: Best Resources for Improving your craft? The number one reason I unsubscribe from writer's newsletters is negative email headlines like Stop Procrastinating and Finally, You Can Finish Your Novel

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The Writing Excuses podcast offers a lot of tips and discussion on specific aspects of the writing craft. It's mainly geared towards writers of sci-fi/fantasy, but includes plenty of advice that is general enough to be useful to writers of any genre.

There are 11 (and counting) seasons' worth of podcasts at this point, so if you hunt around you will almost definitely find some great pointers on craft.

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Other people
Feedback, collaborations, challenges with other writers - some practical ways to improve your craft technically. You may be writing a novel, but challenging a writer friend to an unrelated exercise (ie short surreal story, dialogue, manifesto) each day will have a lot of benefits.

Thoughtful articulate people will illuminate how your stuff reads to others, which can steer you back towards your goal. Most writers I know work in a vacuum. The ones who share their work for ideas and criticism throughout the process write at a higher level, and are more frequently published.

"Politics and the English Language"
Orwell's ideas for improving writing in this short essay are very practical. If you create a checklist of his ideas, and apply them to a piece of writing, it will undoubtedly improve. I love his ideas on clarity.

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