Writing Tips

10 Best Websites for Writers

You will find that the internet is also chock-full with great story writing websites. Here are 10 websites that I enjoy. 

Jami Gold

Jami Gold, a paranormal author, share tips and gives advice to writers with worksheets for career improvement, story planning, and story improvement. Not only does she have workshops online geared towards writing craft and author platform, she also offers editorial services.

Daily Writing Tips

Is exactly that. If you need creativeness and perhaps a writing tip or two, this is the place. It includes writing-related articles. The first time I stumbled on it, 30 minutes has passed after reading the many, many articles.

The Write Practice

This site is a lot like the one above, but you cannot have too many prompts to keep writer’s block at bay. It asks you to take a 2-minute assessment as well as a writing practice.

1st 10 Pages

Learn how to make your first impression count. Free to all, 1st 10 Pages gives Writers a place to post the beginning of your story, securely. Once read anonymously, you will know if more of your story is desire.

Write to Done

Whether you write non-fiction, novels, or blog posts, Write to Done is the place for you. You’ll find tips, motivation, how-to posts and ways to promote your writing.

How to Plan, Write and Develop a Book

Weekly tips and techniques from Mary Carroll Moore on how to form, build, write and sell your manuscript. In addition to offering writing classes, she helps writers improve their skills and learn the publishing process.

Re:Fiction

Offering resources to help you at all phases of writing, Re:Fiction is the place to be. With writing prompts, exercises, and contests, it also offers on manuscripts of up to 5,000 words grants for professional editing and critiques each month.

Procrastiwriter

It’s time to stop procrastinating and start writing! Written by Shanan Haislip, The Procrastiwriter will help you find the motivation you need to write more, hone your craft, and most importantly, make room for consistent writing.

Warrior Writers

Kristen Lamb is an author and coach who helps writers connect with their readers. She shares advice on topics like writing craft, building a following on social media, navigating the publishing process and making a living as a writer.

A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing

Author Joe Konrath has published 24 novels and sold millions of books, giving him the experience to create a must-read blog. If you write mysteries, thrillers, horror or sci-fi, you’ll find a ton of helpful advice for writing, editing and publishing your novel.

 

My Favorite YouTube Channels

As we all know, there are many YouTube channels. They teach you how to make a simple problem to your car to simple crafts you can do. Here are some of my favorites. 

Chris Fox

Bestselling author of 5,000 Words per Hour, Write to Market, and science fiction, fantasy novels, Chris is the best. I stumbled on him when I first decided to self-publish. His 21 Day Novel Writing Challenge had me hooked. I can’t tell you how many times I have watched the challenge. His latest video series, 12 Weeks to a Trilogy, he completed in May. It is now my favorite. Chris typically has a new video on Friday talking about the writing craft, marketing, and the publishing business.

Christina M. Dukes

I am totally into the Law of Attraction. When I saw a thumbnail of her smelling her money, my first thought was “What the heck?” Okay, I was a little more colorful, but you get my meaning. Christina generally has a live Facebook video on Wednesday. She covers topics such as what does success cost, a simple trick to manifest money instantly, and how to get rid of negativity in your life. If you need a Need a Life or Business Coach, check her out!

Jenna Moreci

Author of Eve: The Awakening, Jenna totally cracks me up with her colorful language. Her videos on topics like character development, plot generation and scene setting. My favorite videos are being able to handle self-doubt and criticism. I watched all her videos in a few hours, which led me to the next author I follow:

Kristen Martin

Writer of all things young adult, science fiction, and fantasy, her newest book, Shadow Crown will be out Oct 3. New videos giving would-be authors writing advice, motivations, as well as techniques to balance your writing life, are posted on Mondays and Thursdays. Kristen also offers first chapter critique.

Kim Chance

YA Author of Keeper, Kim has a passion for helping other writers. She posts weekly writing videos on her channel covering topics such as starting your novel, rookie mistakes and getting involved in the writing community.

PhillyDiva

I was never one to worry about fashion since all I did was work and my wardrobe consisted of jeans and t-shirts. Now that the most I work outside of my home is 20 hours a week (and don’t operate a forklift any longer), finding Ms. PhillyDiva was a blessing. Fashion & Beauty Enthusiasts Beauty/Fashion Vlogger & Blogger, her style includes finding iconic vintage pieces and combining them with present-day trendy pieces. Her hair videos are a definite plus. 

Wolters World

I accidently stumbled on this after finding a YouTube video about Rszesow (my husband’s hometown). He offers many travel advice on things you may like or even dislike when traveling to different countries. The do’s and don’ts, passport issues and cruises. The perfect channel for the would be traveler.

Editing Your Writing

One of the benefits of hiring an editor is in the reality that they are looking at your work with new eyes. You can mimic this with these few steps:

TAKE A BREAK AND LET IT BAKE

Let it sit for a few hours or a couple days before returning to it.

To be candid, a few hours in all probability isn’t going to be enough time for your eyes to be reviewing it with a renewed outlook, but for sure, a couple of days can create a enormous difference.

READ YOUR STORY OUT LOUD

Hearing the rhythm of the words will allow your ears to find errors that your eyes may miss

PRINT IT OUT

Editing on paper is easier than editing on a screen. Errors will jump out at you much more, and your eyes won’t be tempted to skim the page as quickly as they will on the screen.

If you must edit on the screen, change the font and size. It will be able to help you catch any glaring errors.

READ IT BACKWARDS

This is an effective way to check for typos—if you read backwards, from the end to the beginning, reading one word at a time, you’ll look closely at each word individually. You’re more easily able to catch misspelled words this way.

READ YOUR WORK AT LEAST THREE TIMES

Write your entire article out in full. Then reread it and fill in any gaps or holes that you see, and polish up awkward sentences. Then read it at least one more time for a final proofread and grammar check.

Writing Your Outline

So, you’ve chosen your topic and your audience. You’ve come up with some ideas or even completed your first draft. Now, you’ll want to go through by rearranging your ideas into an arrangement that performs best to express your point.

Here are a few organizational outlines:

Cause and Effect

Explaining the influences involving an event and what caused it.  You can start off with a broad statement (either the cause or the effect) and then back up that statement with information that characterizes the other.

Significance

Writing convincingly or trying to make a point. You’ll first want to think through what works best. Is it hooking your reader with your main theme and then following up with helpful details? Or setting the reader up with the information to direct to your main point? Likewise, do you want to shift from your most to your least important point, other other way around?

Comparison

Comparing two points or situations to each other. One is to focus on the separate items, expressing them in their extensiveness based on different characteristics that they have in common. A second form is to focus on the characteristics themselves, defining the items as they apply to those characteristics.

Chronological

This is mainly beneficial when unfolding a story or relaying events chronologically. Just double-check that your events are written in the order in which they happened.

I hope you find these tips useful to your writing.