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10 Terrific Creative Writing Blogs

written by Sonia Simone
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10 Terrific Creative Writing Blogs

If you know Copyblogger, you know that we believe in writers.

Which is why we always look forward to the results from the “Ten Best Blogs for Writers” each year — a contest currently being produced by the blog Write to Done.

If you want to become a better writer yourself, it’s smart to study writers with strong voices, to learn about the craft of writing, and to spend time with others who share your obsession.

You can do all of that and more by checking out this year’s winners.

Congratulations to all the winners, but we’d like to give a special shout-out to our own Copyblogger guest writer Jeff Goins.

Jeff Goins Writer
Jeff writes about the process of becoming a professional writer, including what it takes to get published and how to succeed at the creative life without losing your marbles.

The Write Practice
Joe Bunting and Liz Bureman focus on one of my own favorite success factors — deliberate practice. Any writer will get a lot out of this creativity-boosting site.

Jane Friedman
Media professor and speaker Jane Friedman focuses on how technology affects us as writers, marketers, and people.

The Creative Penn
Once again, Joanna Penn makes the Top Ten list with her popular blog on writing, publishing, and book promotion.

The Bookshelf Muse
Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi offer a warm and friendly take on the craft of writing, social networking for writers, and more.

Romance University
A fascinating site run by a writing team to help romance writers “establish and advance their careers, introducing readers to a variety of authors, and delving into the ever-inscrutable male mind.” Worth a look for any writer, not just those in genre fiction.

Courage to Create
Ollin Morales makes the list again with his passionate, creative blog about his own journey as a novelist.

terribleminds
Novelist and screenwriter Chuck Wendig offers advice, information, and attitude in equal measure.

The Artist’s Road
Patrick Ross’s career has taken him from journalism and communications consulting back to the creative life. He describes his blog as “an ongoing conversation among the blog’s author and its readers regarding the challenges and rewards of pursuing an art-committed life.”

WordPlay
WordPlay’s tagline is “helping writers become authors,” which shows that fiction writer K.M. Weiland doesn’t just know creative writing, she also understands how to put a benefit in the headline. She offers lots of advice for fiction writers to improve their craft and create publishable work, as well as reading guides and other material for readers.

Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners! (You can find the finalists on the Write to Done site.) Thanks for consistently putting your passion into words.

By the way, we couldn’t help but notice that there’s not a single blog on this list that’s primarily dedicated to copywriting. We love our creative writing colleagues, but we also love the brilliant copywriters and content marketers out there. So look for our own list of a few favorite copywriting and content marketing blogs coming later this week.

I’d love to get your input … what’s your “vote” for a terrific copywriting or content marketing blog that should make our list? Let us know about it in the comments.

About the Author: Sonia Simone is co-founder and CMO of Copyblogger Media. Share your favorite writing resources with her on twitter.

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Reader Comments (68)

  3. I really appreciate this post. I’ve been writing since early 2001 but I struggle to be creative at times so hopefully checking out some of these will offer up some nice tips on how to get my creative juices lfowing more often. 🙂

  5. Thanks for posting these results, Sonia. We are so thrilled to have made the list this year and to be surrounded by such amazing blogs. I’m glad Jeff is right there on the top, too. He’s a great guy and well deserving of the reward.

  6. At the risk of being immodest, please check out my site, http://www.EverBeautiful.com. It’s devoted to fashion, beauty, health and fitness for ageless women and is quite well written, if I do say so myself. I’m a fashion and beauty writer/editor from the world of print media. Hope you’ll consider my site well written, informative and fun to visit. Thanks for checking it out – and thank you for bringing the winning sites to my attention.

  8. Hi Sonia,

    Super list!

    Reading top shelf writers has improved my writing more than any other practice. Really helpful stuff here, thanks for sharing.

    RB

  9. Thanks for the love, Sonia. I can honestly say that without what I’ve learned from Copyblogger I wouldn’t have been able to pull off Goinswriter.com in 2011. This community is a gift to me and so many other writers. Thanks for your generosity.

  12. Been following Jeff this year and it’s been great to see and consume what he’s been publishing.

    Congrats to everyone on the list! Off to check out a few of the others that I haven’t been following already…

  15. Wow! This is a useful list! I’ll definitely have to look through these links in order to be able to maximize my writing! Thanks for posting the list for us to look through, it’ll definitely help us improve our writings for the future!

  16. My top vote(s) for fantastic copywriting bloggers goes to:

    Michel Fortin – when I first came online years ago, I appreciated his level of info and strength of voice. Walking through his archives is a real treat!

    John Carlton – So I can do without the … that shows up all over his writing, but he’s one genius cookie when it comes to sales copywriting.

  19. Sonia,

    It is refreshing to see all these new faces this year. I am very excited about checking their blogs out. A huge congrats to all the winners!

