Blog Party Bonanza!

Jun 01, 2012 by Gabriela Pereira published in Community

What time is it? It’s party time!

This weekend, June 1 – 3, comments will be open on this post for you to join the party!

Please include:

Your name
The kind of writing that you do
Your website (if you have one)
Your favorite online or print resource, from books and magazines to forums, websites and agent search engines. Anything goes!

Don’t be afraid to mingle!

Spread the word:

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http://wegrowmedia.com Dan Blank

Okay, here we go:

1. My name? Dan Blank
2. What kind of writing? Nonfiction
3. My website? http://WeGrowMedia.com
4. My favorite resource is http://Mixergy.com. I feel that writers nowadays are part entrepreneur, and as such, need to learn the technical and emotional skills that drive successful entrepreneurs. Mixergy is filled with hour-long interviews with entrepreneurs. It goes deep on tactics, strategies, and stories. It’s also great for those in publishing and writing because it has an outsider perspective, allowing you to focus on publishing as a BUSINESS and then balance that with meaning, craft and art.

Thanks!
-Dan
http://www.clairehennessy.com/ Claire Hennessy

Hi folks! My name is Claire Hennessy, I write YA novels and general-audience short stories, and my website lives at http://www.clairehennessy.com/

Favourite resources: DIY MFA (had to be said!), Writer Unboxed (www.writerunboxed.com), TV Tropes (www.tvtropes.org), Julia Cameron’s ‘The Right To Write’, Louise Doughty’s ‘Novel in a Year’.

Woo! Enjoy the weekend, everyone.
http://www.convozine.com/moms_secret_horrors Dawn Napier

My name is Dawn Napier. I write both horror and fantasy. My short stories tend to be horror, and my full-length novels tend to be fantasy. I’m not sure why that is; I don’t plan it one way or another. I just write the stories that occur to me. I recently self-published my first book, “Nameless” on Smashwords, which is a contemporary fantasy, and my work in progress is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy.
I have a fiction blog at Convozine entitled Mom’s Secret Horrors. Here I publish my own short stories as well as other links and stories that people on Convozine submit. I plan to start writing book reviews and publishing them on my site as well, probably in the next week or two.
My favorite resource for writing tips and information are writing blogs. These bloggers post on Twitter regularly, and I can always find up-to-date information about self-publishing and self-promotion. Here are a few of my favorites:
Terrible Minds by Chuck Wendig
The Creative Penn by Joanna Penn
Catherine, Caffeinated by Catherine Ryan Howard
http://satia.blogspot.com Satia

Your name: Satia
The kind of writing that you do: a lot (fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, essay, etc)
Your website (if you have one): http://satia.blogspot.com
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I know that if I try to list them all I’ll forget one. Plus, I may steal someone else’s thunder so here is my favorite resource, bar none: a blank book.
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Okay. Just kidding. Here’s a good one, a book I recommend to anyone who wants to write poetry or anyone who wants to develop their description and/or metaphor skills. Writing/reading poetry is a great way to hone skills that are carried over into prose.
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The Art & Craft of Poetry by Michael J Bugeja
http://amzn.to/oq0eA9
http://Dirtygirlswriting.blogspot.com Lauri Meyers

Lauri Meyers writes children’s books (well, manuscripts which fingers crossed will turn into books). She blogs about her writing journey with writing and publishing tips at dirtygirlswriting.blogspot.com. She also shares stories about her “dirty girls” who are always inspiring her writing.

I love the Query Shark website- read all the query reviews for an excellent training class in query writing.
http://dahnyaoch.wordpress.com Dahnya Och

Hola ladies and gents! Dahnya Och (@dahnyaoch) here. I’m a fantasy and horror writer with a knack for romance as well. While mixing the three is generally something not recommended, I find a way to make it work.

I blog over at http://dahnyaoch.com where I host The Great Dividing Line, a resource for Working Writers who need their nine-to-five income to enjoy the write things in life. (Oh-hohoho! See what I did there?) I might also be a little insane.

My favorite writing resource is Nail your Novel by Roz Morris. The tag line on the cover is “Why writers abandon books and how you can draft, fix, and finish with confidence.” It’s really an amazing book and I highly recommend it for anyone struggling. She’s got some great ideas on how to keep your butt in your chair and your fingers on the keys.

