*Please check out my guest article, Cut the Comparisons: 3 Ways to Embrace Your Unique Path, today at Change Your Thoughts.

Ever feel you might be writing the wrong story?

Let’s say you have a great premise and the characters are fully realized in your own mind. You rush to get something down on the page, either in the form of a detailed outline or a rough first draft. Everything goes pretty well for the first bit, but at some point you start to second-guess yourself.

The plot just doesn’t seem to be meshing as well with your characters as you thought it would. You’re having trouble translating your initial vision onto the page. You begin doubt you have the skills to make the story everything you wanted it to be.

Does all of this mean you chose to write the wrong story? Should you cut your losses and move on to the next idea?

While this may be the case some of the time (for example, you’re attempting to write a story that necessitates knowledge you can’t acquire through research), in many cases…

…it’s less about writing the right story, and more about writing the story right.

There’s No Such Thing as a Small Story

You know how, in the acting world, they say there are no such things as small parts, only small actors? That means even the smallest of roles can be memorable, and played with depth and enthusiasm, given a talented actor.

My theory is that the same truth holds for writers and their stories. There is no such thing as a small story, only small writers (that is, writers who think small in terms of the story—those who cannot do it full justice).

Think about it. Wonderfully powerful stories have been written about relatively everyday or mundane concepts. For example, John Cheever’s The Swimmer is about a man who tries to get home from a friend’s house by swimming through all the pools in the county. Hardly anything happens in the story, but it features a lot of symbolism and has a surprise ending which makes it a classic.

But, told in the wrong manner, that classic could have been a complete flop.

Is Your Story Too Big for You?

I started writing a short story a few months ago, one which came to me like a lightning bolt. I knew where I wanted to go with it, and did a basic outline. But once I had written a skeleton draft, something just felt wrong. The plot was unfolding in two contrasting locations, and for that reason it felt as if I were trying to tell two stories instead of one. The more I second-guessed myself, the more my characters began to slip out of focus. I felt I was in over my head. Perhaps this wasn’t the right story for me, or for these characters.

But, for some reason, I just couldn’t abandon it. It meant something to me on a personal level. It was a big story, not in terms of plot, but in terms of depth. It would require plenty of blood, sweat and tears to make it the best it could be.

That’s when I realized that it wasn’t a matter of me having the wrong story; it was a matter of me not telling the story in the best way possible. The dual settings could work so long as I found a way to better connect them to each another and to the plot. The characters could become what I had initially envisioned with some more fleshing out. I could find the best narrative point of view by testing a few parts in first and third person. And, some parts which I had already written—but weren’t really working—needed to be discarded.

The story didn’t need to be abandoned. It just needed to be told in a different manner. It was my job to discover what that meant.

Writing the Story Right

In A Brief History of the Short Story, Part 37, The Guardian claims Alice Munro once remarked that she eschews definite conclusions in her stories because:

“I want the story to exist somewhere so that in a way it’s still happening, or happening over and over again. I don’t want it to be shut up in the book and put away – oh well, that’s what happened.”

To me, that’s the definition of writing the story right. Where the story and characters actually live on in the readers mind, in some sort of alternate universe, long after the pages are closed.

How can we make sure we’re writing our stories in the best way possible?

1. Persevere. Some stories will simply fall out of your fingers, and other times you won’t be so lucky. Think of it this way: if a story comes too easy, there’s a good chance you could have written it better. It might be good, but is it the best it can be? When you’re tempted to say ‘it’s finished,’ leave it alone for another week and come back to it again.
2. Understand what your characters want. Character motivations are powerful. What’s the main thing your character wants? What are her goals and dreams? As readers, we need to not only be told what your characters need—we must be made to believe it and feel it ourselves, to some degree. We have to want to see those characters achieve their goals.
3. Experiment. When you just don’t know what the problem is, you may need a little experimentation to help your story along. You can always copy it into another document in order to try on different points of view or writing styles, or add/axe characters or subplots. Sometimes just rearranging existing parts of your story can make a big difference.
4. Break the rules, if necessary. There really aren’t any rules with writing. There are tried-tested-true guidelines, but no absolutely never-ever-break-’em rules. Sometimes, telling your story right means you go against the grain. Just make sure you understand why you’re going against the grain.
5. Write with your heart, but edit with your head. Writing just with your heart can result in a sloppy mess. Writing just with your head means you overthink things and don’t give yourself over to your creativity. It’s been said that first drafts are for telling the story to yourself. Write with your heart first so you have the freedom to be creative, but edit with your head to polish your story.

