Writing Resources: Misfits & Daydreamers

Lets all have a moment of silence to appreciate how bloody hard writing is. Everything seems to go wrong at the exact moment you need it not to. and there are days when you have no ideas at all. Whilst the most important way to get better is to simply practice, there is an abundance of information out there that is so useful to getting better. In future posts I'm going to highlight some of my favourite online (and offline) resources that I like to use.

To start off, I'm going to tell you all about Misfits & Daydreamers!

MISFITS & DAYDREAMERS

Misfits & Daydreamers is Susan Dennard's (the amazing author behind the Something Strange and Deadly series, as well as the upcoming Truthwitch which may or may not be one of my most anticipated books of 2016) newsletter. First of all I'd recommend subscribing because of the insider information (and exclusive excerpts) about Susan's books, but the reason why I'm mentioning it here is because of the amazing writing advice she gives.

The newsletter is split into two halves. The first, Misfits, focuses on Susan's books. It often includes really exciting extra content such as a sneak peak of the first couple of chapters of Truthwitch. You'll also get a first peek at things such as cover reveals and all that jazz. I know practically everyone in the book world has been talking about Truthwitch and if you're as excited for it as I am, you really should subscribe.

Daydreamers is the second half of the newsletter and it's where Susan gives writing advice. Each newsletter tends to talk about one particular topic, and past topics include dealing with criticism and deepening your plots. Susan talks a lot about publishing (it isn't all about the mechanics of writing) and as I'm someone who wants to be a published author but is kind of daunted by the industry, it's great to hear an insiders point of view.

It's really encouraging when successful authors give advice to new writers. Like I said earlier writing is hard, and when I feel like giving up I honestly go and read some of Susan's newsletters. It's so inspiring to know that everybody has doubt, and it's all about keeping going and not giving up.

The reason I like Misfits & Daydreamers so much is because Sooz comes across as a genuinely lovely person, and a lot of the advice comes from Susan's own experience. Whether you're a writer or not, I'd go subscribe. Right now.

Why I Want To Join The #WITCHLANDERS

Unless you've been living under a rock recently, I assume you know about Truthwitch. I wouldn't be surprised if twitter broke because of all the caps locks and hashtags. If, for some strange reason, you hadn't heard of it, Truthwitch is Susan Dennard's new book that is coming out in 2016. *squeals with excitement*

This blog post is my entry to join the #WITCHLANDERS (caps lock is 5000% necessary). If you want more info/to enter, click here.

I'm notoriously bad at summarising stuff so I obviously couldn't fit my excitement for Truthwitch into  140 characters. So, here goes my attempt NOT TO TALK IN CAPS LOCKS ALL THE TIME. Ahem.

*clears throat*

I want to join the #WITCHLANDERS because Truthwitch is one of my most anticipated books of 2016. More than that, I've been looking for a book series with characters that feel real and I think that Truthwitch is exactly what I need. I want to meet Iseult, Safiya, Baedauan, and Merik, and from the snippets that have been shared I can tell that I'm going to love them. The best kind of escapism in the world is books, and I'm dying to enter the world of the #WITCHLANDERS. I also love books with maps, and the Truthwitch one is bitchin'.

I also want to join the #WITCHLANDERS because Susan is honestly one of the nicest authors on the internet, and I want to make sure that she gets the recognition that she deserves. By this, I mean that I'm going to force everyone I know to read Truthwitch no matter how much they refuse. The whole world should want to read about Merik as much as I do.

Another reason is that I really want to feel like I'm part of something, and there's nothing better in my eyes than a group of people who are all eager and excited about a book.

I was going to bake cookies and write Truthwitch on them in icing, but someone *glares angrily at my sister* used up all the eggs and cookies without them never turn out well. Aside from that, I have kind of nice handwriting so I decided to do some fancy schmancy calligraphy. It's really wobbly as I did it at 10PM and the only light I have in my room is from an energy saving lightbulb, so it's kind of dark. Anyhow, here's my attempt at being mildly creative:

You can click for the full sized image, but I warn you that you can still see the pencil outline as I currently don't own a rubber that doesn't look like it's been infected by some kind of disease... so basically, don't click on the full sized image because it highlights my incompetence regarding stationary. 

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm SO EXCITED for Truthwitch, and you should be too.