There Are No Rules

Today's guest post is by the always remarkable Darrelyn Saloom. Follow her on Twitter, or dig around for more of her excellent tales. When I met author Neil White at the 2009 Louisiana Book Festival, I never imagined he’d once served an eighteen-month prison stint in the swampy landscape of the Bayou State. Clean cut...

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Earlier this month, I asked for your suggestions on new people to follow on Twitter for great writing advice. I received more than 50 recommendations—thank you so much! I've chosen four to help feed the fire here at Best Tweets: AdviceToWriters Recent Tweet: 12 Forums For Freelance Writers Writeitsideways Recent Tweet: Effective sentence structure KMWeiland Recent Tweet: 10 (More) Ways...

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I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets. If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Always welcome your suggestions on improving this weekly feature. Best of Best Trends in fiction from agent Chip MacGregor @elizabethscraig Writers: If the phrase "dazzlingly brilliant hues" sounds good...

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Today I have a guest post over at Writer Unboxed that debunks the myth that fiction writers don't need to worry about developing a platform. I was inspired to offer this advice when I read a blog that told fiction writers not to worry about building an online presence—it even warned against spending too...

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Pictured above: Patricia V. Davis and myself in San Francisco, outside of Fog City Diner -- I took my first trip to San Francisco to speak and attend the San Francisco Writers Conference. It was a fabulous event, and I covered as much as I could on Twitter. Thanks to the work of Jeanne V. Bowerman...

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Glimmer Train has just chosen the winning stories for their December Fiction Open competition.  This competition is held quarterly and is open to all writers for stories with a word count range between 2000-20,000. No theme restrictions. The next Fiction Open competition will take place in March. Glimmer Train’s monthly submission calendar may be...

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Speaking of publishing yourself digitally for free, anyone who's interested in the new instant publishing models—getting your work onto Kindle, Sony, Nook, etc—should NOT miss the next free webinar from Digital Book World. It's eBook 101: Designing for Kindle and ePub. Formatting e-books in the Kindle and ePub formats can be a challenge, but understanding the...

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Today I read the latest post at Don't Publish Me: "If You're In It For the Money." (Go follow Jenn on Twitter.) It made me realize that many people out there still wave the flag for the old Samuel Johnson adage: "No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money." Really? Are we really still...

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Over the past year, Kelly has been picking books from the Writer's Digest list that she finds most helpful. Here's her very last installment for us! Kelly's thoughts on Book in a Month: I get so many proposals from people who want to do books that explore the fear and self-doubt associated with writing...

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Yesterday I read and Tweeted about an article at Publishing Perspectives, "Career Reinvention for Publishing Professionals" by Andrew Malkin. To me it was both useful and sadly prescient; it made me recall the Richard Bolles' book, What Color Is Your Parachute?, originally self-published for a large number of the clergy who suddenly found themselves out...

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I have a dear friend, Dave, who has devoted his life to writing. He's made every sacrifice imaginable, sacrifices that other people won't or can't make. This year, he has been submitting to more agents and publications than ever—and getting rejected. He wrote me recently to say that he felt more jaded every day and...

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This spring will mark the one-year anniversary for Best Tweets for Writers. From the start, I have used a combination of serendipity and RSS feeds/searches (viewed in Google Reader) to curate each week's list. While I think I follow some of the most helpful folks on Twitter, I know I see only a...

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I watch Twitter, so you don't have to. Visit each Sunday for the week's best Tweets. If I missed a great Tweet, leave it in the Comments. Always welcome your suggestions on improving this weekly feature. Best of Best Why I say "no" to great work @Kid_Lit Hooks that snag great book deals @BubbleCow Are you...

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Today's guest post is by the lovely Darrelyn Saloom. Follow her on Twitter, or read one of her most popular posts on the memoir she's writing with Deirdre Gogarty. Pictured above: Rick Bragg On the third weekend of October 2009, writers and book lovers gathered at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge to...

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You've probably noticed I've been making liberal use of guest bloggers during the new year. That's because I'm busy cooking up new content at Writer's Digest, but I'll soon return to more tough-love posts for writers! For now, I do want to share some exciting news & cool stuff that I think you'll enjoy. How to...

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Today's guest post is by Jim Adam. It is part of a series on storytelling and The Strengths of the Potter Series. Check out Jim's book, Motherless. Each of the Potter books includes a major disturbance in Harry’s world. These disturbances typically involve a threat to Harry’s life, which is the sort of...

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