We may not finish every story we toy with, but I think we seldom begin writing stories so wrong for us that they cannot be completed. Any story can be memorable and well-written, given the right artist to craft it.

Can you share an example of a time when you successfully overhauled a story you would normally have abandoned? Do you have any further advice for writers struggling to tell their stories in the best way possible?

What if someone went through the biggest and best blogs on the internet, and pulled out the very best-of-the best tips for fiction writers?

That’s what I’ve attempted to do here. I can’t guarantee there aren’t some amazingly helpful writing tips that I haven’t included, but this is a good start.

I’ve also tried to steer clear of really obvious tips like “show, don’t tell” or “make your characters unforgettable,” in favour of ones that are less often discussed.

To learn more about the tips, click through to their original articles.

101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part I

1. Calling characters by their proper names in dialogue almost always sound phoney. 5 Creative Flaws that Will Expose Your Lack of Storytelling Experience. Storyfix
2. There’s never a perfect time for writing, so stop waiting for it. Why There’ll Never Be a Perfect Time to Write. Daily Writing Tips
3. Be selective about what you include in your story. You don’t need it all. Six Structural Problems Writers Face & How to Fix them. Beyond the Margins
4. Increase the stakes for your characters to prevent sagging story middles. When Middles Sag. Writers in the Storm
5. Use a waterproof dive slate to take notes in the shower. The Three Writing Tools I Can’t Live Without. Writer Unboxed
6. Avoid extended dialogue without sufficient grounding. Five Openings to Avoid. Nathan Bransford
7. To write a better book, write your query letter first. Write Your Query First for a Better Book. Writer Unboxed
8. Bigger doesn’t mean better. Use simple words instead of deliberately choosing big words. Just Call It Freaking “Green” Already. Writer Unboxed
9. Writer’s block might mean you’re trying to write something you’re not ready to write. Advice from Jonathan Franzen. Gotham Writers’ Workshop
10. Epiphanies are overused in fiction, and can be boring. The Problem of the Eureka Moment. Beyond the Margins
11. Your novel shouldn’t be a thinly-disguised memoir. 12 Signs Your Novel Isn’t Ready to Publish. Anne R. Allen
12. Try to use all five senses when writing each scene of your book. 5 Tips for Writing Better Settings. Jody Hedlund
13. Don’t describe silence as ‘deafening’. Things to Avoid [in Writing]. Glass Cases
14. Prologues usually just encourage infodumps. Prologues–This Side of Hell. Behler Blog
15.  Using defense mechanisms can increase the tension between characters. Using Defense Mechanisms for Characters. Roni Loren’s Writing Blog
16. Less is more when it comes to describing your characters. Why Less Detail Makes More Believable Characters. Plot to Punctuation
17. In action scenes, vary sentence length and structure to increase or decrease speed and excitement. Tips on Writing Action Scenes. The Other Side of the Story
18. Evaluate your story by defining its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. How to S.W.O.T. Your Story Over the Fence. Storyfix
19. In first drafts, you don’t need to know everything. Use placeholders (like X) as reminders to research a detail later. First Draft Secrets: Five Simple Steps. Write to Done
20. Sometimes the most important moments in dialogue is what isn’t said. What Isn’t Said: Subtext in Dialogue. Author Culture
21. Try using an ambiguous ending to create a plot twist (often works well in short stories). 10 Ways to Create a Plot Twist. T.N. Tobias 
22. Avoid overused, obvious symbolism in your fiction. The Obvious Symbolism Police. Glass Cases
23. Dialogue should reveal emotion through words, not adverbs (eg. “she said angrily”). Tips for Improving Dialogue In Your Novel. The Creative Penn
24. Know everything about your characters’ backstories, but write about only 10% of it. Character Planning. Procrastinating Writers
25. Your protagonist can’t be easily satisfied. He needs to want something badly. Can You Write a Publishable First Novel? Anne R. Allen’s Blog

Thanks to all these amazing bloggers for their valuable advice! Which tip is your favourite so far?

Now, head over to:

• 101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part II,
• 101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part III
• 101 of the Best Fiction Writing Tips, Part IV

I’ve always loved looking at real estate. There’s just something about picturing yourself in different homes that opens your mind to the many different possibilities your future could hold.

