Wednesday links: Author praise and good writing habits

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. The Fault in Ourselves, from Glass Cases: This article isn’t quite as advice-focused as the links I normally include in this weekly post. Instead, it discusses the many other pieces of writing that discuss which authors deserve how much praise. The argument the author presents is that just because a writer is male (John Green, in this case), he shouldn’t be condemned for receiving praise. I have to say, I agree with that argument. And it’s a good reminder that we should be supporting talented authors, regardless of their gender – or any other physical characteristic, for that matter. Excerpt: “In his write-up in TIME, Green is referred to as a prophet. The YA community on Twitter today took this to mean that yet another article is praising a male author instead of a female author. This is true only in the technical sense, but I doubt TIME consciously snubbed female YA authors.”

2. 3 Habits That Separate Good Writers From Tragic Wannabes, from Write to Done: Good writers do, of course, need to know the rules of writing. But being a good writer is about so much more than that. Excerpt: “I’ll come out and say it. I don’t believe that just anyone can become a good writer. Likewise, I don’t believe just anyone can become a good mathematician, a good artist or a good chef. Because nature inevitably plays its part.”