PureBlogging

Like most writers, I like to spend a lot of time reading about how to write. There’s lots of really useful information out there, and it’s a better way to rationalize procrastination than playing Chain Factor or watching Mythbusters reruns. Here are a few of the best resources I’ve found on my travels around the Web — some of them have actually helped me, and I hope to integrate those that haven’t into my writing as soon as I become a more responsible and productive person. Which should happen any day now.

10 Benefits of Rising Early from Zen Habits. Technically this isn’t specifically about writing, but it has helped me to become an early riser, which has helped my writing and overall productivity dramatically. Whenever I wake up late, I always end up working late into the night — which means getting to bed late, which means the cycle starts all over again.

10 Steps to Creating the Habit of Writing from Write to Done. I particularly like the “No Exceptions” rule — again, I find when I fall out of the writing habit, it’s very hard to get back into it.

The Greatest Sales Letter of All Time from Copyblogger. I could easily place the entirety of Copyblogger’s material on here and be done with it, but that would cross the line from “lazy” to “really pathetically lazy,” and I’m not quite there yet. A great example of writing that achieves its goal with absolutely no fat or prevarication.

Ten Timeless Creative Writing Techniques, again from Copyblogger. At the risk of inching closer to that “really pathetically lazy” label, I offer this as well. The information in this post helped me turn half-decent ad copy into something that I’m really pleased with.

How to Rewrite from Justine Larbalestier. Justine, a real, honest-to-goodness fantasy writer, tells the hard truth about the revision process. Spoiler alert: It ain’t easy.

Title Tags: First Impressions at the Search Engines from Flyte Web Marketing. This post isn’t big on details, but it really helped me to understand the importance of title tags in selling Web copy.

How to Write and Use Description Meta Tags on Your Web Pages from Zero Million. The page is a little ad-heavy, but this is a really great tutorial for writing great, concise meta descriptions. The first piece of advice (”Write Like a Journalist”) was the best for me (but that may be because I used to be a journalist).

Is the Net Good for Writers? from 10 Zen Monkeys. Long article. Good read. Quite a bit of insight from a wide variety of writers, Web entrepreneurs, publishing professionals and overall geeks.

How to Write Faster, Better and Easier from Pick the Brain. When I first read this post, I hated it. “Duh!” I thought. “Who doesn’t know this stuff?” Then I realized that while I knew the information presented here, I rarely practiced it. A good reminder of what a good writing process entails.

Live and Write from Ask MetaFilter. Some great advice in the comments here. Particularly good is the final comment about dream writing vs. lucrative writing.

10+ Unusual Ways to Make Easy Money on the Internet if You Love Writing from NicheGeek. Some of these are a bit on the skeezy side (”Social Bookmark Whoring?”), but it certainly got my creative muscles pumping.

The Complete Nobody’s Guide to Writing Query Letters by Lynn Flewelling. I dread writing query letters. It almost makes me thankful I don’t have a finished novel under my belt. But this tutorial is thorough, and gentle on the first-timer.

An Introduction to Journal Writing from D*I*Y Planner. This post really helped me get over my self-consciousness when it comes to journal writing. I used to get upset if every entry wasn’t Chatwin-quality. Not any more.

Hack Your Way Out of Writer’s Block from 43 Folders. I’ve used each of these suggestions at least once. The Brian Eno reference is also cool.

Lost in Your Own Writing? from JCM Enterprises. Good advice overall here. Also, it references one of the two best dramas currently on network TV. The other one is Battlestar Galactica. No arguments please.

50 Tools That Can Improve Your Writing Skills from Dumb Little Man. All 50 tips are from the Poynter Institute, one of the most respected journalistic institutions in the nation. Many of these are technical rather than conceptual, so I’d wager this is the most useful item on this list. That’s why I finished with it.

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