A few days ago, I was looking at a local house advertised on the internet. The photos were inside shots only, of what appeared to be a completely renovated character home. The hardwood floors had been sanded and refinished, the walls had been painted a warm taupe, and the kitchen and bathroom cupboards were brand new. Seemed like a decent place.

Then I looked up the address using good-ol’-Google Maps, so I could see what this home looked like from the outside.

I was shocked. I double checked the address to be sure I hadn’t made a mistake.

From the exterior, the house looked like it could be pushed over with one finger. The front steps were crooked, the paint was peeling, the roof and windows needed to be replaced, the yard was in disarray, and the street was in a busy, undesirable location.

I realized then that the owners of the house had just slapped on some paint and some new cupboards for a quick sale. Even though the picture shown on Google Maps was probably older, and the exterior may also have been renovated before sale, I couldn’t help thinking that underneath the facade, the foundation was likely crumbling.

Fixer-Upper or Condemned Manuscript?

The desire to finish a novel is huge. That’s why a lot of us end up trying to micro-edit too soon—that is, before taking care of all the macro-editing.

The problem is, I have a tendency to move on to the next stage too soon when I subconsciously know there’s something fundamentally wrong with my story. It’s as if I can push those thoughts out of my head, as long as I feel like I’m still progressing in some way.

Hey, maybe your novel is just a fixer-upper.

Years ago, when my Dad was looking for a new home, I went along with him. We toured some places that really gave me the creeps, and some that just weren’t suited. Eventually, we found the perfect one: a solid little house with floral wallpaper, green linoleum floors, and the distinct odour of old lady.

There’s a chance your novel isn’t ready to be condemned. Maybe it’s just the kind of place that’s fundamentally solid, but needs a good coat of paint and some new fixtures.

Then again, maybe there are more serious problems with your work-in-progress.

Are you busy smoothing your prose or line editing your manuscript, but all the while you still suspect one of the following:

1. Your story structure is flawed. You know your story structure is off, but you can’t figure out how to fix it without going back and changing the plot, to the point of rewriting most of the manuscript.
2. Your premise is flawed. You had a premise that seemed great when you started writing, but somewhere along the line you realized your premise cannot, for whatever reason, work. Maybe it’s an error in logic as the result of not planning your story ahead of time.
3. Your novel will never be what you want it to be. No matter what you do to it, deep down, you know this novel can never be what you envisioned when you started writing it. A big part of you is ready to give up on the project, especially if you have an idea for what you perceive to be a better novel.

If you suspect your novel is truly condemned to an eternity in a drawer, there’s still one strategy left to try:

Stop ignoring the problem.

Figure out what the problem is, then rebuild your manuscript from the bottom up.

Diagnosing the Problem with Your Novel

It would be great if we’d wake up in the morning one day and just know what’s wrong with our works-in-progress. Rather than sitting around for that unlikely event, why not try the following strategies?

• Shrunken Manuscript Technique. A technique that advises you to shrink your manuscript into a very small font, and eliminate white space, so you can see your story as a whole (now around 30 pages in length).
• The Single Most Powerful Writing Tool You’ll Ever See That Fits On One Page. A printable list of questions to help you focus your story structure and characterization. If you can’t answer one of these questions, you’ll immediately know that’s one of the problems.
• Read Your Story Aloud. Use your computer to record yourself reading your biggest problem spots aloud, then transfer to your mp3 player. You’ll be amazed what you find when it sounds like someone else is reading you the story.
• Working Backward to Flesh Out Your Plot. Three questions to help you work from the mid-point of your story backward, so you can increase the tension and flesh out the characters.
• Transfer It to Scrivener. Plug your manuscript into a dedicated writing program like Scrivener, where you can break down your story into chapters or scenes, easily shuffle things around, and create outlines of your story. Like Shrunken Manuscript Technique, it’s a great way to visualize your story as a whole, and get organized.

I also highly recommend Larry Brooks’s Story Engineering: Mastering the Six Core Competencies of Successful Writing. It’s really helped me better understand story structure and the three dimensions of character. Nail Your Novel by Roz Morris is also an invaluable guide for getting your story right without a fight.

[You can find more great advice from both Larry Brooks and Roz Morris at their blogs, Storyfix and Nail Your Novel, respectively.]

