There are zillions and zillions of blogs out there about writing. It can be hard to sort the wheat from the chaff. But over the past few months, I’ve isolated a few that are entertaining and informative, and that meet needs you never knew you had, which is exactly what a good blog should do.
I’m sharing five of them with you in this post and I’ve aimed to include a couple you mightn’t have come across before. Apologies to my international readers for the Irish bias, but I’m confident these blogs will have universal appeal. They share certain ingredients in common: a generous spirit, readability and useful information. Happy reading.
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Women Rule Writer, Nuala Ni Chonchuir
For information about writing events
Writer Nuala Ni Chonchuir tirelessly promotes a variety of writing events in her blog, which gives valuable promotional opportunities to other writers and valuable information to her readers. This has helped her build a strong following in the writing community, which she can then use to promote her own fine publications.
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Catherine, Caffeinated, Catherine Ryan Howard
For advice on self publishing
This blog is a no holds barred look at the reality of self publishing. It’s packed with hard-won nuggets of advice from a self-published author who is at the coalface of self publishing and has decided to share her experience for the benefit of others. It’s brutally honest, full of biting humour, and bound to make self publishing a lot easier for budding indie authors who need Catherine’s advice.
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Carmel Harrington’s Blog
For a masterclass in subtle self promotion
It’s quite an art form to be able to promote yourself without being in your face, but Carmel Harrington makes it look effortless in her blog. She chats about her writing process and about the challenge of combining writing with motherhood in a warm, friendly tone, shot through with flashes of humour. Carmel is also generous to other writers, hosting a guest blog every Wednesday.
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Isabel Costello, On the Literary Sofa
For incisive book reviews
If you like to read books with a bit of meat, you’ll get plenty of reading ideas from Isabel Costello’s blog. She writes book reviews with all the rigour that you’d associate with a traditional newspaper critic. She also has a knack for spotting the upcoming books that will be on everyone’s reading lists in the coming months.
For a touch of inventiveness
Any blog which gives a retrospective on the top reads of 2014 during the first week of January deserves a second look. Tara Sparling does just that. Her writing is full of playful humour, but she also has a sharp eye to the latest book trends and is happy to share her insights with readers.
What writing blogs do you think readers should know about? They can be Irish or international.
Jeepers Derv, I clicked this post open greedily, looking forward to being hooked up with a few new blogs that would help me and nearly passed out when I saw my name there! You absolute pet, thank you for including me and what lovely feedback on my blog. Thanks a mill and while a few of the blogs above I already follow, I’ve two new ones now to add to my blog favorites.
While people are at it, your blog is a must for any writer too! Great blog post.
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Reblogged this on carmelharrington author and commented:
For all writers out there, make sure and follow Derbhile for fantastic writing tips, and she has compiled a list of 5 ‘kick ass’ blogs to follow (ahem, I’m one of them!)
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This is officially the nicest thing that’s happened me on a Monday since I woke up one day having forgotten it was a Bank Holiday… thank you Derbhile for including me on such a great list with such illustrious company. Kind mentions like yours are some of writing’s rare rewards. Take that, January – time to re-gird the loins for a fresh attack on 2014!
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Glad I’ve given you a lift – you can never know what impact you’ll have.
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Reblogged this on Trace Literary Agency and commented:
Derbhile Dromey’s “World of Writing” is a fantastic website. I highly recommend following it!
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Thank you for good advice. Carmel Harrington is a very generous person giving advice, time and support to anyone longing to write. Will follow all these blogs into the future. Thank you.
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She is indeed generous, so I thought she deserved credit.
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Reblogged this on Johanna Buchanan writes and commented:
I follow three of these already and am delighted to have another two to check out now. Plus your own one of course!
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Thanks for the recommendations. I wasn’t following any of these blogs. I am now. 🙂
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Glad it helped.
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Reblogged this on Tara Sparling writes and commented:
On the most officially depressing Monday of the calendar year, something nice happened- this blog was included on World of Writing’s 5 Kick-Ass Writing Blogs. Rumour had it I’m still in a moderately good mood!
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