Twitter Roundup 09.20.2012

It's been a while since I've done one of these link roundup posts, probably because I've been tweeting posts I like instead. So I thought it'd be nice to collect some of the links I've been sharing recently, in case you missed them and might find one or two of them interesting as well.

• Politics, YA, and Narrative | Foz Meadows
• On how personal politics is tied to writing, and the importance of dissecting our assumptions.
• Let Me Tell You a Story | Catherine M. Valente
• Response to Race Fail '09 about why diversity matters in stories.
• The Paper Menagerie | Ken Liu
• 2012 Hugo Award winner for short story. So amazing it made me cry at work.
• Is the Book Blogosphere Too Nice? | Kristan Hoffman
• I'd say yes. Part of the reason is because "niceness" is not a trait I value. Helpful, relevant, well-reasoned, honest, entertaining, thought-provoking — I'd much prefer any of these to nice.
• The Importance of Proper Research | Ellen Oh
• THIS. It bothers me a lot when authors get things wrong (when I notice, that is). Totally pulls me out of the story.
• An Illusion of Reality | Patricia C. Wrede
• Different things break different readers out of the story, so as a writer it's best to avoid as few of those as possible
• Eight  Million or So | Patricia C. Wrede
• On the flip side, the most important element is different for every reader, and not every book should focus on the same ones
• The Omniscient Breasts: The Male Gaze Through Female Eyes | Kate Elliot
• The male gaze is a gendered gaze, but sometimes readers and writers don't realize it.
• Diversity vs. Appropriation | Zoë Marriot
• Yes, there's a difference. Cultural appropriation is not cool.
• Magic vs. Science, the Fucking Singularity, and Anti-Intellectualism | acrackedmoon
• Attitudes toward science and technology in spec fic are things I do think about. A lot of YA does seem to be very anti-reason/logic/intellectualism. (Should be obvious from the title, but yeah, there's profanity.)
• On Worldbuilding, Patchwork and Filing Off Serial Numbers | Aliette de Bodard
• On why worldbuilding matters, and how it can do harm when done poorly

So yeah, these are just a few of the posts I enjoyed in the past few weeks. Hope you find these posts worthwhile and thought-provoking! :)

Inky Linky Love 09.10.2011

I didn't get a long weekend for Labor Day, but never fear, I'm getting one this weekend! The Mid-Autumn Festival is on Monday this year, so I'm looking forward to getting the day off. Yay! We've been eating lots of delicious moon cakes, pineapple cakes, and mochi at work lately, since vendors have been gifting boxes and boxes of them. (My favorites are the red bean ones!) And we got cake on Friday to celebrate September birthdays. In the evening, I went with a few coworkers to eat in a bus. Seriously. This restaurant took out the seats, poles, and handles in old buses and put in tables and chairs. It was pretty cool. (Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me. :( Wish I could show you guys pictures!) But yeah. Lots of eating. It's not a real holiday unless it revolves around food, right? :P

In other news, S.L. Hennessy at Pensuasion gave me the Liebster Award! I was very encouraged by her kind words. Also, she recently signed with an agent, so be sure to send her some hearty congrats! :)

(Edit: Kate Coursey also gave me the Liebster Award! Yay, thank you, Kate! :D)

My favorite posts this week are kind of hard to separate into categories, so the links are not as organized this time around. But then I'm only sharing a handful, so that shouldn't be too big of a problem. I loved these thought-provoking posts, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

AWESOME LINKS

• In my last post I wrote about how I get story ideas, so I was intrigued by the thoughtful post Therese Walsh at Writer Unboxed wrote about different levels of writing inspiration.
• Patricia C. Wrede talks about her sequence for writing a book. So helpful to see the process broken down, and I needed to be reminded that the outline is an organization tool and not an end in itself.
• Amazing post by Austin Kleon on how to steal like an artist (via Janet Reid). Brilliant.
• Juliette Wade talks about how worldbuilding, point of view, and characterization are all interrelated, and how divorcing from yourself is necessary to do justice to those aspects.
• Lura Slowinski tackles the myth of the lone American hero and discusses how American culture values individualism as the most important heroic trait. Her post focuses on one of the points Aliette de Bodard brings up in her post on the prevalence of US tropes in storytelling, which is definitely worth a read as well. It's a fascinating topic and definitely got me thinking.