First drafts are meant to be sloppy, but cosmetic problems are easily fixed. It’s the foundations of your story that need to be solid before you move on to making your novel a thing of beauty.

How often during the writing process do you feel your novel should be tossed? How many ‘drawer novels’ have you written?

What other signs do you think make a novel ‘condemned’ to failure? What strategies have helped you diagnose and fix the problems with your work in the past?

After taking several weeks away from the first draft of my novel, I decided to jump back in.

I expected to find all sorts of problems with the story: inconsistencies in the plot, lack of transitions, poor characterization—the works. But what began to stick out at me the most was something to which I’d given little thought in writing the first draft.

Filter words.

What Are Filter Words?

Actually, I didn’t even know these insidious creatures had a name until I started combing the internet for info.

Filter words are those that unnecessarily filter the reader’s experience through a character’s point of view. Dark Angel’s Blog says:

“Filtering” is when you place a character between the detail you want to present and the reader. The term was started by Janet Burroway in her book On Writing.

In terms of examples, Let the Words Flow says to watch out for:

• to see
• to hear
• to think
• to touch
• to wonder
• to realize
• to watch
• to look
• to seem
• to feel (or feel like)
• can
• to decide
• to sound (or sound like)

[Note: A reader asked me to add 'to know' to this list, as well.]

I’m being honest when I say my manuscript is filled with these words, and the majority of them need to be edited out.

What Do Filter Words Look Like?

Let’s imagine a character in your novel is walking down a street during peak hour.

You might, for example, write:

Sarah felt a sinking feeling as she realized she’d forgotten her purse back at the cafe across the street. She saw cars filing past, their bumpers end-to-end. She heard the impatient honk of horns and wondered how she could quickly cross the busy road before someone took off with her bag. But the traffic seemed impenetrable, and she decided to run to the intersection at the end of the block.

Eliminating the bolded words removes the filters that distances us, the readers, from this character’s experience:

Sarah’s stomach sank. Her purse—she’d forgotten it back at the cafe across the street. Cars filed past, their bumpers end-to-end. Horns honked impatiently. Could she make it across the road before someone took off with her bag? She ran past the impenetrable stream of traffic, toward the intersection at the end of the block.

Are Filter Words Ever Acceptable?

Of course, there are usually exceptions to every rule.

Just because filter words tend to be weak doesn’t mean they never have a place in our writing. Sometimes they are helpful and even necessary.

Susan Dennard of Let the Words Flow writes that we should use filter words when they are critical to the meaning of the sentence.

If there’s no better way to phrase something than to use a filter word, then it’s probably okay to do so.

Want to Know More?

Do read these other helpful articles on filter words and more great writing tips:

• Filter Words and Distancing Point of View
• The Reasons Editors Reject Manuscripts
• Filter Those Words and Strengthen Your Writing

Have you ever noticed filter words creeping into your first drafts? How do you know when to keep a filter word, and when to eliminate it?

All through school, I was taught that when one writes a list, no comma is needed after the second last item.

For example:

Please get milk, eggs, butter, bread, sugar and salt from the grocery store.

As far as I knew, a comma would have been unnecessary after the word sugar.

Now, I’m not so sure.

An Issue of Style?

This “unnecessary” little punctuation mark is called a serial comma (aka Harvard or Oxford comma), and it’s the subject of heated debate.

Different style guides (AP, Chicago, MLA, etc.) have different opinions about the use of the serial comma, but it seems the Associated Press guide–used by journalists–omits it in order to save space.

An Issue of Country?

I was relieved to discover I’m not entirely to blame for my ignorance; it seems my Canadian upbringing (and Australian residency) has something to do with it.

While the United States calls for mandatory use of serial commas, Wikipedia claims:

In Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom, the serial comma tends not to be used in non-academic publications unless its absence produces ambiguity.

One source also believes:

In the Canadian public education system, it appears that educators actually teach students that it’s wrong to use a serial comma.

Whew! I don’t feel so bad now. Both countries in which I’ve attended school, and worked as an educator, tend not to use serial commas.

The government of Canada’s Language Portal says:

While a comma before the final and is optional, a comma can alter the meaning.

They suggest the serial comma be used when it clears up ambiguity.

What Makes the Most Sense?

Mignon Fogarty–better known as Grammar Girl–believes:

Although the serial comma isn’t always necessary, I favor it because often it does add clarity, and I believe in having a simple, consistent style, instead of trying to decide whether you need something on a case-by-case basis.

