My Top Resources for Writers!!! :)

Hey, guys!! Isabelle Knight here again with a blog post when I should instead be working on my WIP!!! But hey, writers are awesome procrastinators, right? And at least I’m still writing! Even though I’m not working on the thing I should be working on…….

Anyway, today I wanted to share with you guys my top resources for writers! AKA all the stuff I used as a young writer to help me learn and grow! Enjoy!!! Although you should note – a lot of these things give out writing tips, and yes, yay, AWESOME writing tips, but you should be aware that you can’t follow EVERY SINGLE writing tip on planet Earth. Sorry, but that’s true.

Lots of writing tips will contradict each other sometimes, and sometimes a writing tip just won’t be for your book. Now if you don’t know what’s gonna help your book, feel free to experiment! Go wild! Chaotic! And you’ll learn!

Now on with the show!

1. Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine & Writer to Writer: From Think to Ink, Also by Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine is my favorite author of all time!!! Her book, Ella Enchanted, was the first book I read and actually liked! I wasn’t bored to death – I loved Ella’s adventures, and the writing was amazing! I’ve re-read it around 48 times now! (Yes, I’m keeping count).

And apparently, she also has a craft book on writing! Two, actually! Writing Magic is the first one, and it’s so inspirational and will really give you a running start for writing. It’s casual, funny, and despite it’s slightly smaller page count, it packs a lot of writing wisdom inside, from beginnings, to characters, to the nitty-gritty details!

This is actually the book that inspired me to start writing. I was working on Enchantria: Champion at the time, and I was halfway through the first draft. I hadn’t revised book one. I hadn’t revised book two. Mainly because I didn’t want to revise them!!! And I never really thought about taking writing seriously…

But then I read this book, and this book is definitely one that is super important to me! It really inspired me to start writing, and it showed me how magical and fun writing can really be and what it’s really like to be a writer. I definitely recommend this book to those who are just starting out. It won’t bombard you with things like story structure and all that. Instead, it really shows you the magical and fun part of writing!

Writer to Writer: From Think to Ink is her second craft book on writing, and this one deals with more of the nitty-gritty aspect – making characters ‘not flat’, making them sympathetic, crafting villains, and there’s even a section at the end on writing poetry! Again, love Gail Carson Levine’s writing style in this book – casual, friendly, and funny! Highly recommend it to those who are a little bit deeper in their writing journey and won’t mind learning to deal with some more complicated/nitty-gritty parts of writing.

2. Gail Carson Levine’s Writer’s Advice Column!

Yes, she has one! Unfortunately, she isn’t posting on there anymore, but there are still people over there to help you out! Over there, she shares more writing tips on a huge variety of topics – character, plot, getting stuck, endings, beginnings, revisions, etc. – and most of her posts are PRETTY LONG, almost like a fun essay!

And I say fun because it is fun. Her writing style here is very much like the one in Writing Magic, and you’ll find a lot more information about writing here! And if you ever need to ask some more questions, you can still comment down below in her latest post, and someone shall come along and help you out! Maybe me! (you shall find me down there too!)

Find Gail Carson Levine here!

3. Natalia Leigh’s YT Channel

Oooh, yay, AuthorTube!!!!! (happy dance). For those of you who don’t know AuthorTube is basically like… a YT category or something. Authors with YouTube channels who focus on authorly stuff! And writerly stuff!!!! And one of my favorites is Natalia Leigh!

She’s an indie author and freelance editor at Enchanted Ink Publishing, and on her YT channel, she shares a bunch of writing tips and publishing tips which have been SO USEFUL to me over the course of the past year!!! She shares mistakes to avoid when writing, how to make strong characters, how to write descriptions, and more! And I would say her channel isn’t like the kind of channel that’s like, “YOU MUST USE THIS STORY STRUCTOR OR blah blah blah.” It has a slightly more low-key and friendly vibe, and her cats and horses are so cute!!!

Now as I’ve said, you won’t be able to follow every single writing tip on planet Earth. Some of her writing tips may not fit the genre you’re writing, so you will have to consider those tips and then play around with them a bit to find out what really works for you.

Find Natalia Leigh here!

4. StoryCraft Cafe!!!

I LOVE THIS PLACE!!!! <3 It’s been so useful to me over the past few months, and I’ve met so many writers friends on there! It’s an online writing community/forum that’s run by Dabble (a sort of writing software team), and there are lots of people there to help! Everyone’s super friendly, the community is very open, and you’ll find a lot of things like writing tips and eve a place where you can share some of your own writing!

You can also find some of Dabble’s workshops over there, so you can check out some writing tips! And if you have any questions, you can post about it, and people will get back to you! And if you want, you can make lots of writers friends there!

Find this awesome writing community here!

