First Drafts & Fabulous Friday

Okay, I know that today's blog post is generally reserved for my recap of the best publishing blog posts of the week, but before we get there I just wanted to drop a little note about first drafts, and that is, don't be haters people. Love your first drafts. Sure they're unruly, but that's nothing that a good edit can't solve. Remember, first drafts are the bones of your story. The soul in born out of the revision process. So edit, edit, edit, grow, grow, grow and voilà! your story will be beautiful.

Okay, and now for the fabulous Friday posts... um, actually there's only one this week and it is Eric's post "Having What it Takes" from his blog Pimp My Novel. According to Eric, he believes that all writers must have discipline, a desire to learn and improve, skill and luck in order to succeed (or at the very least, to set oneself up for success) in this industry. What do you think? Is Eric right? Or is there something else writers need in order to succeed?

For me, I'd add support. I need the support of my husband, friends and family in order to keep writing. At times when the negativity mounts too high, it's nice to have someone rooting for me in my corner. A little bit of positivity from the right person goes a long way.

What about you? What would you add to the list?

Fabulous Friday Posts

To continue the tradition (okay, so I just started this last week, but still), I give you this week's Fabulous Friday posts! In my opinion, these are the creme de la crema of this week's blogosphere.

As always, let me know if I missed anything super awesome and I'll happily direct my readers' attention to it.

The first one was written by Kate Douglas over at BookEnds, LLC. Kate's first mass market paranormal romance, DemonFire, hit shelves on Tuesday and she was kind enough to share her wild ride with Jessica Faust's readers. She also talked about the ins and outs of growing her career with Jessica, and it was all very informative. Thanks Kate for the post!

The next is Mathew Delman's post from Monday titled "Ignoring Style Guides" Why? Because I agree with Matt that we should all "write in a way that's pleasing to the ear." Oh, and also because as someone who also has a degree in technical communication, I can relate to the pain that memorizing style guides can inflict. What about you?

Which brings me to Diana Paz's blog post about story ideas (okay, not the best transition, but hey, give me a break, it's Friday). Man do I have a LOT of story ideas. Sometimes (like now), it's hard for me to focus on only one. I agree completely with Diana not all stories have "what it takes' to go the distance." (That's a quote within a quote, BTW. Not plural possessive takes :) Anywhoooo... It takes a little bit of time (okay a lot of time), but I can usually tell after attempting the first outline if this story, or better yet, if I have what it takes to make the story bloom into a beautiful novel.

And lastly, congratulations to Void for getting married last week--Hurray and congrats! Pop by his blog and fill him in on all your awesomeness from this past week.

Have a great weekend everyone!