Sunday Links: January 8, 2012 Edition

How's the new year treating everyone so far? It's been unseasonably mild here in Central Ohio but other than that, it's a typical January. Toys everywhere, kids (and parents!) trying to get back to regular routines, etc.

I've been keeping busy with my writing along with everything else. I'll get to my weekly #writemotivation update on Monday, though. So, far now here are this week's links...

"Worldbuilding -- Naming Your Villain (and Hero)" (M. J. Wright) - M. J. talks about the importance of names both in terms of making sure they don't give your readers a "Say What?" type of moment and in terms of providing a bit of subtle hint at character.

American Dialect Society's Word of the Year Press Release (American Dialect Society) - Words are obviously important to writers. While you may not be using any of these words in your writing (then again, you just might!) it's interesting to look at these words and phrases and think about how new vocabulary comes into being. This can be a part of your worldbuilding effort, in fact...

"2011 Writing Statistics and The Secret Formula for Getting Published" (Alex Shvartsman) - Alex's post reminds us of the two most important steps to getting short fiction published: 1) Write Lots of Stories & 2) Submit Them Like Crazy. He goes into more details, naturally, and those details are worth reading.

"Pros and Cons of an Option Book" (Natalie Whipple at Between Fact and Fiction) - On the novel side, here's a description of what it means to have an "option" book in your contract and what the ups and downs of such a setup are. On the whole, Natalie sounds happy with where she stands -- it sounds a bit nerve-wracking to me!

"Aspiring Advice: Dusting Your Shelved MS" (David Powers King) - David talks about going back to a story you've set aside and revisiting it. He notes that it may be a painful process, especially if you have grown a lot as a writer since when you last tackled the work. He has some tips, as well, on how to go about looking at something you haven't touched in a while.

Additionally, here's a recap of the posts from this week on my blog:

"December Goals Wrap-Up and January Goals" - As part of the #writemotivation project I wrote about my January goals. I also talked about how I did with what I'd planned for December.

"Dissecting the Short Story Preview" - Wednesday's Dissecting the Short Story preview was just that. Nothing more.

"Dissecting the Short Story: 'Maiden Voyage' by Jack McDevitt" - For my first Dissecting the Short Story post of 2012 I explored a science fiction story from Asimov's Science Fiction magazine.

Thanks for stopping by today to check out the links. Have a great week!