The first piece of advice I’ll offer you’ve probably already heard, but it bears repeating. Write what you know and write from your heart.
And write consistently. Few of us live in a world where we can devote as much energy to our art as we’d like. So we have to prioritize it or our stories will go untold.
Write with joy and passion and persistence. I hope the following articles will help.
General Interest
Advice from a Writers of the Future Contest Judge
The Art of Description–How Much Do You Need?
A Different Kind of Story Prompt
The Latest, Greatest, Bright, Shiny Idea
Nat Russo on Adverbs and Show, Don’t Tell
Point of View–Which One Should I Use?
The Short Story–Making a Comeback
Why Readers Stop Reading a Book
34 Writing Terms for Serious Writers
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Planning Your Story
Story Structure–Important for Both Plotters and Discovery Writers
Three Act Structure–An Overview
Three Act Structure–Act One: Inciting Incident
Three Act Structure–Act One: The Point of No Return
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Characters
Developing Depth in Your Characters
Does the Sidekick Make the Hero?
Your Protagonist–Don’t Write a Mary Sue
Antagonist–What Kind Do You Have?
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Editing
Are You Filtering Your Writing?
Editor’s List of Common Mistakes
The Magic of the Read-Aloud Pass–and the Following One
The Smile and Nod Editing Passes
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Motivational
What Was I Thinking? Maybe I Should Quit Writing
What Do You Do When You Hit The Wall? (Dealing with Writer’s Block)
Help! I’ve Lost My (Writer’s) Voice! A Remedy For Allegedly Lost Writers
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Punctuation and Grammar
Ten Ways to Use Hyphens with Numbers
Commas and Independent Clauses
Commas and Introductory Clauses
Commas and Introductory Phrases
Commas and Parenthetical Statements
More Than One Adjective–Comma or No Comma?
The Oxford Comma–Superhero of Punctuation
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Cathleen Townsend 
Thank you for this wonderful post! I will be absolutely be applying the advice from The Editor’s List of Common Mistakes to my next draft.
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You’re very welcome! I wish I could claim credit for it, but I’m happy to share. I found this post a year ago and started making it the basis for one of my editing passes. It’s definitely improved the quality of my writing.
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Cathleen, I’ve been perusing your wonderful blog after you stopped by mine to read 7 Reasons Good Authors Need Beta Readers. Thank you for the visit and for liking the post. I’m approaching the end of my memoir manuscript and see many things here I will want to take advantage of reading as I move into the editorial and publishing processes. I look forward to many visits back and have subscribed to your blog so I can get to know you better. Best of luck with your writing!
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Thanks! Memoir is a tough gig–I don’t think it’s appreciated enough. The closest I can come is back when I studied art, I took lots of painting and drawing classes before I studied film photography and went into a darkroom. There were times my fingers just itched to hold a brush–it was so much easier to picture it and make it happen on canvas than to capture it in real life for certain images.
Anyway, memoir is like that. Unlike fiction, you can’t change events to suit the story. Instead you have to craft the story around the events. So I have nothing but the deepest respect for anyone who tries to take on that task. Best of luck to you as well.
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Great list of posts you have here. 🙂
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Thanks! It’s been a real labor of love.
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Great informative post..
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I see words as color with words adding depth ad new shades off color to each other. I really like this post. I tend to forget about the practical matters that can make the difference between a fair writer and a good one.
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Hi,
I have nominated you for a Blogger’s Appreciation Award. The information follows:
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Thank you so much. I’m sorry this slipped through the cracks, but I really appreciate the compliment. 🙂
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What a great list of resources, Cathleen. Thanks! I couldn’t figure out where to begin so I favorited.
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I’m so glad they helped! I’m trying to share the information I’ve found most valuable.
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that’s it, 500 words a day consistently, is a novel or two a year.
And if you crank it up to 1k, 2k, 3k etc that’s even better 🙂
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I agree–it’s all about consistency. 🙂
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This is so much good information! Good post…
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Thanks so much. 🙂
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Thanks, Cathleen. Just shared this on Twitter and posted on Pinterest as a writing resource go-to! 🙂
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You are possibly the nicest person I’ve ever met, Bette. Someday I’d like to grow enough to be as classy as you. 🙂
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Dear Cathleen,
Your lovely note sent sunbeams into a gloomy winter’s day! 🙂 Thank you! 🙂 May your week be filled with wonders, my friend.
Hugs,
Bette
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[…] Cathleen Townsend – Think of writing a book check out this link below, interesting and helpful. https://cathleentownsend.com/writing/ […]
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Cathleen, this is a terrific list of resources – thank you so much for the work in compiling and sharing! I can see several I want to delve further into and some of the titles alone are enticing. Bookmarking your post for reference!
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Sorry I missed this, Annika–for some reason, WordPress doesn’t tell me of comments on older posts, even though I’ve checked the box for them to tell me all of them. Anyway, I’m so glad I could help. 🙂
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The list looks very helpful. I’m bookmarking it…. thanks for the compilation…. 🙂
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It was my pleasure, Maniparta. This is all the stuff I wish I’d known when I started writing.
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This will take awhile to digest. It certainly appears worthy of the time. Thank you.
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