|
|
|
| Information sources | |
| Absolute Write |
| Lots of information about writing, publishing, and an extensive forum. A bit heavy on the Ads, but looks like it houses some great information. |
|
| |
| Answerbank |
| A good site for getting all sorts of questions answered and generally just browsing and answering other people's questions. |
|
| |
| Archetype: The Fiction Writer's Guide to Psychology |
This site offers a FREE service to authors. You get an authoritative psychological break-down of your characters' traits and behaviors.
To check whether person X would act in a particular way, or Y take a particular decision, etc. you write up your question, with extract if necessary, and a detailed reply arrives by e-mail.
|
|
| |
| Authors Register |
This is a site for writers to work together to promote their books, poetry, writing, whatever. Each member gets their own internet webpage. There is a good database of writers resources, an active discussion forum, and other useful tools.
This is a membership site (£12 GB pounds - about $24 a year) |
|
| |
| Body Language Expert |
Going in-depth into body language and how it reflects thoughts. Great resource!  |
|
| |
| Brit/American Dictionary |
comical AND useful
http://www.effingpot.com/ |
|
| |
| Charlotte's Web |
| Loads of useful info, such as an extensive list of romance publishers, how to write query letters, how to prepare manuscripts etc. |
|
| |
| Chicklit |
Chicklit is a really nice site with an excellent lay-out. It's got author interviews, writing tips, book reviews and articles about various things.
Check it out. |
|
| |
| Coroner Stories |
The real-life world of death investigation.
Discusses working a death scene, common questions about bodies, and compares and contrasts reality with TV. |
|
| |
| Create a graph |
| A great place to put all of the important events and have them in a easy to read format. Also has a statistical 'chance' roll of the dice counter and some info on what certain grades cover in today's schools. |
|
| |
| D Marie Time Capsule |
| This day in history. Pick a date and the site informs you what happened that day in history. |
|
| |
| Dictionary |
| A good author always has a good dictionary handy. |
|
| |
| Engen's Market Search Engine |
| Primarily SF and F. But useful for other markets as well. |
|
| |
| Facial Features for characters |
Here's where you can find out all you ever wanted to know about facial features, when creating or describing characters. .
face-and-emotion.com/dataface/visage/visage.jsp |
|
| |
| FBI for Writers |
| The FBI shares information on how this agency works with writers. |
|
| |
| Find Articles |
| Finds articles, published on the net, about a chosen subject. |
|
| |
| Floor Planner |
| Create floor plans and 3D models for rooms, houses, and other buildings (outdoor space - like patios, pools, parks, and gardens - can also be designed). Helps you visualize the layout of your haunted mansion, mystery house, jail cell, protagonist's room, or any other setting and plot the path of the action. Add furniture, piles of dirty clothes, throw pillows, food, and electronics to help you figure out what your character wants, likes, has, or needs in a given space. Totally free (all you need is email), and totally on the web (no need to take up hard drive space from your manuscripts)! |
|
| |
| Google Books |
| A great place to research. Many partial and full books including textbooks. |
|
| |
| Grammar Snobs |
| This is a link to a book that might just fall prey to its own title, but worth looking at if the whole subject of grammar and its inherent inflexibility irks you. |
|
| |
| Holly Black's Writing Resources |
| The author of the Spiderwick Chronicles offers advice and links to aspiring writers. |
|
| |
| Literary Agents |
| A low-tech, straight-forward guide to literary agents. This site is designed to give writers accurate information on literary agents. Here you will find News about Agents , Book Sales and Addresses for Top Agents. |
|
| |
| Longridgewritersgroup |
A wonderful site, with contests, and chances to get published!
$10 fee for 8 month trial. |
|
| |
| Measuring Worth |
| This is a really good website that calculates how much money was "worth" back in the past - going back as far as 1264 where a pound back then had the same purchasing power of £500 today. Great resource for historical writers, or even when reading those old classics that made out that 50p was quite a lot! |
|
| |
| Medieval Times Info |
Perfect for those fantasy stories on Medievil times!
