Wednesday links

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few.

Here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most over the past week.

1. How to Edit and Polish Your Writing, from Writer’s Digest: The first draft of a piece of writing is never perfect – every piece of writing requires editing. But sometimes it can be a bit difficult to know where to start. This article provides a pretty good overview of what you should – and shouldn’t – do when you’re editing. Excerpt: “Writing is rewriting, another pithy bon mot (per Eudora Welty), and one that shies away from the homicidal imagery. After all, you’re not out to flog your manuscript—or yourself—into a state of self-abnegation.”

2. Telling Yourself the Story, from Pub(lishing) Crawl: Have you ever reached the point in your novel where you just don’t know what comes next? Or you know what comes next, you just don’t know how to get there? This article has a wonderful suggestion for how to solve the problem. Excerpt: “At this point, I’m trying to read as a reader–not as a writer or an editor–the person who asks, “And then?” If I don’t know the answer to “And then?”, it’s time to sit down and tell myself the story.”

3. What Editors Want; A Must-Read for Writers Submitting to Literary Magazines, from The Review Review: This article is, as the title implies, aimed at writers who want to submit their work to literary magazines. But a lot of what’s in the article also applies to literary agents, so it’s a good read for novel-writers, too. Excerpt: “They were asking for a shortcut. It’s natural to want one, when you feel small in a big unknown world, and impatient, wanting results immediately.  But I said, to each: “You can’t expect to be a professional if you don’t do your own homework.” ”

And a bonus: Returning E-Books, from NA Alley: This article isn’t actually an advice-for-writers article; it talks about readers who return e-books after reading them, regardless of whether or not they liked them. It makes a good point, and I think it’s important for any reader to check it out.