It’s nice to meet everyone here; DIYMFA is one of my favorite websites!
http://genelempp.wordpress.com Gene Lempp

Hi everyone!
I’m Gene Lempp.
I write fiction, specifically Alternate History/Earth with elements of fantasy, science fiction and paranormal (sometimes all together, sometimes not).
Website: http://genelempp.wordpress.com
Favorite Resource: Janice Hardy’s The Other Side of the Story: http://blog.janicehardy.com/
I feel it is important that writers gain a broad knowledge of craft, the industry and their chosen area of endeavor (NF or genre) while at the same time taking nothing as gospel. After reading close to 150 craft books and thousands of posts, I can say that the best way to pursue your writing is to just write “your way” and sort out what doesn’t work when you run into it. Stay flexible and never stop learning and looking for better ways to do the things you love. Peace.
Oh and read this site (DIYMFA), it is one of my top three stops during the week.
http://www.startyournovel.com Bell

My name’s John Magnet Bell.

I write four story prompts a week – each one 50 words or less. They’re all unique. You won’t find anything over at my blog like ‘write about the word “platypus” today.’

I’m giving away all these story seeds, because I don’t need to keep all my ideas to myself. My blogging goal? To publish 5,000 story prompts. http://www.startyournovel.com

My prompts range from crime to biopunk by way of dark fantasy.

.My favorite writing resource is http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com – The Emotion Thesaurus.
.Another incredibly useful one is Duotrope – a database of over 4,000 publishers and markets for writers. https://duotrope.com/

In book form, there are 3 books I can’t recommend enough – ‘Plot & Structure,’ by James Scott Bell; ‘How to Write a Damn Good Novel, Pt. II’ by James N. Frey; and ‘The Writer’s Journey’ by Christopher Vogler.
http://www.ghenetmyrthil.com Ghenet Myrthil

First off, loved the video! Too funny.

1. I’m Ghenet Myrthil. *waves*

2. Right now I’m writing contemporary young adult novels, but think I’ll branch out to other children’s categories (like middle grade) in the future.

3. You can find me at http://www.ghenetmyrthil.com or on twitter @ghenet.

4. My favorite websites (besides DIYMFA of course!) include:
Writers Unboxed: http://writerunboxed.com/
The Bookshelf Muse: http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/
Adventures in YA and Children’s Publishing: http://childrenspublishing.blogspot.com/
Literary Rambles: http://www.literaryrambles.com/
YA Highway: http://www.yahighway.com/
Distraction no. 99 (by author Nova Ren Suma -she has several series, including “Turning Points” and “What Inspires You?” that are truly inspirational!): http://distraction99.com/
Agent Mary Kole’s blog: http://kidlit.com/
Agent Rachelle Gardner’s blog: http://www.rachellegardner.com/
Agent Janet Reid’s blog: http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/
Query Tracker: http://querytracker.blogspot.com/
Query Shark: http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

My #1 favorite writing book is Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott. I love a good book on craft, but this book of essays makes me feel like I can tackle any writing project. She’s honest about how much hard work writing is, but she also gets you excited to do it. I want to go back to it between each project!

Looking forward to seeing your resource once it’s all put together!
http://www.examiner.com/childrens-literature-in-chicago/elizabeth-mackinney Beth MacKinney

1. Beth MacKinney

2. Picture books and middle grade sci-fi

3. I have three websites:

Children’s literature site of book reviews and author/illustrator interviews for Examiner.com — http://www.examiner.com/childrens-literature-in-chicago/elizabeth-mackinney

Personal blog as an artist — http://emackinney.blogspot.com/

Writing critique group blog— http://thelastdraftwritersgroup.blogspot.com/

4. Toughest one of all, because there are so many good resources on the internet. I’d say that my favorite of all time (in addition to your own, of course) is one that I recently discovered which is an amazing bonanza of kid-writing info: Fiction Notes by Darcy Pattison
http://www.darcypattison.com/

By the way, thanks for doing DIYMFA.

(And thanks for this Friday’s fun post.)
http://www.fivepassions.com Julie Jordan Scott

1. I’m Julie Jordan Scott *waves*

2. I write (primarily) life writing/memoir and poetry. I have written in many categories.

3. You can find me at http://www.fivepassions.com or http://www.juliejordanscott.com for poetry and on twitter @juliejordanscot

4. My favorite websites include:http://www.thecreativepenn.com/ and also different writing challenge sites like http://junowrimo.com/ and finally, http://christinakatz.com/ of The Prosperous Writer. Her focus is on Moms who write so this fits me!