  20. I’m not yet familiar with any of the winners, and surprised that only one Copyblogger writer (Congratulations Jeff Goins), is among them. ‘Write to Done’ seems to have overlooked several other writers, including Sonia Simone, Brian Clark, James Chartrand, Jon Morrow, Sean Platt and Johnny Truant. Believe me, I’m not being paid to write this. 🙂

  21. Thanks so much for posting this Sonia, I’m honoured to be on the list as (I think) the only Brit 🙂
    In terms of other great resources, Joe Konrath’s blog is great for indie publishing, especially fiction
    http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/
    and Seth Godin is posting about publishing at The Domino Project blog separately from his main blog
    http://www.thedominoproject.com/
    If you like video interviews and publishing specifics, check out Dan Blank’s We Grow Media
    http://wegrowmedia.com/
    Thanks, Joanna

  24. I’d like to add copywriter Ben Settle to the list at http://bensettle.com/blog/. He is what you might call “different” from the norm and that’s why I like him, plus he is a fantastic copywriter. His blog has audio interviews and really helpful and insightful (and often funny) blog posts. For instance, his latest post is called “How to Stick Out In The Inbox Like A Fart In Study Hall. You can find it at http://bensettle.com/blog/how-to-stick-out-in-the-inbox-like-a-fart-in-study-hall-but-in-a-good-way/.

    Hilarious (and interesting).

  26. This list is great! I’ve been searching for creative-writing blogs for some time, and I’m anxious to check out these sites! Thanks for the list!

  27. Thank you, Sonia! For posting this list. It was an honor to be featured on the list for the second year in a row, and an honor to be listed among some fantastic blogs. Congrats to everyone!

    Secondly, congrats to the finalists and the nominated blogs. I encourage everyone here to check out the finalists and the blogs that were nominated. It was a stellar group this year, truly outstanding.

    Also, special thanks to Sonia, Brian, Jon and the rest of the Copyblogger team. Your articles are invaluable to EVERY kind of writer and they have been certainly invaluable to me. Thank you for all the hard work and thought you’ve put into the articles you feature on Copyblogger. Hope you all have a great New Year! This made my day! 🙂

  28. Thanks so much for the shout out. Christmas came early for Angela and me when the list came out and we found ourselves in such good company. And now, to have it tooted on Copyblogger. So awesome. Thanks again!

    Becca @ The Bookshelf Muse

  31. Thanks for the Great list. I am so looking forward to learning so much more. Please keep the Good Oil coming. Apparently the Squeaky Wheel gets the Oil….I’m Squeaking. Cheers.

  33. Thanks for mentioning Heather Lloyd-Martin’s blog, Amy…I was just about to do the same thing. http://www.seocopywriting.com/blog/ is a global authority on content marketing and chock-full of information and updates on what’s happening with Google, how-to’s for persuasive writing and the latest information needed to get the job done for copywriting clients. It’s a living textbook that I wouldn’t be without.

  35. Definitely going to start following these! My writing focus is now much more business-related (…such is what happens when you go into conversion copywriting), but I love to write creatively and these seem like great resources. Allowing the creative juices to flow also ultimately helps bettering my writing across the board – this has just inspired me to get back into it!

    Thanks again for this. 🙂

  36. Thanks for mentioning The Bookshelf Muse. Becca and I were bowled over to be grouped with all these amazing blogs. We’re just happy to do something to give back, because the writing community is so fantastic about sharing knowledge and we’ve benefited in so many ways. Here’s to 2012 being another great year for everyone!

    Angela @The Bookshelf Muse

    • Hi Farhan,
      If you mean ‘how’ were they ranked or chosen – the description is on Write To Done as per below:

      How were the finalists selected?
      1) Initial qualification: A site must have been nominated more than once by multiple individuals. If someone nominated more than one blog, only the first nomination was counted. Valid nominations needed to include the URL and give a reason why the nominated blog should be considered.
      2) Contest criteria: In order to be considered, a blog needed to be a writing blog. In order to qualify, at least 5 out of the 10 posts written prior 22 November 2011 (when the call for nominations went out) needed to be about writing and not not about freelancing, business, publishing, etc.
      3) Blog-based analysis: Factors taken into account included: Frequency of posts: the blogging frequency accounted for 15% of the total score; Reader involvement: comment numbers per posts accounted for 15% of the total score. The number of nominations accounted for 15% of the total score. These three blog-based factors make up 45% of the final score.
      4) Quality of posts: Educational, useful, engaging, and discussion-creating posts were rated higher than self-promotional posts. The quality of posts accounts for 55% of the final score.

      There was no ranking of the final Top 10 or at least no indication of ranking as there was the previous year.

      In the context of other comments about the missing quality blogs, #2 is the key factor i.e. not about freelancing, business, publishing.
      Thanks, Joanna

      • Thanks Joanna.

        The list on Write To Done is not in alphabetical order so I thought that maybe it was listed on the basis of ranks. But ya they are not informing us about it explicitly.

        By the way I was genuinely not surprised that your blog made into the list again.

  39. From my first view I really liked ‘Courage to Create’ from your list. I’ll get back to you with my favorite after I’ll take a closer look.

    Really appreciate this post. Thanks. 🙂

    • Hi Andrew,
      It’s interesting. I actually used to believe that 100%. However, since then I’ve learned that almost every writer has had some kind of a coach, some kind of training. Hemingway, for example, had the Kansas City Star and then Gertrude Stein and then the great Max Perkins to guide him. A more recent example, David Foster Wallace, studied under Marilynne Robinson and then got his MFA at UofA. The truth is that more writers than not had some kind of coach, whether that coach is a parent, a teacher, an editor, or all of the above. It’s very difficult for a writer to grow up in a vacuum.

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