The Creative Process
I am going to expand this section out in a big way, at a later date. For now, I have posted some of my own articles on writing, and links to articles by other authors. If you are a beginning writer, this is the place for you.
Articles by Jonathan Ball
A Letter from an Editor
Building a Portfolio: Breaking into Print and Staying There
Building Your Story: How to Plan for a Major Project
Making Rejection Work for You
My Best/Worst/Strangest Public Reading
My Daily Writing Routine
Note on Writing Cover Letters
Rewriting vs. Revising (with an addendum on the virtues of thought)
Articles by other writers
How Do You Build The Impossible? by William Neil Scott
[Scott has some excellent things to say about setting, world-building, plot twists, and craftsmanship, nestled in a discussion about what the video game Bioshock has taught him as a writer. This site is generally excellent, as is his novel Wonderfull.]
The Long Hard Odds by Michael Marano
[Focused on horror, but contains excellent advice that is relevant to all beginning writers.]
Proper Manuscript Format by William Shunn
[Although Shunn recommends it, DO NOT double-space between sentences.]
Heinlein’s Rules by Robert J. Sawyer
Letter to Beginning Writers by Robert J. Sawyer
[There are many articles about writing on Sawyer's website, and they are generally great. However, at one point, Sawyer notes that an outline is used "as an aid in selling the book to a publisher and in guiding the author in the creation of the book." This is true for Sawyer, a big-name author. You need to write the book before you can sell it, and an outline is worthless to you as a marketing tool unless the book is complete. You will also note small disparities between what Sawyer says regarding manuscript format, and what Shunn says. Ultimately, as long as you make decisions that make sense, you can use any number of different formats or fonts -- I recommend the articles because they tell you the basics and because the format is useful when editing. It's possible that this "standard format" is more prevalent in genre fiction markets.]
My Favorite Flubs [Screenwriting Cliches] by David Trottier
