Hey Gang! We have a guest-poster, our friend - and fellow aspiring romance author - Carrie!! Thanks for joining in, Carrie...Let's get to it!
Ok, so now you’re going to have that Cyndi Lauper tune stuck in your head for the rest of the day right? No thanks necessary. Really. =)
As a romance writer, or any type of writer really, I would say we get the short end of the stick. We get to work long hours to get sneered at by contest judges, agents and publishers. So what's up with that? I say, no more! It’s time we get to have our cake – and eat it too! Especially if it's chocolate. With chocolate frosting. Oh yeah.
So here’s some of my favorite fun things for writers to do, wear, buy, have bought for them, play with and print out. A virtual plethora of toys for authors. Let’s jump right in.
Clothes – no romance writer worth her salt would dress in raggedy old sweats and frumpy socks and hammer out spine tingling thrills and chills and heartwarming HEA’s right? Wrong. BUT – in this case you can still wear your comfies while writing, and look (fairly) decent while doing it.
Zazzle - Not only do they have t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc already designed by/for authors, but you can also design your own. Put your book cover on it. Your title and your name. You can even put it on a pair of Keds shoes or a coffee mug. You’ll spend hours on this site. Beware.
Café Press Writer or Romance Writer attire – I kind of like the "Careful. You’ll end up in my Novel"
Hit a writer's block? No problem. Check these sites out for fun things to do until your brain unfreezes.
Wordle Copy and paste your romance novel chapter in here, and it will make a word cloud of your chapter. Sound boring? Not when you get to play with the colors and layout. Oh, and the word you use most in your chapter? Shows up really BIG in the cloud. Just saying, that some of us just need to watch just a few of the words we just kinda write. =)
Language is a Virus go to writing games and check out the Character Name Generator or the Writing Prompts. Bound to get you past that stumbling block!
Yakitome Copy and paste your romance chapter in here, and hear it spoken back to you in a variety of voices. Then you can like, here the text, like and maybe cut out like some of those repetitious words. Like.
With Christmas coming, we need gifts. Not to buy for other people, but for people to buy for US. The overworked, the under-dressed, the romance writer. Try these online shops.
Levenger
Ninth Moon
Shakespeare’s Den
And finally, some websites that just might help you along as a writer
The Writers Almanac
Urban Dictionary
Grammar Errors
How to make a Book Trailer
Teen Lingo
Write or Die
Oh there’s tons more…Rock Star Name Generator, Query Shark, an extremely short version of the personality test, Steph Smith’s Contest Chart, and Word Spy to name a few. The point is, and it’s a sharp, jagged pointed ended pointy stick (yes, I meant to say that to get my point across!) is that after a hard day of rejection, confusion, plotting, pantsing and POV’ing – we writers need some fun too.
Girls just wanna have fu-unnn…oh girls, they wanna have fun.
And so do romance writers.
Carrie
Smart Ass Romance
Ok, so now you’re going to have that Cyndi Lauper tune stuck in your head for the rest of the day right? No thanks necessary. Really. =)
As a romance writer, or any type of writer really, I would say we get the short end of the stick. We get to work long hours to get sneered at by contest judges, agents and publishers. So what's up with that? I say, no more! It’s time we get to have our cake – and eat it too! Especially if it's chocolate. With chocolate frosting. Oh yeah.
So here’s some of my favorite fun things for writers to do, wear, buy, have bought for them, play with and print out. A virtual plethora of toys for authors. Let’s jump right in.
Clothes – no romance writer worth her salt would dress in raggedy old sweats and frumpy socks and hammer out spine tingling thrills and chills and heartwarming HEA’s right? Wrong. BUT – in this case you can still wear your comfies while writing, and look (fairly) decent while doing it.
Zazzle - Not only do they have t-shirts, sweatshirts, etc already designed by/for authors, but you can also design your own. Put your book cover on it. Your title and your name. You can even put it on a pair of Keds shoes or a coffee mug. You’ll spend hours on this site. Beware.
Café Press Writer or Romance Writer attire – I kind of like the "Careful. You’ll end up in my Novel"
Hit a writer's block? No problem. Check these sites out for fun things to do until your brain unfreezes.
Wordle Copy and paste your romance novel chapter in here, and it will make a word cloud of your chapter. Sound boring? Not when you get to play with the colors and layout. Oh, and the word you use most in your chapter? Shows up really BIG in the cloud. Just saying, that some of us just need to watch just a few of the words we just kinda write. =)
Language is a Virus go to writing games and check out the Character Name Generator or the Writing Prompts. Bound to get you past that stumbling block!
Yakitome Copy and paste your romance chapter in here, and hear it spoken back to you in a variety of voices. Then you can like, here the text, like and maybe cut out like some of those repetitious words. Like.
With Christmas coming, we need gifts. Not to buy for other people, but for people to buy for US. The overworked, the under-dressed, the romance writer. Try these online shops.
Levenger
Ninth Moon
Shakespeare’s Den
And finally, some websites that just might help you along as a writer
The Writers Almanac
Urban Dictionary
Grammar Errors
How to make a Book Trailer
Teen Lingo
Write or Die
Oh there’s tons more…Rock Star Name Generator, Query Shark, an extremely short version of the personality test, Steph Smith’s Contest Chart, and Word Spy to name a few. The point is, and it’s a sharp, jagged pointed ended pointy stick (yes, I meant to say that to get my point across!)
Girls just wanna have fu-unnn…oh girls, they wanna have fun.
And so do romance writers.
Carrie
Smart Ass Romance
Carrie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for guest blogging and great ideas! I love wordle. I have done it in a while but its a lot of fun. And Steph Smith's contest chart is the best. And I can't wait to try some of the other sites you posted.
Thanks for the guest blog!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!