More than 600,000 readers have pondered the screenshot embedded above, illustrating how an informal definition of the word “literally” has spread to Google. “We did it guys, we finally killed English,” wrote the person who shared the photo.

If you Google the phrase “define literally,” the dictionary listing now includes this secondary definition: “Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.”

You can read other dictionary definitions at this link. For years, passionate grammar defenders have railed against this common and informal use of the word “literally.” Some people use the word to provide exaggerated emphasis for a statement: “I love Raymond Chandler so much I literally read The Long Goodbye one hundred times.”

How do you map out ideas before starting a story?

One reader asked Community creator Dan Harmon to explain his personal process of “story-breaking,” or how he brainstorms his way into a script. Harmon’s long and idiosyncratic explanation of his creative process might help you chart out your next story, novel or script. Check it out:

Start with random IDEAS.  Ideas can be anything – Poop is an idea, America, pickles, the number six, a raccoon, anything. Some ideas will reveal related ideas, i.e. you may think, upon thinking about raccoons, that you have more than one thought about raccoons.  Clouds of related ideas that your mind recognizes as related in any way are potential story AREAS.  Look for areas that make you laugh and cry. Draw a circle to symbolize your area, because your story will take the “reader” through related ideas in a path around a central idea.

(Link via; photo via)

I always encourage writers to make sure they write something every day. But one writer on Reddit argued that this kind of sweeping writing advice can actually stifle creativity.

Instead, this writer urged aspiring writers to practice “organic writing,” following their individual instincts. Check it out:

As I write my book I’m also reading it for the first time. Each time I finish a sentence and begin another I’m excited about where my story is going because I honestly don’t know. I find myself thinking ‘Oh s*** really? What’s gonna happen now?’ and I’m genuinely as excited writing it as I want my future readers to be (if any exist). I think that’s the most important thing, the only universal writing tip there is: Love what you’re writing. That’s what I’ve been calling organic writing. Writing how much you want, when you want and I guess more importantly without structure at all.

(Image via qisur)

Ever wish you could work together online with your writing buddy?

WriterDuet lets you write at the same time, giving you many common word processor features like pagination, notes, headers and footers, spell check and auto-save. You can test the free software at this link and export your work after a writing session. Check it out:

WriterDuet is a real-time collaborative screenwriting app that allows any number of writers to (privately) work together on a screenplay … WriterDuet offers video chat when you’re both online, and text chat is always available .. We import/export Final Draft, Celtx, Fountain and PDF files. 

Our Self-Published Bestseller List has been packed with books labeled as “new adult fiction” and we’ve spotted some articles about the evolving genre.

To help GalleyCat readers, we created a quick primer on new adult fiction, complete with free samples of books by leading adult fiction writers.

The label was first used in 2009 when St. Martin’s Press hosted a contest looking for stories that could be marketed to both YA readers and adult readers. The contest described for new adult fiction as books “with protagonists who are slightly older than YA and can appeal to an adult audience.”

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I would like to suggest a simple rule for writers: NEVER buy email addresses to promote your book.

Last week, I discovered an online outlet offering to sell lists containing the email addresses of over 15,000 HubPages members and  more than 20,000 Amazon forum members so writers can spam unsuspecting readers. The outlet offered to sell these addresses for $15 and $20 respectively.

As someone who receives hundreds of unsolicited emails every week, I will not link to this site and I STRONGLY advise aspiring writers not to use these services. The only way to find new readers is to earn them honestly through social network outreach, author readings, online writing and other conventional promotional routes.

As the publishing industry evolves in the 21st Century, layoffs have become an all-too-common experience. Sometimes, it can be helpful to see how other writers coped with this devastating situation.

Journalist and author Matthew Newton published Death of a Good Job recently, a short memoir of losing his job as an editor during the Great Recession. We caught up with Newton to get advice for writers and editors:

The best advice I received was also probably the most annoying: Don’t take it personal. For me, that was impossible. Not only because the experience was so fresh in those first weeks, but because I had no job, no money, and a family to take care of. So at first, all I did was take it personal. Because, no matter what friends and family tell you, there’s a definitively personal element to every layoff. That way of thinking, however, was toxic and did nothing but make a bad experience worse. It’s hard to have perspective though when everything feels like it is falling apart.

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Are you frustrated by your mounting rejection letters from editors and agents? According to the The Irish Independent, Man Booker longlisted author Donal Ryan was rejected 47 times before his novel was accepted by a publisher.

In an interview last year, Ryan counted “around thirty rejections” before The Spinning Heart found a home. No matter how many rejections he received, Ryan offered this rejection advice at the Dublin Book Festival site:

I had around thirty rejections in the bag before Daniel Caffrey from the The Lilliput Press rang me one evening and everything changed. They were mostly what I think of as out of hand rejections, though, so weren’t quite as wounding as someone saying, look, we’ve read your book, it’s not good. Form rejections hurt a little bit less, I think. It’s less personal.

Need help finding the right literary agent for your manuscript or book project?

Literary agent, intellectual property attorney, and Folio Literary Management founding partner Jeff Kleinman will help you perfect your pitch letter in a new Mediabistro course. You can explore the complete online course at this link:

In this two-week workshop, expert literary agent Jeff Kleinman will teach you how to find the right agent for your book, how to sell your idea and manuscript, and how to work with an agent once you’ve made the right match. In this class, you will learn how to: Define your book project and assess its potential audience. Find agents who are looking for projects like yours. Write and submit query letters and accompanying materials. Understand standard author/agent agreement terms.

Penguin has revamped its Book Country site with a host of new features. The community writing site launched in 2011, and now counts more than 8,300 active members workshopping writing with other writers.

AppNewser has all the details:

Penguin has relaunched its online writing community Book Country adding a digital book store where writers can sell the books they have published with Book Country’s self-publishing tools, among other new feature updates. Aside from the new bookstore, the latest update includes a feature that lets members direct message each other. Book Country has also updated its genre mapping tool, a way for writers to locate themselves on the genre spectrum. The genre map now has more than  60 categories, including nonfiction and young adult (YA).