Writing better, writing more

I've realized over the years that, what with one thing and another, making detailed New Year's resolutions about how much I'm going to write doesn't really work for me.  At the end of the year, I'll find the list and be amazed and somewhat cowed by my ambition so...this year I've only got two - writer better and write more.  The former may be a bit hard to measure but I'll know how I'm doing by how much passive writing I have to cut during the first revision.  To help myself along, though, I've bookmarked a few sites that I'll dip into every now and then to remind myself of what I'm trying to achieve and I thought I'd share them with you.

1.  The Guardian, a UK newspaper, has a great article here with writers from Margaret Atwood to Geoff Dyer to Neil Gaiman offering advice on writing.  Some of the advice you'll have heard before, some you won't agree with but some just may turn on a light!

2. If you visit only one writing site today, it should probably be DailyWritingTips.com which has a huge number of excellent articles on all aspects of writing.

3. Newbie writers or writers who want to try new genres might want to explore Purdue University's Online Writing Lab to bone up on on the basics.

4. This course on writing science fiction and fantasy is free from author, Jeffry R. Carver, and has loads of useful information for writers in ALL genres!  We all want to know more about creating great characters and accepting feedback, don't we?

5.Scholastic has an awesome website for creative writing teachers which takes you through the different steps of the writing process and also offers interviews and profiles of writers and articles on their writing.  Definitely worth spending some time here!

Happy New Year, everyone!  (Oh, and science fiction/horror writer Charles Gramlich has a freebie on Kindle today on creating suspense.  Check it out!)