One of the best things about the Internet is the expanded opportunity to find a community of people who share your interests, to whom you can relate.
After you find such a community, there are a couple of challenges to keep yourself in balance. First, you have to figure out how not to spend all your waking moments online. Second, you have to keep stretching, reading beyond your comfort zone, and interacting in situations where you might not always be entirely comfortable. There are a number of reasons to push yourself that way, not the least of which is that you keep learning, and broadening your own perspective and understanding, and polishing your communication skills and your ear for language. That can help make you a better writer.
To that end, here are some of the terrific places I’ve been browsing this week, offered to you as options to visit, read, comment, interact, and learn:
- Emilywinslow.com – Emily Winslow’s book The Whole World, coming May 25th. I’m very much looking forward to reading this one.
- Goblin Fruit (Spring, 2010) – Fantastical Poetry
- Podcastle.org – The Fantasy Fiction Podcast
- Xoom – Meg Worley’s blog about geekery, education, and other interesting stuff
- Neverending Page Turner – Agent Kathleen Ortiz’ blog
- How Publishing Really Works – From the perspective of a long-time publishing-industry insider, Jane Smith’s publishing blog is frank, charming, funny, and insightful
- Running your own ezine? There’s a good discussion of dos and don’ts (with regard to soliciting contributors) happening in the comments on artist and writer Mary Robinette Kowal’s LJ, and an excellent post from poet and writer Elizabeth Barrette, here.
And finally, YA writer Emilia Plater posts a charming send-up of a bunch of agents and YA buddies, on Punk Writer Kid:
You’re definitely correct about the first challenge, finding a great community. And once found, the rest of your comments hold true.
I’ve already visited a few of these: Neverending Page Turner, a favorite. I’ve also seen Punk Writer Kid’s video. Loved it. Thanks for the other suggestions.
Greetings! I know this is somewhat off topic but I was wondering which blog platform are you using for this site? I’m getting tired of WordPress because I’ve had issues with hackers and I’m looking at options for another platform. I would be fantastic if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
Hi Lora – I’m using WordPress here. There are a number of security measures that we’ve added, though.
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