Not an exhaustive source but it should give you a decent picture of many subjects. |
|
| |
| MEEZ |
| Create and personalize 3D, animated models of your characters. Free! Save images online or download to computer. |
|
| |
| Merriam Webster Dictionary & Thesaurus |
Hey, every writer needs help with words once in a while. |
|
| |
| Miss Snark, the literary agent |
| "...In which Miss Snark vents her wrath on the hapless world of writers and crushes them to sand beneath her T.Rexual heels of stiletto snark." |
|
| |
| Our Timelines |
A great site for generating historical concordances. From the home page, navigate to a page that lets you enter the start and end years of a character's life. Then press the button, and presto! a list of historical and cultural events is graphed against the lifespan of your character.
If you are trying to decide which era would be more interesting for a story setting, you can test several timelines very quickly through this site. It will also generate timelines for spans much longer than a human lifetime. |
|
| |
| Punctuation from both sides of the pond |
| A site for grammarians exploring punctuation in the English speaking world and its inherent differences between countries. |
|
| |
| Ralan |
| Lots of info on markets, contests etc. |
|
| |
| Refdesk.com: Ask the Experts. |
| This site acts as a gateway to links where you can contact experts in various fields such as music, sports, science or law. |
|
| |
| Renaissance Learning |
| Word count for all books published in the english language. |
|
| |
| Spelling in the English Speaking World |
| In examination of spelling from a world-wide viewpoint. |
|
| |
| Starting a Writing Business (UK) |
Great site for a series of articles on everything from gaining a literary agent to royalties, fees, getting interviews and other ways to successfully turn your writing into a business.
Please note the content is from the UK. |
|
| |
| Technovelgy NEW |
Where science meets fiction |
|
| |
| The Domesday Book Online |
| Information on Medieval England and of course The Domesday Book itself. Much better then buying that hefty tome itself. |
|
| |
| The Literary Times |
| An e-zin, magazine and a web dedicated to books and writing. Aimed at women. Articles, links, chatrooms etc. |
|
| |
| The Middle Ages |
| Looking for info about religion, homes, clothing, and much more during the Middle Ages? Try looking here. Great site for information about it. |
|
| |
| The Phrase Finder |
| A place to search for the meaning or origin of a phrase, saying or idiom. |
|
| |
| The Skeptic's Dictionary |
| An online encyclopedia giving fair descriptions on many things from politics to the paranormal. Includes a guide to logic for rational thinking and debate uses. |
|
| |
| TheWritersSite |
| Hundreds of hand-picked links to help writers. |
|
| |
| Verla Kay's website |
This is a valuable resource for Children/YA authors. The site features live workshops, archives with all kinds of information about the world of publishing children's lit, editor/ agent interviews, responce times and contact info for gabillions of publishing houses, magazines and agents.
This site is run by the renowned author, Verla Kay. If you need information about this genre or the industry, you will find it here. |
|
| |
| Visuwords |
A thesaurus that visual links words and offers definitions. Fun to play with!
|
|
| |
| Which and That discussion |
A discussion by grammarians on the rigidity of the "that" and "which" rules for restrictive and non-restrictive clauses and phrases. Worth reading if you have an open mind on grammar.  |
|
| |
| Wikipedia |
| Free online collaborative encyclopedia. |
|
| |
| Writelink |
| UK based writers’ resource site for creative writing, linking to paying markets, competitions, reference sites, software, and more ... |
|
| |
| Writer's Free Reference |
This is an extensive list of free reference web pages
on the Internet useful to writers and anyone
looking for free information.
|
|
| |
| Writing World |
| A good website with lots of useful information for authors, articles, columns, newsletter, links etc. |
|
| |
| WW2 People's War |
| Personal stories and information on many various aspects of the second world war in Britain. |
|
| |
| On writing | |
| Bella on-line |
| A site with articles, chat and advice for fiction writers. |
|
| |
| Caro Clark's Advice for Novel Writers |
Caro Clark has written a series of articles on how to write a novel for one of the leading on-line writers' magazines, NovelAdvice. She reproduces them here, and will add to them from time to time.
