Monday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

NOVEL CONSTRUCTION BEGINS WITH CONCEPT

By: C. S. Lakin

Last week we dove into the idea of constructing a novel, likening a novel to the roof of a building. In this course that will run the entire year, we’re going to look at the 12 support pillars of novel construction and how each pillar must be built so that it can hold up the story you hope to convey to your readers. I mentioned how a great building contractor will combine both book learning (which stands for any type of instructional learning) with hands-on knowledge, but that book learning alone can’t teach a person all they need to know to become proficient in a vocation.

And the converse is especially true for writers. You can’t just dive in and write something as complex as a novel without some book learning. But all too often that’s just what aspiring novelists do. Which, as I explained, ends up unproductive and a waste of valuable time. To become proficient at writing fiction, you have to learn as much as you can from the best teachers and books, then apply what you learn in practice. And although there is a wealth of diverse information “out there” for writers, basic structure, like established building codes, underlies all the best novels that have been written over the years, all over the world.

Don’t Be a Tinkerer

A lot of writers are like weekend handymen.

. . .

Read the full article HERE!

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If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again:

1. Developing a Writing Plan: How to Write Your Novel or Short Story | WritersDigest.com http://ow.ly/GvlDi
2. Reference For Writers, So You Want To Get Published. http://ow.ly/Gvm6P
3. Novel Construction Begins with Concept | Live Write Thrive http://ow.ly/Gvmuv
4. Blood-Red Pencil: Innie or Outie? A Quiz Actually Helpful to Writers http://ow.ly/GvmLl
5. Cliches to Avoid: 4 Story Endings Your Readers Will Hate http://ow.ly/Gvn9V
6. Writer Unboxed » What NOT to Do When Beginning Your Novel: Advice from Literary Agents http://ow.ly/Gvndz
7. What Is an Epigraph? http://ow.ly/Gvnpd
8. How to Organize Our Writing Research & Notes — Guest: Jenny Hansen | Jami Gold, Paranormal Author http://ow.ly/Gvnsm
9. It's Not Just One Book. Your Rights And How To Exploit Them. | The Creative Penn http://ow.ly/GvnxP
10. Fiction University: And...End Scene: When to Add a Scene Break http://ow.ly/GvnQM
11. 25 Ways To Write A Real “Page-Turner” Of A Book « terribleminds: chuck wendig http://ow.ly/Gvo6g
12. Wordstruck - 10 ways to sharpen your scenes - Claire Scobie: Writer and Journalist http://ow.ly/Gvo8t
13. How To Choose A Main Character - Writeonsisters.com http://ow.ly/GvocC
14. Is Third-Person the Right Point of View for You? http://ow.ly/Gvof4

Happy writing and running, Kathy 

Did a 10-miler on my bike yesterday wearing my walking boot. Felt great. If I keep this up, I'll be able to transition to the treadmill at the end of January and might be ready for the Run The Bluegrass Half Marathon at the end of March. 

In the meantime, I'm mindmapping THE EMERALD BROOCH. If you haven't done any mindmapping before, give it a try. You can download a free trial at iMindMap8. It's a digital thinking space and you can do all sorts of "what-ifs." 

This never works when I try it on paper, but this way is great. I can keep the app open and when I think of something, I just add it to the map.