I’m planning my next series (starting next Monday!), and once again, I need your help. I need your questions, musings and and topics.

What do you want to know about backstory? What it is? How to tell it from the “real” story? How to work it in? Whether you need it?

As always, guest bloggers are welcome (check out my guest blogging guidelines here, but of course, the topic will be different this time around—you know, backstory?).

What do you want to know (or write!) about backstory?

Photo credits: question—Svilen Mushkatov

I’m gearing up for another series—this time on writing resources. One thing I totally forgot to do was ask for guest posts in my last series, so this time I don’t want to repeat that mistake. Today I’m asking for guest bloggers to help with my next series (because we’re all tired of listening to just me, right ?).

Here’s a bit more on what I’m looking for:

• For this series, posts on:
  • Writing craft books that really helped you
  • Writing classes or teachers that made a big difference
  • Workshops or conferences that made an impact
  • Writing friends or critique groups that affected your writing (for the positive!)
  • Posts that focus on both the experience of reading/participating as well as the actual lessons learned.
• Posts between 300 and 800 words in length (though I’m flexible on the long end).
• A short bio (up to three sentences) of the author (ie you) with up to three links. (Links are allowed in the post itself, too, but if I get too much of a sense of self-promotion I may edit them.)

If you’re up to the challenge, send the post in the body of an email (if you can code in HTML, I’ll love you forever; if not, just include the URL of the links) to contact at jordanmccollum.com . I’ll probably only have room for the first three posts, and I’d need them by Friday, March 19. If that’s too little notice, don’t worry, I’ll have another call for guest bloggers at the end of May (if not before).

But for future reference, if ever you’d like to do a guest post here, go for it! I may not always post them—but don’t worry, I don’t do the whole no-response-means-no thing, so you’ll be free to use a post somewhere else. If you’re not familiar with guest blogging, check out my article on maximizing your guest blogging, as well as this more recent post on guest blogging from Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.

Questions, comments and suggestions for future series welcome!

Photo by Andrea

Gearing up for NaNo? That’s okay, I don’t begrudge you, even if I won’t. In fact, I’ll even do what I can to help you prepare. The series on plotting will be in PDF form this week (by some miracle) and today I have a guest post on frequent-commenter-and-guest-poster Carol/Careann’s blog. Check it out: beating writer’s block.

Today I’m guest blogging for the wonderful Stephanie Black (remember how I want to be her?) on Six LDS Writers and a Frog. Check out my post “Splatting Your Writing against the Wall“ on the submission process. And fear.

And if you’re visiting from the Frog Blog, welcome! We’re finishing up a series on deep POV this week with a guest post from the brilliant Alicia Rasley. Next week we’ll start on aspiring author website/blog reviews from me (I’m an Internet marketer in my “day” job. You know, the other day job I have aside from being a mom and writing.) and Kathleen MacIver of KatieDid Design. Feel free to jump into the discussion any- and everywhere!

Be sure to subscribe to this blog’s updates via RSS or email so you don’t miss it—and for the chance to win fabulous prizes in the RSS contest!

Photo by Melissa McCloud

Woot! Today my guest post is live on literary agent Nathan Bransford’s blog. Many thanks to Nathan for opening up his blog while he’s away! If you’re wondering what the top seven things every aspiring author’s website must have are, head on over to check it out. Looking to set up your website? I recommend my host, BlueHost, for domain registration and website hosting!

Meanwhile, if you’re coming from Nathan’s, welcome to my website/blog! I tried to make sure I was implementing my own advice before the post went live . Here on the blog, we discuss writing technique, grammar mechanics and other fun stuff—feel free to jump in!

This month, we’re doing a series on deep POV. We’ve covered defining deep POV and how to get into our character’s heads and tomorrow we’ll start looking at specific techniques for establishing deep POV.

Last month, we discussed creating effective character sympathy, from theory to practice. Last month’s posts are also available as a free PDF guide to creating character sympathy.

Please introduce yourself in the comments, whether it’s your first time here or your fiftieth! I’d love to get to know one another.

Photo credit: typofi