Twitter Tip Thursday

Thought I would try something different today and share some of the tips and useful links that I've come across on Twitter this week. So here goes:


Trends:

• For YA, dystopias remain king @Ginger_Clark
  
• Other kids updates: people want middle grade more than last year. Contemporary YA girls books, too @Ginger_Clark
  

Finding an agent:

• In today's "closed-to-queries" climate, how can writers get agents? A few tips: http://bit.ly/d7BMgl @JodyHedlund
• How to pick an agent if you write for multiple audiences http://ow.ly/2PixF @Kid_Lit
  
• "The world of children's literature is packed with promise and savvy literary agents." http://bit.ly/aC2JIP Top 20 PB Agents... @KatApel

Blogging:

• http://bit.ly/clAJhR Gr8t post for the crusaders!!! @AngelaPenaDahle
• 3 Reasons To Start Blogging Before a Book Contract: http://bit.ly/cycgyZ @JodyHedlund

On being a writer:

• I think confidence is important to one's craft. Fear--of offending, of criticism, of failing--cripples your creativity @DiaReeves

Writing tips:

• Consider the names you give your characters. Some hard to pronounce names can be a distraction @Georgia_McBride
• Try to define your story in 2-3 sentences. If you cannot, you are not ready to tell it @Georgia_McBride
• Hope these links help all you fab pb writers: http://jillcorcoran.blogspot.com/2008/12/more-tips-for-writing-picture-books.html @JillCorcoran
• I see a lot of newbies writing w/o direction to the story=and then this happened then this and that. What is the story about? @Georgia_McBride
• I don't think in terms of describing every little thing so much as creating an image, something people will remember @DiaReeves
  

Revision tips:

• Don't hold on to words that don't add value to your story. Delete them. You'll think up more words. Better words @Georgia_McBride
• One rule I have is to read dialogue without tags. If I can't tell who said it by tone and voice, it's not good enough @kellyhashway
• Stephen King says to put the ms in a drawer for a month before editing <-- Works wonders @Tangynt

And my favorite tips for this week (you can tell I'm revising my manuscript right now!):

• To revise, I change the font before I read it again to trick my eyes into thinking I've never read it before @DiaReeves
• An oldie & a goodie. The 10 mistakes writers don't see - but can fix easily when they do, yay! http://bit.ly/10xTw @emiliaplater