And that's it! Enjoy your weekend, and if you want to have a moon-viewing party, Monday would be a great time for it. ;)

Inky Linky Love 09.03.2011

Happy Labor Day weekend to those of you in the States! No long weekend for me. :( I think the Taiwanese equivalent was in April or something.

Anyway, some updates from me:

First, check out the gorgeous new blog button in the side bar! It was designed by the incredibly talented Carrie Butler, and I won it for following the directions for her giveaway. :) You can see the other buttons she made by clicking over to this blog post.

New meme on my Awards and Memes page: The Ten Random Facts Meme, which was passed to me by the awesome and hilarious Alz at A Nudge in the Right Direction.

Carrie also tagged me with the 7x7 Link Award (thanks Carrie!) which I'll get to once I have more posts in my archives. Maybe I'll do it for some sort of blogging milestone?

Ok, on to the links!

CRAFT

• Love these helpful posts by author Patricia C. Wrede on how to write narrative summary and telling details effectively
• Agent Mary Kole at Kidlit talks about how to avoid overwriting
• Shannon Donnelly at Book View Cafe wrote an article how to develop writing muscles. I'm terrible at consistency and discipline so this is just what I needed!

CHARACTERIZATION

• Victoria Mixon gives four tricks to improve your fiction, focusing on what makes a great protagonist.
• K.M. Weiland lists ten traits of a likable hero, based on Captain America

MISCELLANEOUS

• I adore Juliette Wade's thought-provoking posts on worldbuilding. Here are her thoughts on cultural expectations about food and on psychogeography
• Shannon Whitney Messenger wrote an amazing post about her writing journey. I love posts like this, and always wonder what mine will look like
• Go check out Alz and Krispy's post on love triangles! Alz's illustrations are awesome, and she makes a lot of great points. Sarah Enni also has a love triangle post about when the best choice is none.
• A great article I found through YA Highway: this post on Feministe about the importance of casting in breaking racial stereotypes. I think this is important to consider when writers cast their characters, too.
• I stumbled on Erin Morgenstern's blog the other day and fell in love with her flax-golden tales. I totally want to read The Night Circus now!

Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Inky Linky Love 08.20.2011

Everyone was too busy with WriteOnCon to notice my lack of a post this week, right? :P I'd seen WriteOnCon around the blogosphere before but had no idea what it was. I was totally missing out! Once I found out how awesome it is, I deprived myself of sleep in order to go through all the vlogs and articles from last year, haha. Here are my favorite posts from this year's WriteOnCon, as well as some other blog posts I enjoyed recently.

 WRITEONCON

• Jodi Meadows on How to Write a Synopsis: love her idea for a verbal diarrhea pre-drafting synopsis!
• Taran Hudson on Pacing: her Chapter Sandwich is a good trick for making sure there's lots of tension and excitement
• Kendra Levin on Your Own Hero's Journey: how to balance your writing with everything else in life
• Carrie Ryan on Revision: great tip about starting with the big picture before looking at detail
• Martha Mihalik on Building Believable Romance: love her point that romance doesn't have to be stated directly
• [Vlog] Lisa Schroeder on Novel Beginnings: great point about being intentional with your starting point
• [Vlog] Lindsey Leavitt on The Debut Year: omg she's so adorable!

PLOTTING

• Marina Cohen wrote for Let the Words Flow about how thinking = plotting. I feel so much better about all the time I spend daydreaming!
• Jennifer Hubbard talks about why middles are marvelous. I think openings and endings are incredibly difficult for me, too!
• Patricia C. Wrede says you need to know where you are in order to determine if you can get to where your destination. Great analogy for plotting and knowing your story.

CHARACTERIZATION

• Juliette Wade muses on developing antagonists through story events.
• Lori M. Lee has a great post about the inequality of switching gender roles in YA fiction. Go read it!