Great source for "novice" novel writers! |
|
| |
| Cliche Finder |
| Search for cliches on a keyword. For example, a result for 'sun' is A month of Sundays. |
|
| |
| Confusing Words |
A collection of 3210 words that are confusing to readers and writers, such as affect and effect or affluent or effluent.
Never be confused again. |
|
| |
| Emotion Thesaurus |
A list of cardinal emotions (fear, happiness, unease, relief, etc) and the coresponding physical reactions to it.
So if you get stuck on how to show your character's fear, unease, etc. in your story, have a look at this thesaurus for ideas. New emotions and physical actions are added each Thursday, so keep checking back! |
|
| |
| Fiction Addiction |
| A site for both writers and readers. Articles, info about contests, list of publishers, book-reviews etc. |
|
| |
| Flogging The Quill |
| This site provides insight and tips on how to achieve immediacy in a first chapter. Focuses on engagement and launching a story. Writers are able to submit their own work and see if the blogger will turn the page based on the first eighteen submitted lines. |
|
| |
| For Writers |
| A site for writers and poets. Articles and useful links. |
|
| |
| HollyLisle |
Useful articles written by Holly Lisle, published author.
The site is recommended by CC members. |
|
| |
| How to Write a Great Query Letter |
| Noah Lukeman offers a FREE E-BOOK on how to write a great query letter! It's his way of giving back to the writing community. |
|
| |
| Is Your Hook-line a Stinker? |
| A good article on how to make the most of your hook. |
|
| |
| Market List |
| A site with various information for writers, such as a list of competitions, publishers (info on how much they pay and what they're looking for), articles and interviews. |
|
| |
| National Novel Writing Month |
| You have to write a novel (50,000 words) in the month of November. It's a lot of fun and I believe it is responsible for more fiction every year than every other writing program in America combined. The entire thing is just crazy enough to get people to put out a lot of writing without slowing themselves down with over editing in the first draft. |
|
| |
| New Novelist |
| A software that helps you develop and write your story. |
|
| |
| New York Times - Books |
| Bookreviews, excerpts, best-seller lists etc. |
|
| |
| Once Written |
| Once Written.com is a great site for first time writers and in fact only promotes freshman releases of new books. It offers several quarterly contests, weekly news letters, writing prompts and information for writing, and publishing. |
|
| |
| Randy Ingermanson's Home Page |
| Lots of great information about many aspects of the Writing game. If you have problems plotting out a story, be sure to check out the Snowflake. |
|
| |
| Rejection Collection |
| A place to post and commiserate with other authors if you're having the rejection blues. |
|
| |
| Rhyme Zone |
| Resource for poetry. |
|
| |
| The Burning Void |
| A site with articles for writers and role-players alike. Links and excercises, blogs and reviews. Have a peek! |
|
| |
| Write Rhymes |
| Helpful little website that will help you find the the right rhyme for your poem. |
|
| |
| Write to Inspire |
| A site with articles for writers and info about publishers. |
|
| |
| Writer Block |
A Canadian E-zine published quarterly specifically for writers.
Includes articles and detailed writing tips section. |
|
| |
| Writer Gazette |
| An informative website with all kinds of info and stuff for writers. Also a weekly newsletter. |
|
| |
| Writers Net |
| Information about agents, editors, publishers, as well as active message boards. |
|
| |
| Writers on Writing: |
| Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing to make the author invisible. |
|
| |
| Writers write |
| A site with various things for writers, e.g links for publishers, jobs etc. |
|
| |
| Writing a great query letter |
| A short article about writing a query letter that will grab the reader's interest. |
|
| |
| Writing Children's Books @ Write4Kids.com |
| A useful site with advice on your writing career as well as active and helpful forums. |
|
| |
| About Agents | |
| Agent Query |
| The best place to find agents quickly. |
|
| |
| Agentquery.com |
| An agent resource |
|
| |
| Predators and editors |
| Look a prospective agent up here... |
|
| |
| Publishing | |
| Duotrope Market Listings |
| A site which lists allows a search of a variety of print and online markets in different genres. |
|
| |
| Jacket Flap |
| A site with a wealth of publisher information for Children's Lit. Includes a message board and search engine for finding books published according to subject, reading level, publishing date and house/imprint. |
|
| |
| Jacqui Bennett Writers Bureau |
| A UK based publisher. The site also contains information on writers' markets and writing competitions. |
|
| |
| James Russell Publishing |
| Free advice for authors, screenwriters and playwrights on how to get published - articles written by a book publisher. |
|
| |
| List of journals that accept electronic subs |
| This is a list of fiction and print journals that accept electronic submissions. Online journals are not listed because it's the assumed format. |
|
| |
| Pheadra Magazine |
A new Magazine for short stories, artwork and poems. Fiction of the darker kind.