Now that I’m aware of the issue, I agree that consistent use of the serial comma avoids having to inspect your sentence to be sure the meaning is clear without it, and that’s why I’ve decided to use it from now on.

Part of me feels the serial comma is unnecessary in simple sentences, but another part of me thinks it’s too much trouble to check for clarity every time you might need to use it.

My questions for you are:

1. In which country were you educated? (I’m particularly interested to hear from other Canadians and Australians to find out if their experiences were similar to mine.)
2. What were you taught about the use of serial commas?
3. What is your take on serial commas today, and why?

For more information on serial commas, check out the following articles:

• Serial Comma, Wikipedia
• Serial Comma, Grammar Girl
• The Serial Comma is OK with Me, Daily Writing Tips
• The Case of the Serial Comma, Professional Training Company

I recently received an email from a concerned writer about a statement I’d made in one of my previous posts.

This writer has allowed me to use the email for the purposes of this article. Here is an extract:

I saw this on your blog and was disturbed by the implications to say the least:

“… [M]any queries don’t get read at all, some are deleted before being fully-read, and other submissions are rejected before the agent has read any of the manuscript.”

The arrogance that is implied by agents telling writers that they should spend countless hours on query letters, and in lots of cases cause a massive amount of stress to these writers, then not even bother to read the thing is amazing. This borders on being a flagrant slap in the face of writers.

I’d love to get your comments on this, because I hope I am reading this wrong.

This is going to be a monster post.

I think a lot of writers share the same concerns about the publishing industry. The email came from a writer who is in the process of querying, and who is worried by a lack of meaningful response just yet.

Literary agents sometimes seem untouchable. They play gatekeeper to our publishing dreams. Our success as writers generally hinges on whether or not we can snag that one special agent.

Writers bust their butts

I’ve found several mentions of the following study, although I apologize I wasn’t able to find the source for citation:

A study by Michigan-based publisher Jenkins Group showed as many as 80 percent of Americans want to write a book (~BNET Australia)

Of course, something like only 2 percent ever actually attempt it, far fewer finish, and only a small fraction of those ever get published.

So, if you’re one of the writers who has succeeded in writing a manuscript, no doubt you’d like some recognition for your efforts.

You’ve likely invested years of your life devoting yourself to the craft. Now, you have the final unpleasant task of taking your 300+ page manuscript and stuffing it into a one-page query letter.

That letter decides the fate of your career as a writer.

So, when you hear someone say your query letter might not be read at all, or it might be deleted before it’s fully read, it very well might sound like a slap in the face.

And, if you do receive a standard rejection letter, you might be left wondering what went wrong.

Agents get a lot of queries

I follow a lot of agents’ blogs. Everything I say here is based on what I’ve seen and read.

There are a few agents in the blogosphere (Miss Snark, Query Shark (Janet Reid), The Rejectionist) who play to the stereotypical image of the nasty publishing gatekeeper.

However, most agents are down-to-earth, and honest about the struggles they face in the day-to-day query slog.

Back in January, agent Nathan Bransford said:

Whoa boy am I getting a lot of queries these days.

In addition to the 400 or so I received over the holidays, I came in this morning to another 100+ that had accumulated over the weekend. To put that in perspective, last year I received about 110 over a three day weekend, and that had been a record.

Nathan does read and respond to every query he receives, but he recently asked his blog readers for their opinions on how to handle the query deluge. It appears to be getting a bit much.

Kristin Nelson of Nelson Literary Agency admits her agency has a dedicated query-reader to keep up with 150+ letters each day. Other agents have different policies, including the no-response-means-I’m-not-interested-policy. As harsh as that may sound, put yourself in their shoes.

Imagine, like Nathan Bransford, you receive an average of 100 queries each weekend (that works out to over 230 queries per week). Would you read every last line of every one of those queries? More likely, you would read each one only until the point you were sure it wouldn’t be a good fit. That is, unless you thought it would be a good fit, in which case you would request a partial.

The problem with many queries

Agents receive a lot of queries that shouldn’t have been sent in the first place. Janet Reid of Fine Print Literary Management recommends spending two months perfecting your query letter before sending it off. One page–two months! Most writers wouldn’t devote half that amount of time to it.

Rachelle Gardner of WordServe Literary says, “[A] surprising percentage of [queries] fail to give me any sense of the book being pitched, or fail to tell me anything about the author’s qualifications to write and sell that particular book.”

