Friday Kiss - Feelings

 

Friday Kiss - Balance

From work-in-progress, Welcome to Sullivan Street, edited to fit Twitter's character limit.

Grabbing a handful of the stupid plastic strips, I give them a really hard tug.

The nail gives.

I lose my balance, and gravity snatches at me.

My downwards trajectory is stopped by a pair of strong arms. I squeak and throw my arms around my saviour’s neck.

Growing your writing

This month's WriYe topic is writing books, courses, and websites that I recommend. I have done/read all the things listed but obviously YMMV in terms of how useful they are for you. I am not being compensated for any link listed.

Courses

Novel-gazing with Julie Cohen has two courses available - Using Post-Its to Transform Your Writing, and Creating a Character in Seven Easy Steps - and she offers a discount if you buy both. Julie is a great tutor and her courses come from her own extensive writing career.

Heartbreathings is run by Sarra Cannon, a prolific YA author. She offers her HB90 course every quarter and her Publish & Thrive course once or twice a year. I recommend the HB90 course for every writer, but the P&T is aimed more at self-publishing/hybrid authors.

The RNA offer courses for both members and non-members (you'll pay more as a non-member.) So far this year, they've covered plotting, creating character conflict, and the business side of things such as handling contracts and intellectual property.

Books

While I've a bookshelf full of writing books, there are some I dip into so regularly that they have a spot on my desk. These are:

• Save the Cat Writes a Novel, by Jessica Brody
• Romancing the Beat, by Gwen Hayes
• Take Off Your Pants, by Libby Hawker

Websites

WriYe is a writing community that runs all year (hence the name!) It runs monthly and mini challenges, and has a Discord where you can chat to other writers.

4thewords is an online writing game that uses the words you write to fight monsters and finish quests. . Ideal for writers who are driven by rewards, it's also great to make - and maintain - a consistent writing habit.

Other

If you have Twitter, do follow Joanne Harris, who frequently posts "10 things about" threads.

Both Cat Rambo and Charlie Knight have a Patreons where they share posts about the writing process. Again, they're on Twitter and well worth a follow.

If you're writing genre fiction, then there's SFWA for sci fi and fantasy, and RNA for romance (I do not recommend RWA due to insistances of bigotry.)