paper blog, and at The Three-Ring Circus, I offer some Editing Tips and Editing Helpers, plus a quick Word tip to help you edit out some common word-choice foibles.

And finally, a fun quiz from The Rejectionist: Are You Batshit Crazy? ... just in case you aren't sure.

Words of Wisdom from Nicholas Sparks

I thought I would pass on some words of wisdom I read from Nicholas Sparks on his agent Theresa Park's website.

You can't be a writer if you don't write, it's just that simple. I wrote two complete novels and another book before I even attempted to write The Notebook . Those two novels are unpublished, but they taught me that I not only liked to write, but that I had it in me to finish a novel once I'd started it. Those lessons were important when I sat down to write The Notebook . I write five or six days a week, usually a minimum of 2000 words, sometimes more. 2000 words can take anywhere from three to eight hours. (Love those three-hour days, by the way, but the average is probably closer to five hours). The actual time spent writing depends on a number of factors, including what I'm writing, whether the scene is difficult or easy, etc. No matter what, I try to maintain consistency in my work habits. And I'm always trying to improve, to try new things, to write a new story that is better than anything else I've written. All people who regard writing as a profession write consistently. Those who regard it as a hobby usually don't. For more information, see Nicholas Sparks's Writer's Corner: http://nicholassparks.com/WritersCorner

KEEP ON WRITING!!!