Other reasons for a quick rejection might include:

• The manuscript is incomplete (if fiction)
• The agent doesn’t represent the author’s genre
• The letter isn’t personalized, but is part of a mass query (Dear agent…)
• The author hasn’t taken the time to research how to write a proper query letter
• The author hasn’t followed that agent’s submission guidelines
• The query or sample pages (if requested in the guidelines) are sent as an attachment

So, agents must first wade through all the queries that should never have been sent, in order to get to the queries that have potential. That, in itself, must be frustrating.

Also, I think there are a lot of people out there who think, “Hey, I can write a book. No problem!” but, they spend little time learning about the craft. The resulting manuscript and query letter attest to the writer’s lack of skill and commitment, and end up only further slowing down queries from those who deserve a better look.

As writers, our job is to write the book, polish the book, research the right agents, write the query, and submit according to preferred guidelines. If we haven’t done all those things, I believe the agent is under no obligation to read our queries.

Why your query might not get full attention

To clarify what I meant when I made the statement in question:

“Many queries don’t get read at all,” refers to writers who ignore submission guidelines. For example, agents generally don’t open attachments unless they’re specifically requested. Or, if you query an agent who isn’t accepting queries at a specific time, you can’t expect to be read.

“Some are deleted before they are fully read,” means at some point while reading the query, the agent might know he or she isn’t interested enough to keep reading, for whatever reason. Jessica Faust of BookEnds Literary Agency provides us with a list of things that make her stop reading queries.

“Some submissions are rejected before the agent has read any of the manuscript,” means the entire query has been read, but the agent isn’t going to be requesting a partial. Or, in the case of sample pages pasted below the query, the agent might not feel compelled to read those either.

What does this all mean?

It means the query is important. Really important. Important enough to spend two months on it.

Rejection does not necessarily equal bad writing

I think the author of this email is probably a very good writer who has ticked all the boxes. If, like this person, you’ve done your homework, written a query letter according to prevailing advice, and you’ve specifically followed all the agents’ guidelines, you have nothing to worry about.

Your query will be read.

That, however, does not mean you will be asked for a partial, or a full manuscript. It doesn’t mean you’ll be offered representation.

But don’t give up just yet. Noah Lukeman of Lukeman Literary Management advises:

[A]spiring authors [should] approach at least 50 agents when submitting their query letters. If they can find 100 or even 150 agents who are appropriate for their work (and effective), then so much the better…

I have encountered so many authors who have given up after receiving rejections from merely a handful of agents. It is quite possible that in many of these cases, if these authors had simply queried 50 agents (instead of 10), it would have made their difference in their getting published.

If you’re ready to throw in the towel before you’ve queried a hundred agents, you might be selling yourself short. Of course, if you’ve queried a bunch of agents and haven’t received even a request for a partial, you might want to spend more time revising your query letter.

The final verdict

The problem between aspiring authors and agents is less about what agents won’t do, and more about what they simply can’t do. In an ideal world, agents would read and respond to all the queries that cross their desks.

On the other hand, in an ideal world, writers wouldn’t query until they are totally prepared, which would probably cut the number of queries in half.

It’s not easy for either party, but I think we writers need to consider the tight position agents are in.

How to write better queries

It’s a tricky business, but there are many opportunities for support out there. Many agents have blogs devoted to helping writers write better, and query better.

Some variables are beyond your control, like the agent’s personal tastes or their workloads.

But, you do control plenty of variables:

• Take courses or workshops to learn to write better
• Join an online critique group or forum for support
• Workshop your query letter until it’s perfect
• Research agents to find out more about what they represent
• Implement any suggestions for improvement offered by agents
• Keep querying. Keep perfecting

Check out my post, 15 Resources for a Better Query Letter for links to helpful artices.

How do you perceive the relationship between unpublished writers and agents? What do you think should be done differently? What compromises need to be made? Do you think there’s a solution to this problem?

Writing is utter solitude, the descent into the cold abyss of oneself.  ~Franz Kafka

I’m incredibly passionate about writing. It’s something I feel I’m meant to do, whether I get published or not.

In spite of that, there are still a good number of mental hurdles in this journey.