|
|
| |
| Publishers Weekly |
| Everything about books, writers and publishing... |
|
| |
| Seventh Quark magazine |
The Seventh Quark is a bi-monthly A4-format magazine similar in look to The New Writer, MsLexia and Writer’s Forum. Its aim is to publish short stories but also to teach.
|
|
| |
| Spicy Green Iguana |
| This is a great list of markets for F/SF/H short stories. It includes both print and online markets, at all levels (pro/semi-pro/zines). |
|
| |
| Top Short Story Journals |
| A list of popular short story journals. The ranking is based on a formula, with points awarded for Pushcart Prizes (5) and Special Mentions (1). |
|
| |
| Writer's Digest Magazine |
| Probably the most popular writing magazine out there, Writer's Digest has a broad spectrum of articles each month that deal with a variety of issues, like the state of the publishing industry, to a monthly author profile, to how-to articles. |
|
| |
| Xaxx Quarterly |
| Xaxx is a new online literary journal. We are seeking submissions of literary short stories up to 5000 words, and flash fiction (under 1000 words). |
|
| |
| Crit sites | |
| Auto Crit |
AutoCrit is a free online text-analysis tool that automatically identifies weak words and structures in your fiction writing.
AutoCrit can never replace a human critique partner. But AutoCrit is faster, complains less, and never gets tired of seeing the same chapter over and over again! |
|
| |
| Boot Camp Writing/Critique group |
A crit group that will work in batches of two week schedules with a one week "catch-up" break per quarter.
Stories will have a maximum three-week "life". They will have one week in the Urgent First Crit Section, one week in an interim section and a third week where critiques of the first draft will NOT be accepted, but discussion may continue on REWRITES or rewriting issues. |
|
| |
| Critters |
| An American crit circle for fantasy, sci-fi and horror. |
|
| |
| Free Falling |
| A new site. Post your stories so other members can crit. A bit of randomness on the site, so if your uptight don't bother. Really looking for some good critters right now! |
|
| |
| Online Writing Workshops |
| This is a great commercial workshop which specializes in sf/f/h and romance. |
|
| |
| The Cult |
| This site is a fan site for author Chuck Palahniuk but its also a great site for writing, critiquing and learning all there is to know about the craft. |
|
| |
| Young Writers Society |
A forum for 13-25 year olds. Critique 2 pieces then submit your own, earning up to 50 points for every critique. Get detailed critiques, meet new friends, and read others work!
|
|
| |
| Zoetrope |
| Submit and critique flash fic, short stories, novellas, screenplays, poetry, short scripts, basically the whole writing enchilada plus music, costumes, photos, storyboards, film scores, and everything else Hollywo-o-o-o-od. |
|
| |
| Authors and stories | |
| Bibliomania |
| An English site with loads of stories, poems, interviews and articles. |
|
| |
| Classic stories |
| A collection of classic short-stories. |
|
| |
| scifi.com |
| A site dedicated to sci-fi in all medias. A short-story is published there every week and every two weeks a classic short-story is introduced. |
|
| |
| Short stories |
| An english site publishing short-stories. |
|
| |
| The Legends of Mernac |
| The Legends of Mernac in short is an online never-ending High Fantasy saga expressed by prose, art, music, gaming, and more. For people whose escape into Fantasy is reading, then this site will provide the ONLY truly ongoing saga. |
|
| |
| The Writer At Work |
| A Cartoon that describes the work of a writer. The author has amongst other things worked on Star Trek shows. |
|
| |
| Writer's organizations | |
| American Crime Writers League |
Membership requirements: one novel or three short stories
Membership fee: $35 |
|
| |
| Book Awards list from the Bauu Institute |
| A complete list of book awards for Authors, Writers, and Publishers. |
|
| |
| Historical Novel Society |
| The Historical Novel Society, founded in 1997, promotes all aspects of historical fiction. |
|
| |
| Historical Novel Society--Discussion Group |
| Discussion of historical fiction, for writers (published and unpublished) and readers. |
|
| |
| Horror Writers Association |
Membership requirements: published work.
