Another interesting collection of articles for you this week, featuring signs you’re a master writer, the Hugo Awards nominees for 2018, blogging lessons, and 55 grammar rules. Thank you, bloggers, for the helpful content!

If you’re looking for some new books to read, this article is a good place to look. The nominees for this year’s Hugo Awards have been released, and the shortlist is terrific. John Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire, and N.K. Jemisin’s The Stone Sky are two which have caught my eye. If you’re unfamiliar with the Hugo Awards, here’s the lowdown:

“The Hugo Awards are one of the longest-running SFF awards, distinguished from all other major speculative fiction awards in that it is voted on by fans who are members of the World Science Fiction Convention.”

Congratulations to The Book Smugglers on their second nomination for best semiprozine! Thoroughly deserved and a more than worthy winner. Best of luck in the voting! It’s a blog and publisher well worth checking out if you haven’t already done so, particularly if you write speculative fiction.

Who’s to say whether you’re a good writer or not? Someone may think you’re the dog’s bollocks, another just bollocks.

This well-written and engaging article makes for an interesting read. It serves as a useful guide to judge whether you’re doing the right things towards mastering the craft. Are you a grammar whiz? Have you found your style of writing? Do people love reading what you write? Each point is explored in detail with plenty of links to other articles on related subjects. You never know, by the end you may be feeling pretty confident in yourself!

Danielle of Books, Vertigo and Tea has been blogging for two years solid. That’s commitment for you there. I doff my hat to thee. She’s learned a lot in that time and has been kind enough to share her top ten lessons in this excellent little article.

I particularly enjoy the idea of turning off stats. It’s something I’ve never done. I can’t help taking a peek every now and then (okay, it’s more often than that) Removing stats allows you to focus more on nailing the writing, rather than writing with an audience in mind.

Scheduling is another great blogging tip, one that’s helped me massively. It gives focus and structure, but there are weeks, as Danielle discusses, when you can’t keep up with those schedules with all the shit life has to throw at you. To quote Danielle, “Don’t kick yourself when you need to skip posting.”

Keeping the many rules of grammar fresh in your mind is always a good thing to do. This list serves as a nifty reminder and reference point. You may find some you’ve never heard of before, and some you’ve probably heard to death, like avoid clichés, avoid too much alliteration, and don’t overuse exclamation marks!!!!

I’m not a fan of treating them all as ‘rules’. Instead, I like to see them as guidelines. Once understood, it’s up to you how you manipulate them. Make them work for you. Sometimes you need to use the passive voice or an adverb, or a one-word sentence really hits home a point.

Thank you for reading! I hope you find these articles useful. If you’d like to read more of the same, why not stay in touch by signing up to my mailing list? Subscribers receive a list of 50 fantasy book reviewers, as well as a copy of This Craft We Call Writing: Volume One, a collection of writing techniques, advice, and guides looking at, amongst others, world-building, writing fight scenes, characterisation, plotting, editing and prose.

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