Wednesday links: Self-indulgent writing and events vs stories

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.

How to Spot and Avoid Self-Indulgent Writing, from Helping Writers Become Authors: You should definitely be writing for yourself, but there is such a thing as taking that too far. Self-indulgent writing is more likely to hurt your work than help it. Excerpt: “Writers sometimes forget they’re supposed to be writing to themselves as readers (smart, critical, objective, well-read readers, right?), and instead end up writing for themselves as writers. And let’s face it, as writers, we don’t always enjoy the same thing we do as readers.”
A Series of Events is not a Story, from Janet Reid: Do you have a cohesive story, or just a series of events? There is a difference, and only one will resonate with readers in a positive way. Excerpt: “I bought the book, and read it all the way through. There was nothing overtly wrong; it wasn’t a bad book that made me cranky to read, but at the end I felt emotionally unsatisfied. Why?”