Friday Websites for Writers

Today's website for writers is the cyber home of Brian Falkner, author of Brainjack and The Tomorrow Code.

With my software developer hat on, I am often asked by writing colleagues about web sites. My answer is always: Don't re-invent the wheel (or the website!). See who is already doing it right. And while you're looking, the key is.... content, content, content.

Brian Falkner Writes is one of my favourite websites for exactly the reasons above. It's interesting to look at, lots of reader related content, high-interest trailers on the front page... Check it out and see what I mean. I guarantee you'll want to click and go deeper into the site.

While the site is visually well designed, it's most important features are excellent content and navigation. A good-looking site won't attract repeat visitors unless it has interesting information and things to see and do. And it won't work if the visitor can't find them before they lose interest and click somewhere else.

My systems analysis report gives this site 5/5.

Friday Websites for Writers

I read Call My Agent all the time. It's clever, witty, entertaining and full of useful information. Can't ask for more than that! Some of the information might be obvious to more experienced writers - but then again how easy is it to forget or overlook the obvious. I regularly learn something I never knew or had forgotten.

Here are some of my favourite recent posts:

Advice from James Patterson

A reminder that writers must be storytellers.

The Commonwealth of Stories

A thought-provoking post about digital publishing

Some free advice about publicity for novels

The title says it all

Publishers and their closed doors

A piece of perspective

Friday Websites for Writers

This is a site I found particularly useful in the early stages of my writing when I wanted to get a physical feel for word counts. I wanted to know what 85,000 words looked and felt like. I wanted to know how many words were in specific titles like Tamar by Mal Peet. You can find out here at Renaissance Learning (an on-line store) by doing a search on author or title. Included in the information returned is the word count.

It's not an Australian site so you won't find any titles only available locally. None of my titles were there so I can't do a spot check on the accuracy of the words counts. But just considering titles comparatively, they seem to be in the ball park.

Every now and then I still call in to check the word count on a book I've just read.

Friday Websites for Writers

One of my New Year resolutions was to put something back into the writing community. I feel as if I have taken my fair share of late. But what can I do? Some people might laugh but despite having had six books published, I don't know anything about writing.

I don't even write by the seat of my pants. It's more primal than that. Recently I read a wonderful article by Margo Lanargan in Newswrite (the magazine of the NSW Writer's Centre) about writing from the gut. Everything fell into place for me then. Aha... that's how I do it. I write what feels right in the bottom-most pit of my stomach. There's a pile of words down deep under the mush and that's where I find my stories.

Unfortunately that doesn't make me very good at passing on my tips and methods to others. Nor does it promote personal writing growth. So I have designated this my Year of Spit and Polish. I am going to learn to become a much better writer. I'm going to do this by soaking up absolutely everything I can find on the subject and reading widely outside my comfort zone. Strangely enough, I started this with a tentative step from Neil Gaiman to Edgar Allan Poe (okay, it was a desperate leap with my eyes closed) only to find my comfort zone is moving with me. Already my writing has expanded its horizons and perhaps I even found a tip Tip #1 Read outside your comfort zone. Immediately.



So I thought as I charge through the year spitting and polishing, I would spend Friday sharing where I had been and what I found. Today I downloaded Richard Harland's Writing Tips. This is an extensive free resource. Yes, free. 170 pages packed with advice, information and anecdotes from the author of Worldshaker and a long-timefavourite of mine, the Ferrin trilogy. Richard is a survivor of 25 years of writer's block! More about Richard here. Download the document here.
I love the wonderful sit-across-the-kitchen-table-from-me style. Writing Tips is definitely a writer's manual - all the good stuff is in there - but it is obviously wrtten by an excellent writer who's been down the road he's talking about. It's both interesting and educating to read.

And when I found Edgar Allan Poe on p7... I had to smile.

My first Friday Website for Writers is Richard Harland's Writing Tips.