New Writing Year Ten

Ten Things for Writers to Do for the New Year

Get to know your characters better by creating a character palette or making up some character trading cards.

Try a new/free online writing service like Hiveword (see my write-up on it here.)

For your next book writing project make up a novel notebook.

Outline your next novel.

Take the paranormal romance novelist's test.

Buff and polish up your queries (and learn what you shouldn't be sending out.)

Create a submissions log book and hunt for some new markets (for a nice variety I recommend the excellent and regularly updated listings over at Ralan.com.) Before you jump on any sub op, however, be sure to read the fine print.

Reinvent something that bugs you (like I did with the BookLoop.)

Unclutter or make some changes to your writing space.

Be valiant.

Match Game

Let's play a game. See if you can match the writer to the fact:

1. Officially recognized as history's most prolific novelist for writing 904 books under six pen names.

2. More than once wrote a 35,000 word novel overnight.

3. Currently holds the world's record for longest novel title at a whopping 290 words.

4. Penned a 1.5-million-word opus that is widely considered to be the longest novel in English.

5. Used 70 different pen names to write 850+ books.

6. Composed one of the earliest novels in human history.

7. Wrote a 110,000 word novel in 21 days without electricity, running water, paper or pen.

A. Davide Ciliberti
B. Murasaki Shikibu
C. PBW
D. Marcel Proust
E. Mary Faulkner
F. Lauran Paine
G. Prentiss Ingraham

No Googling now -- answers will be provided in comments at the end of the day.