Wednesday links: Endings, genre and cliffhangers

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. Quick Tip: Save Your Story From Coming To A Bad End, from Writer’s Digest: Writing an ending – whether it’s for an article, story or novel – is something that I tend to have a lot of difficulty with. I’m always worried that I’ll end up with a “bad ending,” like the ones mentioned in this short article. Excerpt: “A bad ending—unsatisfying, flat, illogical or just plain wrong—will get you rejected faster than misspelling the editor’s name.”

2. Why Genre Matters: Finding The Right Shelf For Your Book, from Book Country: Sometimes, determining the exact genre of your novel can be a tricky thing, especially if your novel crosses genre lines. But it’s a crucial step in the publishing process. Excerpt: “It’s important to decide where your book fits early in the process. Otherwise, you might get stuck describing your book as a hyphen between a western-romance-mystery-literary-fiction-with-some-vampires and a chase scene, and it’s a lot like 50 Shades meets Harry Pottermeets Twilight meets The Help with a protagonist a lot like Holden Caulfield, and set in 28th century France.”

3. Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch, from Writer Unboxed: I admit, I love a good cliffhanger. But if you’re going to include one, then you have to make sure you include the right one. Excerpt: “Jumping from one thread to another at a critical moment lets you create a cliffhanger within your novel.  Of course, if you use it thoughtlessly – if every transition you make involves the main character facing a moment of mortal peril,for instance – then your readers are going to see through the technique.”