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Some of My very favorite BOOKS ABOUT WRITING:
Writing Irresistible Kidlit: The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers by Mary Kole. I highly highly recommend this book to all writers, not just those writing YA and MG. So many books on writing cover the same ideas, but this book contains helpful ideas and information I haven’t read anywhere else. Also check out Mary Kole’s extremely helpful website, which is CHOCK FULL of great advice. Seriously, if you’re writing for a YA or MG audience, you need to spend some time with Mary Kole.
Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need by Blake Snyder. This is technically a book about screenwriting, but it’s extremely helpful for us writers who struggle with plot. Equally helpful is Save the Cat Writes a Novel: The Last Book on Novel Writing You’ll Ever Need by Jessica Brody. I keep a copy of this book on my desk and refer to it constantly.
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King. This brutally-honest book is sprinkled with wise little gems of advice. Stephen King is one of the most prolific writers of our time; it’s interesting to read about his struggles, and learn how he creates his work. Speaking of Stephen King, I love this comic from Zen Pencils about King’s writing desk.
The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller by John Truby. Although I find Truby’s 22 Steps to be a little bit too prescriptive, this book gave me A LOT to think about as far as how to craft a tightly-woven story, and I often find myself coming back to this book when I’m feeling stuck.
Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First-Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story by Ursula K. Le Guin. Yes, as in the author of the Earthsea books and The Left Hand of Darkness. This little handbook contains ten unique, lovely, and deceptively simple writing exercises that Le Guin uses in her in-person writing workshops. I highly recommend writers of any experience level to pick up this book and use the exercises to improve and inform their writing.
Some helpful WEBSITES about WRITING AND PUBLISHING:
Daniel David Wallace has a PhD in Creative Writing. He’s an editor, a writing instructor, and a novelist to boot. He gives unique, intellectual (yet accessible!), and often humorous writing advice for novelists, bloggers, and teachers. Check out his videos, his free e-book on writing better sentences and his writing courses.
Query Shark is run by agent Janet Reid. On this website, people submit their query letter drafts and she rips them to pieces comments on them. Whatever you do, don’t submit your query draft until you’ve read ALL of the previous posts. You can learn a lot from other people’s mistakes.
Jane Friedman is “helping writers and publishers make smart decisions in the digital age.” Her website is full of writing and publishing advice, including how to get your novel published and how to self publish.
TerribleMinds by screenwriter Chuck Wendig gives tough-love writing advice in a funny and NSFW way.
Novelist April Davila has a monthly email newsletter filled with lots of writing-related goodness.
This Ultimate Fiction Writing Guide by Sumer Summary has a ton of resources broken up into easy-to-find sections such as writing exercises and prompts, novel-writing resources, character resources, and more.
This article from Custom Writing explains common mistakes with lots of examples then tells how to fix them. 11 Basic Writing Rules – Common Mistakes & Fixes.
Check out my post on writers you should follow on Pinterest (and why you should follow them).
And these are some of my favorite resources for YA and MG writers!
Looking for INFO ABOUT BLOGGING?
Read my post about how to create a professional blog even if you’re bad with technology.
Check out this guest post on how to improve your website’s SEO and increase traffic
Or, check out my Pinterest page of blogging resources!
And don’t forget to read all of my posts about writing!
