Writing News You Can Use

EPISODE 193

Today's episode is a round-up of lots of interesting and fun information I've found that might help your writing career, your motivation, your creativity, and your overall sense of well-being as we keep working in our homes (whether we want to or not).

I also talked about the new book I'm working on, Encouragement for Writers, and I'll be adding a link shortly to a survey I'd love you to take to find out what you need encouragement on.

Here are all the promised links: 🙂

Writers Digest – emails that include Monday Motivation, writing prompts, classes offered, and more. Website has lots of information for writers of every kind. https://www.writersdigest.com/

IngramSpark – Offering free title setup, free revisions, and print discounts in some countries through May 31, 2020. Lots of free resources on their website about how to self-publish and market your books, including a blog, a podcast, and free online courses. https://www.ingramspark.com/

Self Publishing Formula University – In addition to the SPF podcast and the information you get in the emails, there are great mini-classes in the SPF University (not a real university). Normally, you have to be a student in one of the classes or a patron in Patreon to have access, but Mark Dawson and team wanted to give people something to help with our lock-down time, so anyone can enroll for free for a limited time! https://selfpublishingformula.com/spfufree

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) – #StayHomeWriMo is a new initiative to support and encourage you in these trying times. It will be continued indefinitely at this point. Follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and find out more here: https://nanowrimo.org/stayhomewrimo

Chris Fox is one of many writers with a really good YouTube channel, lots of great videos to help you with your writing and the writing life. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCu6RYg6_-pTQxLVq3Fv6lYg

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, shared a great interview that explains in a few minutes what his (awesome!) 300-page book will help you with. Definitely watch it since we're all being forced into new habits for awhile. https://globalnews.ca/video/6272424/how-to-develop-good-habits-and-break-bad-ones?__s=ii8ggyxjigixqtm3if3n

Dear Future Me – a way to write yourself a letter that you receive by email at any point in the future you choose – a day, a week, a year. Great way to encourage yourself and/or give yourself some accountability. https://www.futureme.org/

John Assaraf and Neurogym – a great blog article on how to help your brain increase your motivation! https://blog.myneurogym.com/video-innercise-motivation/

Lots of great free webinars, etc. going on right now! For instance…

Joseph Michael and Learning Scrivener Fast https://learnscrivenerfast.com/

Nick Stephanson and Your First 10,000 Readers https://yourfirst10kreaders.com/

Donald Miller and Building a Storybrand (lots of great free videos on YouTube if you search for him there) https://storybrand.com/

Scribe Book School – I don't know anything about this, just found it randomly, looks like it might be for nonfiction only, free conference April 28-29, 2020 https://scribewriting.com/bookschool/

Self-Publishing School with Chandler Bolt – I don't know much about this one either, and it might also be for nonfiction only https://self-publishingschool.com/

London Book Fair – in addition to staying in touch with those on their email list with a Book Club and a Film Club, they're offering a free livestream event called “Rights Essentials” on April 28, 2020 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rights-essentials-tickets-102870883582

Amazon is offering NINE international books translated into English for free today and tomorrow, April 23-24, to celebrate World Book Day! To see and download the books from your local Amazon location (if it's not the U.S.), click on the link right under the banner that says, “Shop on an Amazon international site?” and change to your Amazon location to download the books to your account. https://www.amazon.com/article/read-the-world-2020

Michael, Jr – clean comedian with an inspiring TEDx talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twSvd5bQLDw and a brand-new full comedy special here: https://youtu.be/ST_vobpMBSM

I also suggested you should search for more of your favorite comedians, music acts, etc. to find some videos to make you smile and laugh. For instance, I found this video for the Pentatonix World Tour: https://youtu.be/RCR7Y9eO6nI

And maybe this is a good time for you to learn a language using Duolingo or Babbel or some other program. Get ready to travel someplace really cool when we can travel again!