The 100 Best Websites for Writers in 2021 – by Farrah Daniel…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on The Write Life:

Now that we’re a few weeks into 2021, let’s all breathe a deep sigh of relief together for overcoming what has to be one of the hardest years we’ve experienced in modern times.

And you made it through! That’s a victory worth celebrating, especially with the people who helped you navigate the chaos with websites filled with guides, tips and tricks, blog posts, podcasts and newsletters to help get better at the one thing you love the most: writing.

If you wrote a novel while under lockdown, good for you! And if you didn’t? Good. For. You.

When it comes to writing, output isn’t the only critical part of the process — it’s just as important to reset, refresh and reinvigorate your writing brain with new techniques that help you write better.

Wherever you’ve landed in your writing journey, we have just the websites that’ll help…

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Ways to create a writing habit, even when every day is unpredictable

Uninspired Writers

Last week, I spoke about how my writing habit had been crushed and re-shaped by the pandemic. And as part of the re-adjustment, I’ve been thinking of different ways to make a writing habit. The thing is, every day is unpredictable at the moment. And so the typical habit-making behaviour of picking a set time each day to write isn’t working. In fact, I’m often finding that my other commitments (work, uni, health) mean that my timings change day to day. So I’m trying the methods below instead, and it seems to be working! Have a peek;

Weekly goals, instead of daily
I used to focus on daily goals. Set word counts or time goals. The issue with daily targets, is if you don’t reach it one day, it sets you on a downer for the rest of the week. So it’s well worth considering setting weekly targets instead. This…

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Found: One of the First Books Ever Printed in England

Nicholas C. Rossis

The pages were instantly recognizable due to black typeface and hand-painted red paragraph marks. Image: University of Reading/The Independent

Pages from one of the first books ever printed in England were recently found by librarians at the University of Reading. The pages, which were hidden away for decades in the pages of a different text, were meant to tell priests how to plan feasts.

Sarum Ordinal

According to Atlas Obscura and The Independent, the librarians found two pages from a priest’s handbook called Sarum Ordinal or Sarum Pye, which had been pasted inside of another book to reinforce its spine. A librarian working to restore that book noticed and pulled out the pages from the priest’s handbook; they date to between 1476 and 1477.

The librarian said she instantly noticed the “trademark blackletter typeface,” the layout, and red paragraph marks, which were typically added by hand after printing and…

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The Writer’s Burnout Effect – by Chiara Talluto…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

The worst thing that can happen to a writer is becoming “blocked” in their writings.  If you do a search on “overcoming writer’s block” on the internet, you’ll find almost five million results.

What about writer’s burnout? I did a search and found over thirty-nine million results. That’s extraordinary. In my author circles, being blocked seems to supersede burnout. It looks like I may be wrong according to the web or maybe nobody wants to talk about “burnout” because that would mean you’ve failed or are a quitter.

Thinking of the difference between blocked and burnout has led me to do additional research.

Continue reading HERE

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My Bookshelf- Meme

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

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Going from Pantser to Plotter – by Gerald Brandt…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

on Fiction University:

I work at a day job, as well as write science fiction novels. As you can imagine, this doesn’t always leave me with time to write, and when I do have time, I don’t necessarily have the energy.

What I do have is deadlines, so despite the lack of time, I still need to either get the words out of my head and onto paper, or revise the words that I already have down.

Continue reading HERE

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Goodreads Ransom Scam by Alina Leonova

Plaisted Publishing

 

Goodreads Ransom Scam And The Platform’s Astonishing Indifference

January 13th, 2021

 

A number of authors are being attacked by scammers who first post multiple fake 1-star reviews and ratings on Goodreads and then demand ransom to take them down.

If you are not a book geek, you might not be familiar with Goodreads. They are ‘the largest site for readers and book recommendations’ as they claim on Twitter. They are, essentially, a social network built around books. People track their reading, write reviews, discuss books, etc.

A lot of folks have criticized Goodreads because the website is obsolete and unituitive and hasn’t been improved in years. It was also bought by Amazon several years ago, which is viewed by many as a conflict of interest. All of it is true, but despite that, it still has millions of users who create all the value the website provides. It…

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Your Character’s “Thing”

The TARDIS is, after all, the Doctor’s ‘Thing’. It’s what makes him stand out as a truly unique character. Many characters in fiction have travelled through time and space; many are aliens; many speak in BBC English but no one else has a space/time capsule disguised as a British police box. If anyone did, we would all cry ‘Plagiarism! A space/time travelling police box is the Doctor’s Thing!’ Almost all of the most memorable characters in fiction have a Thing. It might be a physical object they carry, something they wear or perhaps even something they simply say. When one thinks of James Bond, we imagine a man who carries a Beretta 418 (though in reality, he did occasionally use other weapons) and drinks vodka martinis, shaken not stirred. Batman dresses like bat, drives a Batmobile and operates from a Batcave; no prizes for guessing what his thing is. Even characters from history are often assigned Things that make them recognisable when they are portrayed on stage or on film today. For example, one of the first plays I recall ever seeing included a portrayal of Henry XIII, who spent most of the play munching a turkey leg.

Your Character’s “Thing”

Don’t Sign!

Stevie Turner

This is a scheduled post and I will answer any comments tomorrow.

Recently I read a blog from a self-published author who was thrilled to bits to gain a publishing deal. She had signed the rights to her book over to the publisher, and of course now looked forward to the royalties from many future sales.

However, I’ve been on a steep learning curve over the past 8 years regarding the integrity of small publishers. In order to satisfy my own curiosity I went on to Google and typed in ‘Writer Beware‘ and the name of the lady’s publisher. As I suspected, there were many complaints about this particular publisher regarding the amount of ‘set up fees’ needed and the lack of any royalties.

I’m sure most of us have been taken in by small publishers at one time or another at the beginning of our writing careers…

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When You’re Stuck: WIP Staying Power

Story Empire

Hi, SEers. Mae here today for my first post of 2021! I hope all of you had a spectacular New Year. Let’s hope 2021 is going to be FAR BETTER than the wretched mess that was 2020.

I’m going to start this post with a question, and it may seem like a strange one given we’re talking about new beginnings, but—how long do you stick with a problem WIP before abandoning it for greener pastures?

We’re all acquainted with the first flush of love for a new project—the excitement of jotting notes, working up character profiles, and choosing our setting. If you’re a plotter, you’ve worked out all, or most of, the details. If you a panster or planster, you have a general idea of where your novel is headed. Either way, you start with a bang like a racehorse bursting from the starting gate.

And… you’re off!

For a…

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