Everyone having fun back at work after the long weekend?
A little spring cleaning note: I will begin going through my sidebar links and removing the ones that connect to blogs where there have not been any new postings for two months. The one exception will be Miss Snark, which shall remain as a memorial to one of the coolest literary blogs of all time.
Now to the writer links!
♥ First of all, Brandi Guthrie‘s Cursings and Musings blog tackles something that is a perennial thorn in my side: the insane sub-divisioning of the fantasy genre into often poorly defined mini-niches. Three cheers to Brandi for braving this briar patch.
♥ Les Edgerton posted an excellent essay on developing the premise for a short story (something that has been much on my mind this year), and pointed the way to a blog by lit agent Chip MacGregor, which I will add to the sidebar and my regular reading.
♥ Becky Levine shares a mother’s insights into the art of storytelling, and discusses how to replace the vague with the concrete.
♥ Lydia Sharp at The Sharp Angle (in association with Christina Katz‘s The Prosperous Writer ezine) blogs on two of the 52 Qualities of the Prosperous Writer: No. 20, Clarity, and No. 21, Authenticity.
♥ Jade Smith counsels her fellow writers to seek out the unknown, the what-if, the unusual perspective on familiar things.
♥ Following up on a writers’ workshop at BayCon, Juliette Wade of Talk To YoUniverse discusses the importance of getting a breadth of critique from readers who are looking for different things in fiction. For writers just starting out, this sort of insight into what to take from your pool of First Readers is, no pun intended, critical.
♥ And, as our last link for now, Laurel at Unhinged Seriously hates love triangles in fiction. In fact, her quote is: “Hate ’em, hate ’em, hate ’em.” And, she’s not afraid to explain exactly why. I tend to agree with her take on the matter; love triangles work best when they are either (1) a farcical misunderstanding, or (2) an unconsummated crush adding just a little side-drama, but whichis easily cast aside for the real thing.