SETTING/WORLDBUILDING

• Cam at The Empty Pen wrote intriguing posts on the personality of setting and how it affects characterization. Those posts made me more excited to think about setting — definitely one of my weaknesses.
• N.  K. Jemisin talks about colonialism in worldbuilding and how that affects culture and society in her books. 

In other news, I've realized that I should've spent more time plotting and planning before diving into Camp NaNoWriMo. I make a terrible pantser. But participating forced me to think about my project more and I've made a lot of progress in figuring things out (if not actual word count), so I'm glad I signed up! 

I keep thinking up potential plot events and scenes, but because I hate how everything feels like a muddle in my head, I bought a ton of note cards and sticky notes in order to storyboard the plot. I'm hoping that organization and getting the structure down first will provide a smoother writing experience down the road. I'm excited to see how it goes! I'll blog more about whether the note card method worked for me once I've gotten a chance to try it out.

Oh, and here's an interesting post from Slate about how to write faster. Are you a Beethovian or Mozartian drafter? I bet you can guess which one I am!

YA Romance Pet Peeves

Some of my friends say I'm a cynic, but I say it's only because I am a true idealistic romantic at heart. I love reading about romance. I want to follow along on a character's love life and vicariously experience the thrill and giddiness and sweetness of budding love (probably because my own love life isn't so exciting). I want the romance to be something I can admire and aspire to — something that feels real and solid and steeped in truth, even if it is fiction. I want to root for the characters as they spend time together, find that they complement and strengthen one another, and commit to the effort necessary for the relationship to blossom. It makes me so happy and gushy when I come across a YA romance like that!

I suppose I love true romance too dearly to have much patience for the obsessive, lustful infatuations that frequently pass for romance in YA these days. And so I thought I'd share a few my pet peeves when it comes to YA romance. Of course, this is entirely based on my personal reading preferences, so your mileage may vary. It's not a particularly unique or ground-breaking list, but maybe you'll find yourself nodding along with a few of these points. Or shaking your head vehemently. (Feel free to speak out in the comments!)

Here are the things I'd want to avoid in my own reading and writing:

Love at First Sight
I know some people believe in love at first sight, but I'm not one of them. I don't think love is something that springs up out of nowhere the second you lay eyes on someone. Attraction? Intrigue? Fascination? OMG-I-think-this-person-might-be-The-One? Sure. But until the characters get to know each other on a deeper level and have a relationship built on something other than physical attraction and chemistry, I'm skeptical about their "love." True love, in my opinion, needs a foundation of trust and commitment, and that takes time to nurture.

Lust-Based Relationship
This is part of the reason I'm not sold on love at first sight. Physical attraction is a wonderful thing in a relationship, but it shouldn't be the only aspect. After all, appearances can be deceiving, and people are so much more than their looks. Sure, I've harbored crushes on guys who had more looks than substance, but I never kidded myself that it was love. I prefer reading about protagonists who are more self-aware and realistic. If a heroine declares herself in love with a guy because he is just soooo incredibly hot, fails to mention any other reason, and never realizes how shallow she's being, she will lose major points in my book for being superficial.

Obsessive Mooning
Another reason I hate reading about purely lust-based relationships is that I don't want to read the protagonist talk about "his dark, brooding eyes" or "his ripped muscles" or "this inexplicable connection between us" or anything else along those lines FIVE MILLION TIMES in the same book. And if she must think about him, why can't she think about something else besides his looks or how she's so mysteriously drawn to him? Why can't she be blown away by his kindness? His integrity? His courage? His intelligence? Why can't she admire those traits and be inspired to cultivate them?

Lack of Personality
Because some protagonists can really use a bit of self-improvement. I know some authors write with an everygirl in mind so the reader can slip herself into the place of the heroine, but personally I prefer reading about heroines I can admire and learn from. Sometimes I wonder why every guy in certain novels is infatuated with the protagonist when she doesn't seem to do much of anything. I want to know that the guy loves the protagonist for her strengths and personality and admirable traits. I want to see these traits in her thought process and actions, not by authorial decree.

