A College Level Collage of Sources
This collection is intended as a resource for both aspiring writers and established authors. The content is organized topically as an index of links to external articles and internal posts.
A Codex Index
There are a lot of topics—covering a lot of ground below.
Its going to take a while to re-read the articles I’ve saved links to over the last decade or so, determine the best and write informative snippets about each. We may travel out of order but just like writing a first draft or launching into a large scale edit that is often the fastest path.
A Key to Me:
Green—My Articles
Before You Write—First Questions
- A page of links to articles on things to consider before you begin writing your novel.
Genre
- Genre Complexity and Publishing Routes—By Maren True
- YA? Why Not?—By Maren True
- Parent Trap YA—By Maren True
- Teen Entertainment Tastes—By Maren True
- YA & The Immortal Protagonist—By Maren True
World Building
Characters
- Choking on Cognomens—By Maren True
- Scrawny Love Interests & Protagonists With Weak Abs—By Maren True
- Milked Too Far: Serial Villains Gone Soggy—By Maren True
Character Arcs
Backstory
Theme
Plot
First Chapter
Mushy Middle
Black Moment
Story Endings
Trilogy’s & Series
Narrative Pace
Dialogue
Description
Voice
- A page of links to articles on voice.
Tension
Fight Scenes & Sex Scenes
Wonder & Emotion
- Have My Cake and Eat it Too: Wish Fulfillment in Writing—By Maren True
- Easter Eggs in Fiction—By Maren True
- Fictional April Fool’s—By Maren True
- Good Taste Means Avoiding Distaste—By Maren True
Grammar
General Tricks Of The Trade
Productivity Pitfalls
Regaining Momentum
Good Habits & Sustainability
Creativity
Editing
Publishing Professionals
Agents
Editors
Publishers
Movie Producers
Marketing
Writing Career & Industry
An Index of Superb Posts on Writing Craft
Above you will find links to the best articles I’ve found across the web on the topic of writing—laid out in sensible constellations for seekers. They will open windows to their home sites – if you have time I totally recommend wandering around, you never know what you might find on a wiki-walk. Serendipity can gift you with just what you needed but couldn’t articulate.
Of The Information Superhighway
Also, many of the authors who wrote the content I’ve linked to have written books on writing—that’s a fantastic way to get even more condensed and masterfully organized information. The value of an excellent book shouldn’t be a hard sell to writers—stock your shelves with great works on craft as well as great examples of it.
My Own Posts in the Mix
You’ll find links to my own blog posts salted throughout—links to my own work are highlighted in Green. I’ve written posts that pull together key points you’ll find explored in more depth in the links, as well as on specific topics that I didn’t find a lot of literature on in my own wanderings to index—its likely out there written by someone I just haven’t read. The wilds of the writer blogs are vast, I’ve only read a fraction. Still writing towards the empty places has value—knowledge should grow like a snowflake, outwards toward the extremities and across to fill the chasms between its arms.
Finally, you’ll find some posts I’ve written on my own topic of the moment, things that I’m thinking deeply on, or wrestling with.
The Purpose of A Codex Index
I’m intending this index—to address the needs of aspiring writers to be able to quickly locate quality topical information to solve the specific writing problem they are facing—as well as delve into a systematic education on the craft.
I am also hoping to drive traffic to some very deserving articles—blog posts tend to sink under the water’s surface as they are buried beneath newer articles. But these articles spoke to me, challenged me, took me to new vistas and improved my personal craft. I refuse to let them languish in ignominy under five years of other posts, unseen. These links are like wormholes transporting you instantly past the toil of searching I went through in my education. Blog posts exist for traffic—let’s keep these ones well visited.
For the many who have published books on craft let’s patronize the author’s Amazon offerings too.
Other Systematic Writing Education Resources
Janice Hardy’s Fiction University
If you are looking for a truly organized blog for obtaining a good foundation as a fiction writer I highly recommend Janice Hardy’s Fiction University. Hers is probably the best place to start. The collection you find here on my own site is a good supplement as you become more advanced.
I’m not re-indexing Janie’s articles here since she is a soul sister in the conspiracy for advancement of order against entropy in the universe. Her site is beautify laid out for topical needs and personal education—explore it!
Brandon Sanderson’s BYU Lectures
If you haven’t had a chance to take a college level course on novel writing—specifically Fantasy novel writing—now you can. Brandon Sanderson’s BYU lectures are on YouTube videos they thoroughly cover both topics of craft and the business side of writing—definitely worth a watch. Did I Mention He Lectures On Writing Magic?
Why an Index?
I gleaned my education in writing fiction largely from author blogs—it was a haphazard endeavor. There were gems out there, strewn midst dunes of sand. They could be a slog to find—even if you found a blog largely composed of sparkling posts—since they were written as the whim took that author, across years. Treasure troves yes, but sifting through the articles, piled one atop the other, can lend them the ambiance of an archaeological expedition.
Yes, some blogs had search features—but I didn’t want to go search 30 blogs every time I had a problem. Worse, I knew that often I didn’t know what I didn’t know. There were, as yet unidentified, gaps in my education. Questions I didn’t know to ask. I’d only find those answers if I painstakingly mined those author blogs article by article from present day back to their inception.
It was still worth doing—it was not recreational. I didn’t want to do it more than once. So I copied the articles of interest into my OneNote for personal perusal—a form factor where I could sort them under topical headers.
When I finally had the articles organized, it was glorious—like the library of Alexandria revived. If I needed more on characters I could skip through the crème of years of searching in minutes. Now you can, too.
A Note On Index SEO & Form Factor
This is index is intended as a resource for aspiring writers—thus it is set up to attract them. The format of lists of “the best of” is to leverage Google and direct you to awesome content in one fell swoop. Please don’t assume that order on the list says anything about quality of one article versus another—everything in this index is something I found personally pivotal or a great distillation of core concepts.
I have organized the index content for the end user. Usually the most universal articles will be at the top. Then the focus zooms in on more specialized topics, delving down to articles that foray into advanced realms. Here you will find the root system of the great tree of knowledge partially unearthed.
From Artists To Artists
As writers our task is extending those roots deeper with our own insights, or budding new branchlets of fantasy far into the vaults of zephyrous firmament above. Let’s read great things and write great things together.
Our vocation is creation, there are many beginnings but there is no end. For writers return to ever new dreams, on ancient themes. When we write the last word of a work there will be fresh hewn shelves stocked with a phantasmagoria of offerings that didn’t exist a month ago, to entice us to pick up our pens yet again.
