Wednesday links: Titles, when you can’t write, and why agents stop reading

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. Get Your Novel Noticed with a Power-Packed Title, from Helping Writers Become Authors: Figuring out titles for my novels has always been difficult for me. But I’ve always known it was important to have good ones – I just couldn’t quite put my finger on why. This article does a good job of explaining that. Excerpt: “If your answer was yes, then you sound just like I did a year ago. Don’t be so quick to dismiss the importance of a power-packed title just yet–or you may be in for a big surprise.”

2. When you can’t write: The magic touch, from Laurel’s Leaves: Everybody encounters periods in their life when they just don’t have enough time to write. Unfortunately, taking too much time away from writing means you could lose touch with your story. Excerpt: “When this happens, it can take weeks to get back on track–weeks of deep doubt and fear. You worry your inertia is because the story idea is stupid; you can’t remember why you ever liked your characters. You write 1,000 words and delete 780 of them, day after day.”

3. Top Culprits For Why Agents Stop Reading, from Pub Rants: There are a lot of reasons why an agent may not read a submission that’s been sent to them by an aspiring author. In this article, Kristin Nelson explains some of the reasons that she most often encounters. Excerpt: “Doing these classes always provides fresh insight into why I stop reading a submission. Here are the top culprits so you, too, can start thinking like an agent when you read your opening chapters.”