I hope I get to meet some of you… I love “hanging out” with other writers!
http://diannaswritingden.com Dianna L. Gunn

Your name: Dianna L. Gunn. Yes, the L. IS important.
The kind of writing that you do: Prefer to write fantasy fiction of all subgenres, end up writing just about everything.
Your website (if you have one): http://diannaswritingden.com
Your favorite online or print resource: Print–Self-Editing for the Fiction Writer, not that I could remember who it’s by or anything like that.
Online–Writing challenges! I’m a Nanowrimo (http://nanowrimo.org) FANATIC.
http://www.joyfulpaws.com Barbara Techel

Awww, Dan Blank, you were going to be the resource I listed– guess I still could– but since you are already here I’ll just let others know from my experience and just finishing Dan’s course, “Build Your Author Platform” that it is by far, one of THE BEST courses I’ve ever taken. I highly recommend to every author/writer.

Ok so, my name is Barbara Techel
I write nonficiton (three published children’s books and my first nonfiction adult book is on its way for publication in early 2013)
And since I couldn’t list http://www.wegrowmedia.com (oops, guess I just did!) I’ll share http://www.writersinthesky.com which has everything from learning to be a great writer, to editing, graphic design, developmental editing, etc. You name it, they’ve got a great team to help you.
http://cochisewriters.wordpress.com Ross Lampert

Ross Lampert here, writer of SF, fantasy, op-eds, occasional newspaper articles, and at the moment, lead contributor to the Cochise Writers blog (http://cochisewriters.wordpress.com). (Why “Cochise Writers?” Because we’re writers based in Cochise County, Arizona, which was named after the Chiricahua Apache warrior chief Cochise.)

Rather than list the dozen or more writers’ and agents’ blogs I read (or skim, or, well, skip) daily, I’m going to unabashedly invite everyone to stop by Cochise Writers for my as-daily-as-possible blog review, “Great Stuff on the Writers’ Blogs,” which often (like today) includes DIY MFA.

I also post, roughly weekly, pieces on “Critique Technique”: things to think about and look for when critiquing other writers’ work. This is a topic I haven’t seen covered anywhere else, and learning how to give useful, insightful, constructive critique will help every writer improve their own writing. Part 23, on confused plot timelines, is due to go up on the blog tomorrow (June 3rd).
Pingback: Great Stuff on the Writers’ Blogs, June 2, 2012 « cochisewriters
http://erikadreifus.com Erika D.

Hi, everyone. Happy to be joining the party. Here’s my info:

1) Erika Dreifus
2) I’m the author of a short-story collection (QUIET AMERICANS). I also write essays, poetry, and book reviews. I’m a contributing editor for FICTION WRITERS REVIEW and THE WRITER magazine, and I publish a free monthly newsletter called THE PRACTICING WRITER.
3) Website: http://erikadreifus.com
4) My site was designed, in part, to provide resources for other writers. I’ve listed lots of great blogs and websites on the blogroll for the Practicing Writing blog (http://www.erikadreifus.com/blogs/practicing-writing/). But please also check out the references at http://www.erikadreifus.com/resources/ for targeted information on MFA programs, writing conferences & centers, getting published, finding work as a writer, contests & awards, and more.
http://www.farawayfarer.blogspot.com M.B. McConnell

1. My Name is M.B. McConnell!
2. I write mostly science ficion (both short stories and novels) and also dabble in fantasy and anywhere my muses or current interests take me!
3. My blog is http://www.farawayfarer.com which has some of my short stories!
4. Fave resources:

For Inspiration:
-stumble
-www.flickr.com
-www.deviantart.com
-random word generators are also great sparks!

For Motivation (to WORK at it, even when the muses are quiet (writing everyday is important and I think the only way to crush the dreaded writer’s block is to WRITE IT TO SMITHERINES!

-all the great twitter writers and their useful links (see DIYMFA’s previous list!)
-the kindle online community (great advice from seasoned authors)
-Poets and Writer’s Magazine
-www.writeordie.com
-www.oneword.com (at the very least try to do this just to get the mind going!)

LOTS AND LOTS OF READING! Reading is one of the best things a writer can do to learn the craft
http://breechittim.com Bree

1. Bree Chittim

2. Short stories and poems, then journalism then a ton of songs, and journal writing with essays, then more poetry, and now a novel (115k) called The Man-Rabbit which is giving me bum-freeze after editing every day since I wrote the first draft of 85k in 38 days last October.

3. Eros: http://breechittim.com + Thanatos: http://briellezbub.com

4. I like Goodreads for book reviews, Amazon for reading first chapters, and my fave #writetips people are Donald Maass (who I pray will request a full from me one day) and Noah Lukeman.

