Panning for Gold

I'm not always the most up-to-date person on the web. Okay, I'll admit it. I'm rarely the most up-to-date person anywhere. Are you happy now?

Often it's because I have way more stuff to do than I have time to do it in. I want the time I spend online to have value. That means I can't follow every blog or tweet or even facebook post I might like to (especially Twitter. Do people really think I have a burning need to know what brand of cereal they had for breakfast?)

I'm sure a lot of you face this same time crunch I do. It's so easy to miss good content because you don't have time to hunt it down. When I find something I think is really valuable, I have this nearly overwhelming urge to share it. That's what's led me to the decision that once a month, (in the future, the first Friday of the month, I think.) I'm going to post links to what I've found recently that's struck me as worth the attention of other writers who want to perfect their craft. The posts I'm linking to may not (okay, make that "will not") be hot off the presses. They may be years old, but they're new to me and the wisdom in them has a forever shelf life. Sort of like Hostess Twinkies.

I haven't decided yet if I will announce these posts. Mostly because I don't want to be that naggy blogger who elbows her way to the front of the line every time I fart. So after you check out a few of the links, if you think you'll have a burning need not to miss any of these bright, shiny coins of wisdom, you might want to sign up for either the blog's RSS feed or email alerts.

Now that all that disclaimer stuff is out of the way, let's get this show on the road.

I like this post because it doesn't just tell you to fix the problem, it gives some guidance on how to identify the problem and then some suggestions on how to fix them.

http://www.writersdigest.com/article/5-easy-tips-to-strengthen-your-scenes/

Be sure to click through to Larry Brooks analysis. It's educational. Keep in mind, Larry writes suspense and he writes it extremely well, but suspense has certain conventions and expectations that don't necessarily hold true for other genres (like romance.) Just the same, 99.9% of what he says applies no matter what you're writing.

http://storyfix.com/a-vicarious-story-coaching-experience

I'm still wrapping my head around proper story structure. If you are too, this is another good post from Larry Brooks.

http://storyfix.com/8-%E2%80%9Cmoments%E2%80%9D-you-absolutely-need-to-deliver-to-your-readers%E2%80%A6-and-one-that-you-should-hope-for

That's it. Only 3 today. Check them out. And let me know if any of them speak to you.