Where to Go

One thing I promised to do (a while ago...) was to provide links to help that new writer figure out this crazy thing we do--writing things with the hope of someday publishing them. You all have been so helpful in this. That's what's great about the writing community. You are there to help us newbies out.

For writing your novel, there are so many books out there. Just go to Amazon and search "writing" and you'll get a huge list. This is not an exhaustive list, but only some of the ones that more people seem to rave about (thanks, Carol, for your recommendations):

• On Writing by Stephen King 
• Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 
• The Elements of Style by Strunk and White 
• The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi 
• How to Write a Novel by Nathan Bransford 
• Hooked by Les Edgerton 
• Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder 
• Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass

While you're writing, you may have some grammar questions. And of course, we all swear by the Grammar Girl.  

When I started out, one of the first blogs I followed was Nathan Bransford's. He used to be a literary agent, and his blog had all sorts of great tips for those of us starting out. He's since gone from agent to author, and I haven't been back to his blog in a while, but it looks like he still might be a good resource for those just learning about all of this. 

If you're planning on submitting your novel to publishers, you're going to need a query (whether you plan on getting an agent or querying smaller publishing houses yourself). A couple good places to start: 

• Query Shark
• The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment

As for marketing your novel, I've found a couple good successful self-published writers who offer their advice about how they got where they are and how one can follow in their footsteps:

• Lindsay Buroker
• Bree Bridges

And, of course, if you want to wade into the blogging community (which is a great place to network as well as learn from other writers on this journey of ours), you need to start with Alex J. Cavanaugh and/or join in (or just visit) the blogs doing the A to Z starting next week.  

I haven't even scratched the surface. But this is a start. What are some other good sites? Any other books to recommend to a newbie?