Excessive Angst
One major tip-off that the protagonist has no personality would be if she spends all her time angsting about her relationship(s). As much as I love reading about romance, I'd prefer if the heroine has other things going on so she's not spending every. waking. moment. thinking about her love life. I'm not particularly interested in spending time in the head of a character who lets thoughts of a guy take over her entire life (particularly if she just met him). Even worse if it's a constant reminder that her relationship is made of nothing but lust and insta-connection.

Love Triangles
Protagonists in this category are the most likely to be guilty of the previous point, because two guys = double the angst. I know lots of people like to indulge in the fantasy of being fought over by two hot guys or cheer for a favorite team, but I'm not a fan of love triangles. It can be done well, I'm sure, but it's been overdone to the point that I'm relieved when a novel doesn't boast one. There are so many things that can go wrong with love triangles (and by "go wrong" I mean "annoy me to death"). I think it's awful when the female protagonist leads on two guys. I hate finding myself on Team Other Guy because I want to see him happy but I know he's doomed by the author not to be. And when compounded with other things on my list, the entire situation is likely to make me want to destroy something in frustration.

Betrayal
To me, this is the worst part of love triangles. I cannot stand reading about betrayals of a friend or a significant other and, worse, being expected to root for the guilty party. I know people make mistakes, but I wish there were more characters who did the right but difficult thing by telling the truth and facing the consequences, rather than giving in to their passions and then trying to hide it by lying to loved ones. I am a big believer in the importance of commitment, honesty, loyalty, and communication in relationships, and I find it hard to apply the label of "love" to anything that lacks those elements. That goes for friendships, too.

Selfish, All-Consuming Passion for No Reason
Basically, this sums up my gripe with many YA romances. Characters meet, fall in lust, become entirely obsessed, and throw everything else to the wind. They can't see anything else but each other, and make decisions without considering the bigger picture of other things going on in their lives, or caring if they will hurt the people closest to them, or taking into account the consequences of what they're doing. Or maybe they do think about it, but selfishly decide that their "love" trumps all. I get so annoyed with these characters I want to shake them and tell them to open their eyes and think about what they're doing. But I'm sure they wouldn't listen anyway. Sigh.

Examples of Classic Romances I Can't Bring Myself to Love
Since I don't want to bash any recent YA novels by name, I decided to list classics as examples (ok, I may have cheated on the last one). I know these are all widely-beloved stories and have heavily impacted our culture, but I cannot stand the romances in these works. Of course, you may feel differently about them, and if you do, I'd love it if you share why in the comments!

• Romeo and Juliet: I have no idea what they saw in each other besides physical attraction, and their double suicide was tragic in its wastefulness and not my idea of romantic at all.
• Tristan + Isolde: OMG I hated the movie version. I yelled at the characters for being so selfish and superficial and for betraying their king, who adored both of them. (I think I kind of alarmed my friends with the intensity of my frustration.)
• Arthur/Guinevere/Lancelot: Similar to the above. Another love triangle and betrayal of someone loved and admired by the lovers (well, depending on the version, I guess). Anyway, just not the kind of story I enjoy. 
• Twilight: I think this is enough of a cultural phenomenon to count as a classic. Plus it's the one that spawned all the paranormal angsty love triangles so popular in YA right now. I neither liked nor hated the first book, but I couldn't get myself through New Moon without wanting to strangle Bella multiple times. So I never read the sequels.

Further Reading

• Enjoy reading long rants? Here's one I wrote on my personal blog called In Defense of the Good Guy, in which I complain about how the romance plays out in the DreamWorks animated film, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (contains spoilers).
• Here's a great post from Beth Revis about obsessive love versus true love. She makes thoughtful points about both, and I definitely recommend reading it for an interesting perspective on romance in YA.
• Rachel Stark at Trac Changes talks about how YA romances affect teen girls and the kind of romances she'd want to acquire as an editor.
• Sarah Furlong Burr at Starving Novelist writes about her pet peeves in Harlequin romances. Not about YA, but some of her points still apply.
• Lisa Shroeder gave tips for writing great YA romance with the acronym CUPCAKE in this vlog for WriteOnCon 2010. Spot-on points for how to write amazing romance.
• Want to know what guys think of YA romance? Here's a fun post by Bryan at Boys Don't Read on love triangles. (Thanks for the great link, Adam!)
• I can't seem to stop myself from adding more links! Fun post by Nicole at WORD for Teens on Disney princesses and love. It's DISNEY! How can you not go check it out?

