Blog Roll-Up: Best of the Week's Writing Blogs

Okay, so I missed a week or two. I’ll make it up to you by including a few posts from those weeks in the roll-up.

Tips, Tips and More Tips

• If I’ve ever helped you edit a piece of writing, C. Patrick Schulze’s Tips for Editing Your Novel won’t come as a surprise to you. He doesn’t nag about “as-ing” construction as much as I do (okay, no one nags about it as much as I do), but he does explain the problem with it, and several other errors you might make in your writing as well.
• Add “Ka-Pow!” to your writing with How to Write Better—5 Quick Tips for Clear, Effective Writing from Quips and Tips for Successful Writers.
• Melissa Donovan at Writing Forward writes, “You can do just about anything in a poem. That’s why poetry is so wild; there are no rules.” So, instead of rules, she brings you 36 Poetry Writing Tips.
• If children’s books are more your thing, stop by the Guide to Literary Agents blog for 10 Tips on Writing Picture Books, a guest post from picture book writer Jean Reidy.
• Also on the Guide to Literary Agents blog, you’ll find Footnotes: 8 Articles on Synopsis Writing. If you scroll down the list of categories on the left hand side and click on “Synopses,” you’ll also find several examples of movie synopses to help.
• Freelance Folder offers Productivity Tips for Freelancers with Toddlers Underfoot. Don’t let the title fool you—there are some great tips here for every writer.
• Deb at The Freelance Writing Jobs Network’s 6 Tips for Finding New Freelance Writing Markets are applicable for short story and poetry markets as well.

“Best of” Lists

• Writing and Illustrating is a blog for “sharing information about writing and illustrating for children,” but Kathy Temean’s  Top Twelve 2009 Posts is useful for any writing. Her list includes posts about proofreading, revision, character arcs and dialogue.
• QueryTracker.net has a feature on their blog called Top Ten Lists. You can find the most queried agents, the most requested (by agents) fiction genres and the most non-responsive agents. I won’t tell you who the number one requested agent (check out the blog post to find out!) but I will say this: I’m not surprised.
• Lisa Romeo Writes shares the best information and tips from the notebooks she filled during her MFA program in a series of 14 posts: Gold in Them Notebooks.
• Be sure to stop by The Freelance Writing Jobs 20 Top Posts of 2009, which include tips for starting your freelance writing career, free online writing courses and who to follow on Twitter.
• Speaking of Twitter, Jane Friedman at There Are No Rules posts a weekly Best Tweets for Writers, with links to great posts such as “When to Stop Revising.”

Defining Genres

• Writing children’s books? Writers’ Digest Questions & Quandaries blog tackles Defining Picture Books, Middle Grade and Young Adult.
• Agent Scott Eagen of Greyhaus Literary Agency visits the Guide to Literary Agents blog to talk about Romance vs. Women’s Fiction.

Finally, I know that Christmas is over, but, you’ll need some time to practice Toni McGee Causey’s An Author’s 12 Days of Christmas before 2010’s Christmas party.