Wednesday links: Holiday plans, the squint test, your web presence, and facial expressions

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. Do You Have A Holiday Plan?, from Books & Such Literary Management: Holidays are busy times–especially if you have lots of family events planned. It’s best that you start thinking about your writing now, so that you’re prepared. Excerpt: ” What does this mean for writers? I’ve noticed that this season often leads to frustration for people who work at home while also trying to juggle a busy life. The time available for your writing dwindles and you start to feel behind and get stressed that you’re not meeting your goals.”

2. The Squint Test, from DL Hammons: Sometimes you need to take a step back from your manuscript and look at it in a different way to make sure it turned out perfectly–like when you squint at your Christmas tree. Excerpt: “Whenever I wasn’t staring at the monitor or pounding on the keyboard, I’d find myself turned around staring at the tree, taking in its awesomeness.  Of course my affinity for analogies led me right where I needed to go.”

3. Querying? Clean up your web presence!, from Janet Reid: You’re probably getting tired of hearing this, but your web presence is very important when you’re querying. Here, Janet Reid presents a couple more things to think about. Excerpt: “And before you send your first query, take a look at your blog, your website, your Facebook page and/or your Twitter feed to see what an agent skulking around will see. Posting your rejections with comments? Not a good idea.”

4. Writers, Wipe That Smile Off Your Page, from Live Write Thrive: How often do you rely on facial expressions to get emotions across in your writing? If you’re like me, you may fall back on them too often, without even realizing it. Excerpt: “We authors know this—we’re students of human interaction, after all. So it makes sense that we so often include facial expressions and body language in our stories.”