Ron Clendenin All writers know the feeling.
You’re staring at a blank screen, and the words just won’t come.
Anxiety about the writing task that lies ahead puts a knot in the pit of your stomach.
Did you know that this anxiety can actually help you to become a better writer if you know how to challenge it positively?
What you need is affirmations for writers.
CreateSpace used to be the print-on-demand service of choice for self-publishing authors who wanted a paperback option listed on the same Amazon page as their published ebook.
They made it so easy! And they even provided helpful resources like the following:
No one decides to have writer’s block. No one wakes up in the morning and thinks, “I feel like having writer’s block today.”
On the contrary, getting stuck in a writing rut is something that everyone tries to avoid. What’s the best way?
Writing! Journaling, specifically.
Okay, I know what you’re thinking. “How can the cure be exactly what you want to do when your inability to do it is what’s ailing you?”
It’s not. At least, not exactly. Let me explain.
Podcasts for writers are a welcome guiding light in the ever-changing world of writing and publishing.
Finding a publishing company isn’t the only way to get your work out there anymore. You self-publish your book and create your own platform for marketing and selling it.
Self-publishing has been a game-changer for aspiring authors who don’t want to wait for gatekeepers to give them permission to share their writing.
So, you have a finished book, and you’re wanting to publish a paperback (or hardback) option for your readers.
But what size should you choose for it?
Should you go with the average book size for your genre, or should you base your decision on your book’s word count and go with the size that will cost the least to print?
Would you like to connect with other writers while you learn how to improve your writing skills and create books that will sell?
Writing websites aren’t a new thing, but there are so many out there on the world wide web, and it can be hard to know which ones are really worth your time.
So, we’ve curated this list of twelve top writing websites to help you grow as a writer.
Do you ever stop mid-sentence to ask yourself, “Should I italicize or quote book titles?”
It’s a fair question, and it deserves a thoughtful answer. Since you want to be a good writer, you need to know these things, and wondering, “Are books italicized?” means you are paying attention to the important details of your craft.
You might also have the following questions:
Hence this article. When it comes to any rule for writing, we’re huge fans of keeping it simple and easy to remember.
Strictly speaking, the question of whether to italicize or use quotation marks is a matter of style; the rules governing the usage of both can change.
But for some time — roughly since computers took the place of typewriters for word processing — writers have used italics (rather than underlines or quotes) to set off the titles of what the MLA (Modern Language Association) style guide calls “containers.”
Each container is a larger work made up of smaller components.
So, do you italicize book titles? The short answer is yes. The longer answer — the one with more nuance and some research — is just up ahead.
(Sidebar: If you’d like to learn our strategies for writing a bestselling book, then I suggest checking out our free checklist, which is the exact 46-point guide we’ve used to sell one million copies of our books.)