Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Web Wednesday: Blogs

You have probably seen me mention that I am addicted to Chuck Wendig's blog. (Embarrassing or lol-worthy typo alert: I wrote his last name as "Wendigo" the first few times.) What's not to love? It's funny, well-written and immensely informative. His post "25 Things You Should Know About Writing A Novel" really helped me settle things when it came to Strawberry Moon, and his most recent 25 Things post--"25 Things You Should Know About Dialogue"--tackles my second least favorite thing in writing. I check this blog daily, because there's always something new and interesting to learn.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is a science-fiction, fantasy, romance, and mystery writer. She's prolific, she's intelligent, and she has remarkable insight. Her blog, Business Rusch, is very good. She touches frequently on how self-publishing is affecting the publishing industry and she has a lot of interesting things to say. "A Lawsuit Waiting to Happen" is one of my favorites, but that's mostly because I currently live in Germany and I've noticed the differences she uses to illustrate her point, and I find them hilarious.

Sirra is a freelance editor/translator based in Hawaii. I discovered her blog entirely by accident the other day on Twitter; someone retweeted her. I liked reading her take on what kind of work goes into translating the written word, and her post on the #writetip tag made me smile. She's an editor, and she isn't afraid to share her opinion, so her words seem incredibly valuable to me.

Rik Davnall is kind of in the same place I am. He's going the self-publishing route and he's blogging about it. It's the Future, Stupid is chronicling his journey. He even has posts on outlining (I am a plotter writer, rarely a pantser, so it's always interesting for me to see how other writers write) and on Amazon vs. Other Sellers and how his marketing strategy is shaping up.

I am always on the lookout for blogs, articles, and even tweets to learn as much about self-publishing and self-marketing as possible. It may be because I'm a writer, but I don't find writers talking about writing the least bit dreary. Everyone has a different approach, different techniques, and I feel like I can benefit from knowing as much as possible. Reading about other writers and their process has cut my writer's block back to a mere rare occurrence, and it has given me so many ideas and so many tips about how to accomplish my goals.

To be frank, I'm approaching self-publishing in the way I have approached joining a new fandom in the past: I'm watching and I'm listening, and sometimes, I ask questions discreetly. By the time I feel comfortable with my knowledge, I will be ready to jump in. And if I do my research right, well, I shouldn't make too much of a splash if I don't want to.

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