Friday Links

TGIF! It’s been a short week here, thanks to the Labor Day holiday, but definitely jam-packed nonetheless. Still plenty to do before I click over to weekend mode, but of course I wanted to drop by with some fun links to help you all start your weekends right.

September always makes me think of heading back to school. Call it years of indoctrination at a most impressionable age. Regardless, I itch for shiny new school supplies and a big bag of new books. But it’s also a great time to think of what you want to accomplish with the rest of the year in terms of your writing goals. The last stretch, so to speak. Before you know it, we’ll be racing into the holiday season, so take an hour or so in the next few days to look at 2014 so far, your writing goals and accomplishments, and determine where you want to go from here.

This week’s links are the usual mash-up, but I hope you find them helpful and that some of them inspire you to recommit to your writing goals in the months ahead. Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Enjoy!

Sherman Alexie and Jess Walter Launch Literary Podcast – Podcasts are a great way to get writing tips, and these gentlemen are sure to be handing out some excellent ones.

The Unseen or the Unspoken: Some Notes on Absence in Fiction – Sometimes what you don’t say provides as much detail as what you do.

To Be More Creative, Question What You Know – Stepping outside your sphere of knowledge can inspire you.

297 Flabby Words and Phrases that Rob Your Writing of All Its Power – Great for writers looking to tighten up their prose and eliminate redundancies, in particular.

Novel Writing Tips: The 8 Laws of Foreshadowing – Not every project requires foreshadowing, but here are some things to keep in mind for the ones that do.