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the subject. Now I'm really curious about what you think! Do you also get annoyed by the issues and examples I've listed, or are there some you actually quite enjoy, and why?

Inky Linky Love 08.07.2011

Oops, kind of late with the linky post this time. But since I'd banned myself from Google Reader for much of the week, I had hundreds upon hundreds of posts to wade through, and that's basically what I spent yesterday doing. I think next week I'll go back to checking the reader when I have a spare moment; it's too daunting to tackle so many at a time.

But wow, there are so many beautiful posts on the writing journey in the blogosphere lately. These amazing writers are open about the struggles and challenges that accompany being a writer while being incredibly inspiring with their perseverance and hard work. I hope you'll check out these posts if you haven't already:

AWESOME POSTS ON THE WRITING JOURNEY

• S.J. Kincaid wrote a beautiful post on Ellen Oh's blog about why she wouldn't have changed anything about her writing journey, despite being obsessed for years with a manuscript that would never be published.
• In a similar vein, Natalie Whipple recounts her journey to publication on Adventures in Children's Publishing, sharing her struggles and heartaches and how she fought through them.
• On her own blog, Natalie explains why she's not jealous of Kiersten White's successes and how to deal with jealousy in general.
• Speaking of which, Kiersten is amazing as well. This week she wrote a post on talent versus hard work and why both are important. 
• And the fabulous C.J. Redwine wraps everything up — the journey, the hard work, the success, and how to handle others' good news — in this post on what it feels like to get a book deal.

Amazing articles, right? And here are posts on everything else. It kinda kills me to throw them all together instead of organizing them into separate categories as I usually do, but if I did that I would mostly have only one link per category, and that would annoy me even more. Thus, this compromise:

EVERYTHING ELSE

• Worldbuilding: Adam Heine has a great post with tips on creating your own fantasy slang.
• Dialogue: Sara Furlong Burr gives advice on how to write compelling dialogue.
• Characterization: Savannah Foley talks about writing realistic, flawed characters by harnessing your inner contrarian.
• Plot: Juliette Wade talks about balancing tender and terrible moments, and Kat Zhang underscores the importance of consequences to character decisions.
• Revision: Danyelle Leafty at the Query Tracker Blog provides a great step-by-step pre-revision guide.
• Growth: Beth Revis shares about the writer's learning curve, and the Storytelling by Ira Glass video she embeds in her post is so inspiring.
• More Linda: Over on my personal blog, I wrote a post about why I won't tell you to "be yourself" — I see that advice all the time on writing blogs, but I don't find it particularly meaningful or useful.

Oh, and there's a new tab under my header, featuring awards and memes I've been tagged with. It's entirely Carrie Butler's fault that I had to make one of those. Thanks for thinking of me, Carrie! Though I'd appreciate a less awkward one next time. ;)

In other news, I am still horribly behind on Camp NaNo. But I don't feel all that guilty about it, haha. I think the best part about participating is learning to develop a consistent writing habit, so even if I don't make it to 50k (I'm pretty sure I won't), I'm happy as long as I'm making some progress on my WIP and knocking out a few hundred words every day.

Hope your writing plans are going better than mine, and have an incredible weekend! :D

Inky Linky Love 07.23.2011

Time for another link roundup post! (I know they're kind of random. But at least they always show up on a Saturday?)