If I’d known ahead of time the thoughts that would take over my mind, perhaps I would have turned back. I’m glad I started writing without knowing that:

• I would have moments when I’d look over my writing and discover it’s terrible–not just that I think it’s terrible, but that it really, truly is.
• There would be times I’d read writing advice that would tell me to not do something, and I’d say, “Ack! I’ve been doing that!”
• I would want to second guess every word I put down on the page, and that I’d be tempted to reword, rework, revise as I go, no matter how counterproductive it is.
• Most days I would want to give up because it’s all so difficult.
• The small triumphs would never seem like enough.
• There would never be enough hours in the day to accomplish all I need to do.
• I would never be fully sure of myself or my writing ability, no matter what.
• A little voice in my head would always be saying, “You are not a writer. You are a person who says you’re a writer.”

That said, there are two ways to look at every situation. Here are the flip-sides of all those nasty thoughts that plague me:

• Sometimes, I find one–just one–amazing sentence out of an entire paragraph, a page, a chapter. It is that one sentence that keeps me going.
• There are rules, and it often behooves us to follow the rules. But rules can be broken, and sometimes it’s all for the best.
• Second guessing oneself is healthy and natural in the first draft. All I have to do is learn to wait until it’s the appropriate time to revise.
• It’s okay to want to give up. Just so long as I don’t really do it.
• If small triumphs aren’t good enough, I’ll have to work hard on bigger triumphs.
• I don’t need more hours in the day, I just need to spend less time doing the things that don’t matter so much.
• Being too sure of oneself isn’t really good for personal development, anyway.
• Writers are people who write. That’s all.

What particular negative thoughts prey on you when you’re feeling low? How can you turn your writing doubts upside down, and make them work to your advantage?

We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master. ~Ernest Hemingway

How strong is your writing?

No matter how good you think it is, there’s always room for improvement. In most cases, plenty of room. Luckily, there are some amazing websites that’ll help you improve your writing, and take it to the next level.

Want to strengthen your story, empower your performance, and beef up on the publishing business?

Here are 23 sites (in no particular order) I look to for daily inspiration and advice:

PS If you find this list useful, please share it on Twitter, Facebook or StumbleUpon – I’d really appreciate it!

1) Storyfix The absolute authority on story structure, written by author Larry Brooks (Note: I highly recommend Larry’s ebooks on writing.  Read my previous review on Larry’s Story Structure Demystified.

2) Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent A veritable gold mine of resources for authors seeking literary agents.

3) Janet Reid, Literary Agent Advice from a tough-talking professional in the industry.

4) Query Shark A query critique site you don’t want to miss.

5) Men with Pens Fantastic articles on copywriting and freelancing.

6) Ask Allison Writing and publishing Q&A by novelist Allison Winn Scotch.

7) Copyblogger The ultimate in copywriting advice.

8) Guide to Literary Agents Meet both new and experienced agents, and find out what they’re looking for.

9) Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent Informative articles from an agent who represents both Christian and general fiction/non-fiction.

10) Pub Rants Self-proclaimed “very nice literary agent,” Kristin Nelson, rants about writing and publishing.

11) Fuel Your Writing Articles on everything from freelancing to fiction, written by a panel of contributors.

12) Nail Your Novel A professional writer provides you with tools to…well…nail your novel!

13) About a Screenplay Plenty of great insight into scriptwriting, but great for novelists too.

14) Mystery Writing Is Murder Awesome storytelling advice for all genres–not just mystery.

15) Write to Done Personal and professional development for writers.

16) Procrastinating Writers A blog that helps you get started and keep on task.

17) So You Wanna Be Published Three awesome women writers provide help with critiques and pitches, and offer mentoring packages.

18) Alexandra Sokoloff Screenwriting tips and tricks for authors.

19) The Book Deal Editor and publisher Alan Rinzler writes from the voice of experience in the industry.

20) Writer Unboxed Practical articles on writing and publishing from several successful novelists.

21) Kidlit.com Wonderful advice for writers of children’s literature (but applicable to all writers, in many cases.)

22) Writer’s Digest The ultimate writer’s resource website.

23) Publisher’s Weekly My favourite place to read online book reviews.

This certainly isn’t a comprehensive list of all the blogs and websites I follow, but each of these consistently provides quality information.

What sites help you make your writing stronger?

Update:
Check out my new list of 23 (More) Websites that Make Your Writing Stronger.
It’s all new–no repeats from the list above!

Reading Can Make Your Writing Stronger

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