5. Journey Bloomfield (AKA My Wonderful, Awesome, AMAZING Writing Buddy Who Just Started a Blog!!!)

Eek! I met Journey Bloomfield over at storycraft.cafe, and she is amazing!!! She’s super friendly, funny, and her random ideas are incredibly helpful to me when I have writer’s block! AND SHE RECENTLY STARTED A BLOG!!!! How awesome is that? :)))

Over there, she posts about her writing journey and writing tips! She’s just starting out, so you won’t find a super wide plethora of writing tips, but she does have a few already on there, and they are so helpful! Her writing style over there is very inspirational and friendly, and I think a lot of you guys will love it there! :))) You can also check out some of her SUPER exciting projects!!! Seriously, just reading about them makes my heart race!!!

But yeah! She’s awesome, and if you like my blog, don’t forget to check out hers!

Find Journey Bloomfield here!

6. The Inkpot Club (AKA The Blog/Writing Community Run by My Wonderful Writing Buddy, Leah Larkspur!!!)

Two writing buddies in a row hehe. But yeah! Leah Larkspur is another one of the writers I met down at StoryCraft Cafe! She’s amazing and super fun, and she even has a blog!!! It’s been around for quite some time, and over there, she shares a LOT of stuff – writing updates, some writing tips, and stuff like that! Oooh, and bookish things! Like a book review of KOTLC 9.5! Which I have yet to read….. :(((

Her writing style over there is also super fun and friendly, and one cool thing about The Inkpot Club is that it’s also a forum! So you can head on over there and meet some amazing people! More writers! Hurray!!!! There’s also a club for fans of certain book series, e.g. Keeper of the Lost Cities, Wings of Fire, etc.

So yeah! If you would like to meet a fun, friendly writing community, definitely head on over there! Leah posts weekly on Tuesdays, and her posts are always so fun! A highlight of my week! :))

Find Leah Larkspur here!

7. How to Write a Novel Before You Turn 13 by Ollie Ood

This book is more for young writers than grown-up ones, but I think any young writer will absolutely love this!!! It really introduces you to the nitty-gritty aspect of writing while still making it super fun!!! The whole writing style of this book is fun and friendly, and do I have to mention the illustrations?? The whole layout is super fun too!

This book gives young writers several steps to help them write their novel, and it can help them get ideas, come up with unforgettable characters, come up with a plot, etc. It’s super fun, and I really enjoyed this book!!! I had a lot of fun with it! There are several pages on the back where you can fill in some stuff for your novel, such as the plot, characters, etc. And another thing I love about this book is that it isn’t quite like so many other writing resources that, as I’ve said, are all like, “do this, do that, use this story structure!”

Yes, this book does introduce the Three Act Story Structure and all that, but it’s done in a super fun way that doesn’t feel like it’s forced. All the pages are formatted in a super fun way, and the illustrations are awesome!!! Definitely not a boring ‘how to write’ book!

Find it here! It’s also on Kindle Unlimited, so hurraaaayyy!!!!!!

8. Making It All Up by Valinora Troy

This is another craft book I definitely have to recommend!!! And it’s free!!! It is written by middle-grade fantasy author, Valinora Troy, who has also written The Lucky Diamond (an amazing book that is so much fun!), and it’s a guide for young writers! This book tells you a lot about story structure and character arcs, very important parts of writing, and the whole writing style is kind of like Gail Carson Levine’s, but a bit more casual!

It’s an incredibly fun book, and the layout of it is fun too, with a bunch of illustrations and different fonts! And I love how Valinora Troy includes a writing prompts game at the end which is SO MUCH FUN!!! I think kids will definitely enjoy this book, though I definitely recommend getting inspired to write first before having to worry about story structure. So I’d recommend this to young writers who are already a bit deeper into their story and now need to worry about (ack!) story structure and character arcs.

And you can get it by subscribing to her amazing newsletter, here! You do need parental permission if you’re under 16, though.

9. BOOKS

Does books stand for something, you might wonder? No. It does not. Quite literally just ‘books’. And it’s true! One of the best writing resources you can get your hands on is… A BOOK!!! Because if you enjoy writing, it’s very likely that you enjoy reading! And you can learn a lot from writing by reading!

It’s super fun, and when you read more and more, you start to get a sense of how each author writes – how they build tension, write descriptions, and what makes their own style unique. You don’t have to force yourself to break down each book one by one like you might need to do in class (frankly, I don’t enjoy doing this. But hey, if you do, AWESOME! GO DO IT!).

You can just read!

By reading, you get to learn how amazing books can be and how other writers build their worlds! Plus, you get to have fun with it!!! And it’s also quite relaxing too! That is, unless your favorite character got kidnapped and they’re in utter danger and really need to get back and have no idea how long they’ve been gone. 🙂 (a reference to Keeper of the Lost Cities, book one. KOTLC fans will know what I am speaking of.)

That’s It, I’m Afraid

So, yeah!! I’m afraid those are all the resources I have for you today. Honestly, I racked my brain for more, but couldn’t find any… But when I do so, I shall update this post!!! I really hope this post helps you and I also hope you’ll check out all the amazing resources listed here! Especially Gail Carson Levine’s and Journey’s!!! They’re awesome! So yeah! Thank you guys so much for coming, and I’ll see you again in the next post!!! Bye!!!!

Isabelle