Friday Links: A Mishmash of Inspiration for Your Weekend

Happy Friday! Hard to believe we’re halfway through November. For those of you diligently toiling at NaNoWriMo, I hope you’re making excellent progress. Actually, I wish you all excellent progress, no matter what you’re working on.

The weekend looms, however, and so I offer you this advice. Don’t forget to take a little break. Yes, I know you have words to write. I know you have work and family and other obligations. But take time to recharge a little. Read something fun. Go outside. Rekindle a hobby that’s fallen by the wayside. The rest of the year will only get busier, so take a moment to breathe while you can.

I hope these links provide a little inspiration and maybe some useful information. It’s a mishmash–something for everyone. Have a terrific weekend, and happy writing!

This Week’s Links:

Shelf Mythology: 100 Years of Paris Bookshop Shakespeare and Company. – This month marks the 100th anniversary of the famed Parisian bookstore. The Guardian offers a nice little history of the shop.

The Secret Society of Women Writers in Oxford in the 1920s. – A look at a group of women writers who supported each other in their literary efforts and ambitions considered inappropriate for women of their time.

Go Beyond Sally Rooney with These 13 Irish Women Novelists. – A nice roundup of titles you might consider for your TBR pile.

What Makes Good Comfort Food? Writers in Conversation. – Everyone always asks the literary dinner party question. What authors, deceased or living, would you invite to a literary dinner party? No one asks what everyone would eat. This seems to remedy that.

Reedsy Plot Generator. – For anyone needing a jumping off point for a new project or something to inspire a new tangent. It’s a fun exercise to help you run through a bunch of ideas fast and works across genres. With thanks to Yvonne Shiau for bringing it to my attention.

For N.K. Jemisin, World-Building Is a Lesson in Oppression. – Check out this world-building workshop that addresses the structural forces that lead to inequality.

Kurt Vonnegut’s Advice for the Impatient Writer. – Some wise (and often tongue-in-cheek) thoughts for anyone frustrated with various aspects of their writing career.

Friday Links: Writing Stories from the Trenches

TGIF! We’re kicking off the Memorial Day weekend here, and that can mean travel, backyard cookouts, baseball games, beach time, or just a great excuse to hop in a hammock for some serious reading time. It also means I’ve got a bunch of work to finish up today so I can head out and actually do some of the above. So I’ll just leave this week’s Friday Links here for your entertainment, and wish you all a wonderful weekend, whether you’re celebrating the holiday or not. Enjoy, and happy writing!

Books to Breeze Through this Summer – A rather eclectic collection from The New York Times.

Get That Life: How I Became a Writer, Historian, and Activist – Great interview with Rebecca Solnit where she discusses the trajectory of her writing career.

The Literary World Says Goodbye to Denis Johnson – Short obit including social media clips expressing sadness at Johnson’s sudden death.

From Dark to Dark: Yes, Women Have Always Written Space Opera – Author Judith Tarr on women’s role in the subgenre.

Improve Your Writing: Become a Demanding Self-Editor – Some wonderful advice for any writer, regardless of genre, publishing goals, etc.

Story Structure: The Magic Bullet that Almost Killed Me – Author Matthew Quick shares his plot-point life lessons.

A Crash Course in YA Taught Me How to Write – Author Katherine Heiny talks about how she learned about plot and the discipline required to finish a book.

Friday Links: Shoring Up Your Writing Foundations

Happy Friday! We’re heading into Mother’s Day weekend, so I hope you have some plans, whether you are a mother or are just celebrating your own or some other mother in your life. Whatever else is going on, it’s always wonderful to take a moment to tell the people we love how much we care.

Should you have some writing time set aside around all the brunch or lunch or other types of activities, I have some links here that I hope will give you a bit of a push. Writing involves some digging deep, some soul searching, some serious thought if you want to get down to its very foundations and figure out what makes a story tick, what makes your characters true. Or even just what makes you commit to the work to begin with. So take a few minutes to check these out, either over the weekend or in the coming week, and see if they give you a fresh outlook. Enjoy!

The Road to Extraordinary – On the pursuit of excellence.

Essential Books for Writers – Some great titles to check out, or revisit if it’s been a while.

How Mapping Alice Munro’s Stories Helped Me as a Writer – Thoughts on how to learn from the work of others.

The Poetic Edda, Game of Thrones, and Ragnarök – A look at what the popular books and HBO series owe to Norse myths.

How to Plot and Outline without Using a Formula – Jane Friedman offers some thoughts on the architecture of books.

The Perpetual Solitude of the Writer – The role of loneliness in creating intimacy with one’s characters.

Write Like a Motherfucker – The classic “Dear Sugar” (Cheryl Strayed) response at The Rumpus. Every writer should read this periodically.

Friday Links

Everywhere I look, I see signs that fall is coming. Back-to-school sales, fall book lists, the return of pumpkin-themed foods. But despite all that, it’s still full-on summer in my neck of the woods, another heatwave bearing down and the air conditioning on high to combat constant sweaty foreheads. Though we human beings are the ones who imposed the concept of seasons over the way our weather cycles, we seem terribly bad at actually enjoying the seasons as they play out. Life in a commerce-driven world — we are at the mercy of the marketing calendar.

But I’m more concerned with the weekly calendar today. TGIF! I’ve a nice selection of links for you, and I hope you enjoy them, whatever sort of weather or season you’re experiencing. Don’t forget to squeeze in your writing time. Happy weekend!

The End of the Ambitious Summer Reading List – An interesting look at how our collective reading habits have shifted.

The Great Booksellers Fall Preview – A peek at the books booksellers around the country are looking forward to reading and/or selling.

What Happened to O? – Just one more small evolution of language.

The Purpose of Plot: An Argument with Myself – One reader’s relationship with plot summaries.

When the Editor Becomes the Writer – On wearing two hats.