Lots of amazing worldbuilding links, since they inspired many of my thoughts in my last post. Be sure to check them out, as well as the other writing posts I found thought-provoking or helpful:

WORLDBUILDING & SETTING

• Sherwood Smith at Book View Cafe wrote an insightful and in-depth post about worldbuilding, internal consistency, and things that pull her out of the reading experience. Definitely made me want to write a secondary world that's logical, despite how much work it is!
• Steven Popkes, also at Book View Cafe, applies evolution to the movie Avatar and comes up with some interesting conclusions. Great thoughts about how flora and fauna of your world should make evolutionary sense.
• Juliette Wade posted a TTYU retro about how descriptions should have relevant support structures. Love her points about keeping the viewpoint character in mind and slipping in the worldbuilding subtly.

CRAFT

• Kristen Lamb uses the acronym LOCK to help writers test the strength of their story ideas. This showed me that I need to give some more thought to what my protagonist really wants.
• Janice Hardy provides some great tips on maintaining believability. Nothing is more jarring than implausible plot points or character decisions.
• Alicia Rasley at Edittorrent talks about how drawing out a scene can increase the emotional payoff. I think it'd be great for surprises, too.

PLOT

• I adore the INTERN's posts on breaking down The Hunger Games! I love that book and I enjoyed reading her analysis of what makes the book so addicting. Part one is about structure on the sentence/scene/chapter level, and part two is about video games (yes, really).

DIVERSITY

• Kate Hart does an amazing job of creating cool info-graphics to analyze the covers of 2010 YA novels in her post, Uncovering YA Covers: How Dark Are They? The answer to her question? Not very. In fact, they tend to be overwhelmingly white. I'm hoping there will be more diversity in YA in the future!

That's it for this time. Have a great weekend!

Inky Linky Love 07.09.2011

Three weeks is way too long to go without posting one of these! There are so many great blog posts, but since I don't want this to be too overwhelming, I narrowed it down to a more manageable number of links. Hope you enjoy these posts as much as I did!

CHARACTERIZATION

• So if you've been following these linky posts, you may have noticed that I am drawn to posts about villains/antagonists. Janice Hardy wrote one using the newest X-men movie as an example. Even more amazing? I actually watched that movie! That's pretty amazing, since the last time I watched a movie in theater was New Year's Day, when I watched Tangled with my sister.
• Judith Tarr is Book View Cafe's resident horse expert, and she wrote a post on the fine art of horse arranging. It provides a fascinating look into how social groups change depending on the members. Awesome implications for complex relationships between your (human) characters, as well!
• Jason Black at Plot to Punctuation wrote a super cool post on four ways to generate conflict between your characters — using Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series! Great stuff.

PLOTTING

• Since I love Disney's Tangled and learning about plot structure, I was super excited to find this Tangled beat sheet at Blake Snyder's Save the Cat. Awesome stuff, I tell you.
• Jody Hedlund gave a great list of tips for avoiding the mid-book doldrums. Definitely things I'll have to keep in mind when I move to the outline phase.
• James Killick crafted a thoughtful post on how to find drama in writing. He makes great points and I can't wait to use them in my own writing!
• Alicia Rasley at Edittorent wrote about how to contrast comfort and conflict for maximum effect. Great food for thought.

WRITING LIFE

• Chuck Wendig keeps writing these amazing (though profanity-filled) 25-things posts. He makes a lot of great points in the list of things to know about writing a novel. Yeah, I suck at the momentum one. It's kind of depressing to be stuck at #2.
• Tawna Fenske is not only hilarious but thoughtful as well. I can very much relate to her post on not being a machine —  I've wished so many times that I could program myself to do what I want me to do!

FUN

• If you need any evidence that Tawna's posts are comedic gold, check out her post on her housemates' plan to use her dog as a chick magnet.
• And while this isn't from a writing blog, this post on picking your battles is too hilarious not to share. Three reasons you have to read this post: GIANT. METAL. CHICKEN!

Oh, and HUGE congrats to Natalie Whipple for selling her books! I've raved about her before in a previous link roundup post and I am so, so thrilled for her. She is an inspiration. Go read her story on the process and offer your congratulations!

Have a great weekend!

Inky Linky Love 06.11.2011

Two weeks ago I said I wouldn't overwhelm you with two weeks' worth of links at once... well. Looks like it's inevitable this time, though I did try to cut down the number of links to a reasonable amount.

