Advice for Writers

My Advice

• My Guide to Getting a UK Literary Agent
• Getting Published: The Process
• 5 Ways to Get Ideas
• 3 Golden Rules to Avoid Writer's Block
• How I Get Over Writing Stress and Writer's Block

Other People's Wise Words

John Scalzi: 10 Things Teenage Writers Should Know About Writing, Advice to New Writers About Money, Practical Writing Advice, More Practical Writing Advice

Neil Gaiman: Advice to Authors, 8 Rules of Writing, On Writer's Block (Reposted here)

Nathan Bransford: How to Write A Novel, How I Edit, How A Book Gets Published, and more. Check out his 'PUBLISHING ESSENTIALS' sidebar.

Chuck Wendig: Chuck's "25 Things" lists are helpful for writers at all stages.

Anne Mini: Has a ridiculous amount of detailed, comprehensive writing advice on her blog Author! Author! 

Josh Vogt: Check out his massive Writer's Resources Toolbox.

The BookEnds Literary Agency blog has a lot of posts covering most aspects of the industry from an agent's viewpoint -- check the site's sidebar for popular posts.

The AbsoluteWrite Forums are home to thousands of successful and friendly writers, and contains a huge amount of advice. There's also the VerlaKay Blue Boards which focusses on children's writers and illustrators.

Must-Read Books

In Print (and usually e-book too!)

Write To Be Published by Nicola Morgan
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Browne & King
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Guide to Writing by Betsy Lerner
Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder (Reviewed here!)
From Pitch to Publication by Carole Blake
Reading Like A Writer
On Writing by Stephen King
The Writer & Artists Yearbook (mine is outdated now)
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
A Style Guide of your choice. I use The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

E-Book Only

Dear Agent by Nicola Morgan (Reviewed here!)
Write a Great Synopsis by Nicola Morgan (Reviewed here!)

Must-Watch Videos

Neil Gaiman answers the question "Are there already too many writers out there?"

Ira Glass on Storytelling

"What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.
But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.
It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through." -- Ira Glass

Neil Gaiman's Commencement Speech

Elizabeth Gilbert's talk on "Your elusive creative genius"