Having trouble with your creative writing? We've got some pretty awesome resources to help you out!
Today, we're looking at an amazing website: Fiction University.
Fiction University is really the personal blog of Janice Hardy, author of the Healing Wars trilogy. Her books are all pretty solid (average of 3.9-star rating on Goodreads), but her Fiction University blog is truly a marvel.
The website has a lot of information (all in blog post form) on just about every aspect of the creative writing process:
Planning Novels -- You can find articles on story development, choosing book themes, outlining characters, creating tension, setting the stakes, creating new worlds, identifying your book's genre, writing trilogies/series, and more.
Writing Novels -- This section has a lot of articles on author's style and voice, POV, dialogue, internal narrative, writing descriptions, proper pacing, using flashbacks and foreshadowing, setting the mood, and so on.
Common Writing Problems -- We've all faced them at some point: showing instead of telling, adding the right amount of backstory, avoiding infodumps, using the right amount of action, conflict, and tension, making the goals clear, and keeping character motivation accurate.
Editing Novels -- Every writer's LEAST favorite part! The articles here deal with first draft, revising the novels, making serious edits, trimming word counts, finding the right words, and handling feedback and critiques.
Selling Novels -- This includes sending query letters, writing a good synopsis and blurb, going through the process of submitting the novel, promoting and marketing the book, and the nitty gritty of the actual publishing and self-publishing books.
Life as a Writer -- This is focused on the WRITER rather than the writing. It looks at how to motivate yourself, tips for productivity, and harsh truths about life as a writer.
There are A LOT of articles and blog posts on this site, and they will help you to navigate the often difficult world of creative writing. Everything is written in a very informal, "this is my take on things" manner, but the information is helpful and reliable, just the same!
The website has a lot of information (all in blog post form) on just about every aspect of the creative writing process:
Planning Novels -- You can find articles on story development, choosing book themes, outlining characters, creating tension, setting the stakes, creating new worlds, identifying your book's genre, writing trilogies/series, and more.
Writing Novels -- This section has a lot of articles on author's style and voice, POV, dialogue, internal narrative, writing descriptions, proper pacing, using flashbacks and foreshadowing, setting the mood, and so on.
Common Writing Problems -- We've all faced them at some point: showing instead of telling, adding the right amount of backstory, avoiding infodumps, using the right amount of action, conflict, and tension, making the goals clear, and keeping character motivation accurate.
Editing Novels -- Every writer's LEAST favorite part! The articles here deal with first draft, revising the novels, making serious edits, trimming word counts, finding the right words, and handling feedback and critiques.
Selling Novels -- This includes sending query letters, writing a good synopsis and blurb, going through the process of submitting the novel, promoting and marketing the book, and the nitty gritty of the actual publishing and self-publishing books.
Life as a Writer -- This is focused on the WRITER rather than the writing. It looks at how to motivate yourself, tips for productivity, and harsh truths about life as a writer.
There are A LOT of articles and blog posts on this site, and they will help you to navigate the often difficult world of creative writing. Everything is written in a very informal, "this is my take on things" manner, but the information is helpful and reliable, just the same!