CRAFT

• Mary Kole's post on how to convey character through interiority rather than resorting to physical cliches is amazing and helped me to understand why I had a hard time connecting to characters in certain works.
• Ken Scholes at Genereality gives some tips to pre-plan and draft a first novel — much-needed advice for me!

PLOTTING

• Janice Hardy's posts on plotting are so helpful — she's really great at breaking down the key elements of plot, and my inner structure/outline nerd totally loves it.

CHARACTER

• Kristen Lamb concludes her series on antagonists with a post on the importance of scene antagonists and how they push the protagonist to change.

WORLDBUILDING

• Alexandra Sokoloff writes about the powerful technique of using visual imagery systems to convey theme, using films as examples so you can "see" her points in action.
• Juliette Wade does it again with another thought-provoking post on using idioms and metaphors to flesh out a culture. I adore all her worldbuilding posts!

WRITING LIFE

• Given how late I've been with posts lately, Biljana Likic's post at Let the Words Flow on how to deal with missing deadlines is extremely timely.
• In addition to great posts on anthropology and linguistics, Juliette Wade also provides some helpful tips on how to find time to write — I must say I'm definitely guilty of letting myself be distracted.

CHUCK WENDIG

• I cannot believe I am giving Chuck Wendig a section to himself. I admit that when I first came across his blog I was a bit put off by his liberal use of profanity, but the content of his posts is pure awesomeness. Check out these posts on how to tell if you're a writer, 25 important things about storytelling, 25 things to know about character, and when to give up writing, and you'll see how amazing he is.

Hope you enjoy the links! If you haven't yet, please take a look at my novel-writing game plan and let me know if you have any tips for me. Thanks!

Inky Linky Love 05.28.2011

So I'm just going to pretend that this post isn't awfully, horribly late by backdating this post. Ooh, magic! Now it looks like I posted this last week when I should have. Except I'm telling you the truth and ruining it because I don't want you to question your sanity in case you stopped by before and didn't see the post (why yes, I am the epitome of kindness and selflessness).

Anyway, I've been busy and distracted lately, which accounts for my recent MIA-ness. Oops. But I'm glad I don't feel overly guilty for taking a break. Back when I first started blogging I would beat myself up if I didn't post every weekday. I still feel a slight twinge of uneasiness for not posting as regularly as I'd like, but I figure it's better not to guilt-trip myself over it. I'm still working on the game plan post — the outline is there, but I wanted to flesh it out a bit more before posting it (soon, hopefully).

I half considered just skipping the linky post for last week but I read some awesome posts that I want to share and don't want to overwhelm you by combining two weeks' worth in the next post. (I have a hard enough time narrowing them down as it is — I read hundreds of blogs and of course they're all amazing!) So here are a few of my favorite blog posts from last week (or thereabouts):

CRAFT

• I was so excited to discover that Patricia C. Wrede blogs! Dealing with Dragons and Searching for Dragons are among my favorite books ever. I absolutely adore Cimorene and Mendanbar — they're so awesome! Her blog is wonderful as well; here's a great post on nurturing story ideas. 

PLOTTING

• Kristen Lamb uses Pixar film Finding Nemo as a case study for story structure. I love children's movies too, and she presents her points about action and conflict by using concrete examples. Very helpful, and I'll be sure to keep the lessons in mind during outlining and drafting.

SETTING

• The ever brilliant Juliette Wade blogged about the significance of architecture in setting and putting your worldbuilding onto the page. I love hearing about the thoughtful details she works into her own WIP, and her posts always inspire tons of cool ideas.

REVISION

• Charlotte Jane Ivory at Steam&Ink wrote a hilarious post about notes she makes to herself while reading her manuscript. I seriously cannot wait to make snarky comments about my own writing. That will be motivation to finish!

