Writing Resources
Resources for every stage of your process, all for free
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Planning
Jami Gold's Beat Sheets — several different approaches to beat sheets, all available for free download to plan your story
Romancing the Beat PDF and Scrivener Template — a worksheet and Scrivener template that follow the romance beats as explained by Gwen Hayes
Story Genius Scene Cards — book coach Ashly Hilst breaks down how to use the scene cards from Lisa Cron’s Story Genius
Zoe York's Series Planning Worksheet — if you want to write a series, there’s extra things you should consider; Zoe York has you covered
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Drafting
9 Tips for Writing a Really Good "Shitty First Draft" — a great blog post by Lisa Cron on how to write a first draft that does something
5 Tips for Fast Drafting a Novel (Video) — Bethany Atazadeh dives into how to write a fast draft for NaNoWriMo (or whenever you start!)
Hack Your Drafting Efficiency — Rachel Aaron breaks down her methods that took her from writing 2k to 10k per day
The Nine Stages of Grief Writing a First Draft — Kathryn Nolan’s honest and hilarious reminder that you’re not alone when you hate your first draft
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Revising
Ingrid’s Character Arc Cheat Sheet
Story Development and Revision Worksheet — from Jami Gold; you can use it to plot your book too!
The Most Organized Way to Revise a Novel — Jessica Brody’s Level-Down Revision Kickstart Guide
A Quick & Dirty Guide to Revising Your Novel — Susan Dennard’s guide to revisions in PDF form
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Pitching
How to Write a Novel Synopsis — Jane Friedman’s guide to writing a synopsis
Writing a Short Romance Synopsis — Kathy Carmichael’s workshop on writing a romance synopsis with a downloadable PDF example of one of her synopses
How to Write a One-Page Synopsis — a great blog post about how to write a 500-word synopsis with an example
How to Write a Query Letter — Jane Friedman’s guide to writing a query letter that gets requests
Query Shark Archives — a literary agent breaks down real queries sent for critique, showing what works and what doesn’t
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Querying
QueryTracker — research agents, keep track of your queries, and read success stories including real query letters that worked
Manuscript Wishlist — find out what agents and editors are looking for
MS Wishlist — all tweets using the hashtag #MSWL compiled in one place for a real time look at what agents want
Database of Successful Query Letters — read query letters that worked from authors you may recognize
An Author's Guide to Agency Agreements — view a sample contract and explanations of what each clause means, as well as a list of red flags to look out for
Model Trade Book Contract — a sample book contract from the Author’s Guild with explainers and a list of red flags
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Recommended Reading