You can’t hear it but I’m letting air out of a puffer balloon pinched at the outie navel part and it’s squealing while I’m shouting PARTY ON!!! Oops, just dropped the fattie…
Pingback: Add Your Junk Here | Brielle's Blog
http://DIYMFA.com DIY MFA Team

Wow! I love all the comments, and thanks to everyone for participating

I’m Rebecca Ann Jordan (Becca) and I write mainly fantasy fiction, science fiction, and poetry.

Considering the “Top 10″ lists already have most of my favorite resources on them, I’ll list a couple more obscure books (HipsterBec!)

The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock – Part writing technique and part self-help, this book traces the journey particular to female characters (and people). While similar to the (masculine) Hero’s Journey that we are familiar with, the feminine journey differs a great deal and is particularly helpful if you’re struggling with writing a female main character.

A Writer’s Digest Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card – I know that there are two different volumes similar to this, an older book and a newer ring bound one. I have the ring bound one because I love having books open next to me as I write. I especially love the Fantasy Reference section for historical cultures, fantasy races, dress and costume, and a whole section on witchcraft and magic. You can never have too many reference books!

Maybe some more resources later Keep ‘em comin!
Beka

Heya, I’m Beka!
I’m kind of new to fiction-writing, and so far I’ve only written most of a YA novel and some short stories of undecided genre. I also write the occasional article or essay.
I’m excited to see all of the great resources here, and I have a few of my own to share:
– http://rhymebrain.com/en is excellent for finding rhyming and slant rhyming words for poems, songs lyrics and other verse forms.
– http://en.wikipedia.org is my research go-to and a portal to more in-depth articles and info.
– http://www.wiktionary.org/ is a useful online dictionary, for checking to see if I really AM using that word right…
– A good thesaurus. I have Roget’s Super Thesaurus (Second Edition) in paper form, but for online use,
– http://thesaurus.com/ is excellent too. And finally..
– My Mom. She always has helpful writing advice. You can’t have her (sorry ), but I think one of the best resources for kick-starting ideas and finding helpful suggestions is a tolerant friend or family member who is willing to listen to your ideas and read your work. They’re especially golden if they will give critique and encouragement on your writing. Show them your gratitude! Give them a hug, a thanks, the occasional box of chocolates and, of course, a signed edition or two of your fabulous story when it finally gets published (which you know you couldn’t have done without them).
https://twitter.com/#!/FairyTaleFair Jessilen

Hey there!

So I’m Jessilen Henderson (yes, really). I write mainly fantasy, some YA some not. But I do sometimes branch out into other genres like suspense/mystery. At the moment I have two novels close to completion and (hopefully!) publishing.

My website is currently under construction, but if you want to keep up with what I’m doing, here’s my twitter page: https://twitter.com/#!/FairyTaleFair

I will announce on twitter when my website is up and running!

And as for my favorite resources…best website I can recommend is http://www.how-to-write-a-novel.net/

For books, I really love the Howdunit series, with things like The Book of Poisons: A Writer’s Guide, and Police Procedure and Investigation.
Also, for fantasy writing, I personally like perusing history books for ideas. But that’s just me.
Gabriela

Thank you all so much for participating! As you probably already know, I’m Gabriela Pereira and I’m the instigator here at DIYMFA. I write non-ficiton (mostly how-to about writing and creativity) as well as all sorts of fiction (mainly Middle Grade and Teen).

Many of my favorite writing resources have already been listed both here and in the Top 10 posts. A couple of other go-to books on my shelf include SUPPLIES: A TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE FOR CREATIVE DIFFICULTIES by Julia Cameron, THE WRITER’S WORKOUT by Christina Katz and THINKER TOYS by Michael Michalko

Thank you so much for all your great suggestions! Write on!
http://www.susie-henderson.com Susie Henderson

I write lots of things: fiction in the form of fantasy, suspense and realistic (often all combined), and non-fiction in the form of self-help, humor and how to. I have a website about novel writing http://www.how-to-write-a-novel.net, and two books coming out this summer. Both non-fiction. I hope to have two more out by year’s end, both fiction.

My favorite writing resources, now I’ve been writing so long are ones I don’t need to use as often anymore: my collection of How-Done-It books, and Everyday Life Books (both sets from Writer’s Digest), and Writer’s Digest Magazine. No websites come to mind, though I’d have loved having one like mine around when I was early on the learning curve!