WRITING LIFE

• Natalie Whipple is incredible. Between Fact and Fiction is one of the first writing blogs I subscribed to (I think it might be the first), but though I've been reading it regularly for a few years, I didn't start commenting until recently (what can I say, I'm shy!). I appreciate how open she is about her journey as a writer. One thing that always impresses me is how she can come up with one awesome idea after another and draft them so quickly. I love her post about her writing process now; it's interesting to see how it changed over the years.
• Vanessa di Gregorio at Let the Words Flow totally failed to make me think she's not cool. I can so relate to her struggles to write instead of procrastinating and am glad I'm not alone. 
• Anna Staniszewski gives 9 tips for finishing a novel, and wow, those are great tips. Since this blog is all about getting myself to finish a novel for once, I'll be doing my best to take those tips to heart.

PUBLISHING

• I'm ages away from even considering querying or publishing, but I love reading author success stories. Lori Roy guested on Jenny Bent's blog about how she landed her agent and got a book deal.

FUN VOCABULARY LESSON

• Mark Nichol at Daily Writing Tips compiled a list of 50+ animal adjectives. I don't know if you'd want to write in your WIP that your hero possesses an acciptrine fierceness or that your villain cries eusuchian tears, but imagine how fun it would be to wow your friends with your superior vocabulary the next time you describe a passerine appetite or complain about someone's testudine pace! (Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks it'd be fun? :P)

If you have any tips on how not to fall behind in blogging, please share!

Inky Linky Love 05.21.2011

Until recently, I was a die-hard lurker. There are blogs I've read for years and never commented on. But since I started blogging, I've come to appreciate the value of comments a lot more — so I'm learning to come out of my shell by leaving comments and interacting with people on Twitter more often. Turns out, it's not as scary as I thought it'd be. People are so nice! And they actually reply! :D (Yeah, that was kind of shocking. In a good way, of course.)

As I'm slowly getting more involved in the online writing community, I want to give back by highlighting a few of my favorite writing-related posts in the blogosphere each week. I was so excited I even came up with a super cheesy name for the feature, hehe. :P

I've followed some of these blogs for months or years, while I stumbled upon others just this week. I'm constantly amazed by the great stuff out there. I wish I could rave about all the posts I liked, but I made myself choose just a handful:

CRAFT

• THE INTERN is no longer interning at a publishing house but continues to share her insights on the writing and publishing process, such as her post on how to find theme by thinking about universals.
• I love Juliette Wade's posts — she applies her linguistic anthropology background to novel-writing, resulting in mind-blowing, thought-provoking, perspective-shifting essays. My favorites this week are her posts on the scope of conflicts and how to blend personal experience into your fiction.
• I'm new to Susan Dennard's blog, but her series on revision is amazing. I adore how organized she is and can't wait to try out her tips myself (great motivation to finish, eh? :P). There are six posts in the series: one | two | three | four | five | six

PLOT AND CHARACTER

• Janice Hardy's blog is an amazing resource for writers. This week she guested on Elizabeth S. Craig's blog about her approach to worldbuilding. She also blogged about plotting backwards.
• I came across two great posts on antagonists this week: The Antagonist by Bob Mayer at Genreality and Creating Antagonizing Antagonists by Sara Furlong Burr at Starving Novelist. Reading their different takes was really helpful since I tend to have a hard time with antagonists.

WRITING LIFE

• Sara also provided some great tips for beating writer's block. I don't have a lot of experience with writer's block (because I don't write nearly enough) but I'll be keeping the tips in mind for future reference.
• Kristen Lamb blogged about what Ju-Jitsu taught her about writing, and I think it's a lesson I need to learn, too.
• Justine Musk wrote an amazing post on embracing ambition and training your subconscious. I love this post — I'm learning to discover and pursue what I want, and this post addresses that powerfully.

PUBLISHING

• Mandy Hubbard provides a peek into current publishing trends in MG/YA. I'm not thinking that far ahead right now, but it's interesting to see what editors are seeking.

FUN

• Oh, Tawna Fenske's blog is just hilarious! I particularly enjoyed her post on how to scare a new housemate.

I hope you find these posts fun and helpful. Be sure to let these bloggers know if you like their posts!

And tell me, were you ever a lurker? Or did you get involved right away? What kinds of posts make you more likely to de-lurk?