Associate membership requirements: anyone can join.
Membership fee: $65 |
|
| |
| Mystery Writers of America |
Membership requirements: published
Associate membership requirements: open to anyone
Membership fee: $80 |
|
| |
| Novelists, inc |
Membership requirements: Two published novels
Membership fee: $65 |
|
| |
| Romance Writers of America |
Membership requirements: Open to anyone published or pursuing a career in romantic fiction
Membership fees: $75 |
|
| |
| Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America |
Membership requirement: One published novel or script OR three published stories.
Associate membership requirement: one published story.
Membership fee: $50 |
|
| |
| Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators |
Membership requirements: published work for children
Associate membership requirements: open to anyone interested
Membership fee: $75
|
|
| |
| Writers Guild of America |
Membership requirements: Certain amount of publication "credits". See details on website.
Membership fees: $2500
|
|
| |
| Writing software | |
| Plotwriter |
| A website to help you develop the structure of your novel. |
|
| |
| SpokenText |
Want to 'hear' your work? SpokenText.net allows you to record PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, RSS news feeds, emails and web pages, converting them to speech automatically. You can download them to share into Mp3's or to an Ipod.
Free to use. |
|
| |
| Word Web 5 |
This thesaurus/dictionary can be used to look up words from almost any program. In addition to displaying sense definitions and synonyms, WordWeb can find sets of related words. The database has more than 150,000 root words and 118,000 synonym sets, many proper nouns, pronunciations, and usage tags.
WordWeb is a handy utility that gives you the definition, synonyms, and antonyms of any given word without requiring you to go online, though it can connect to the Internet for expanded functionality should you want it.
The interface feels like an expanded version of any major word processing app's dictionary function, giving users an instant familiarity—even if they've never used WordWeb. After you type a term into the Lookup dialog box, the word's definition will appear in the interface's top pane, along with tabs that link to various wiki functions.
The bottom pane offers tabs for such items as synonyms, antonyms, and related words. The app's most notable feature is its hot key support; you simply use a hot key combo when the cursor is pointed over any word, and WordWeb will pop up onscreen with all pertinent information.
There are tools for changing the database to one of several English variations, altering the text size, and disabling WordWeb from recognizing offensive terms. The depth and functionality of WordWeb would be worth paying for, but thankfully you don't have to redefine your budget to get it—it's free. |
|
| |
| yTimer |
This free program lets you run up to 40 countdown timers, with an audio alert and a popup window when the countdown reaches zero. You can also choose to run a program or open a URL in your default browser when the timer goes off.
Timers are specified in days/hours/minutes/seconds, and if you close the program with active timers it will automatically restart them with the correct remaining time when you reopen it.
yTimer runs in the system tray, so you can easily ignore it until the moment comes for it to unleash your reminder.
|
|
| |
| yWriter3 |
yWriter gives you a working framework similar to an ordinary book. That is, you work in chapters and sections.
By default yWriter is designed primarily for novel writers, so 'sections' are referred to as scenes in all the menus. yWriter is multi-lingual and allows you to customise your own language file, either for translations, or to define new labels for different writing genres. When you select a chapter in the main page, you see all the scenes that make up the chapter. In addition you can add character biographies and input summaries for scenes, chapters and the project (book) description. All these summaries are instantly available for quick reference, so that you know exactly how your work is structured, what you have done, where you are now and what you plan for future sections.
Working in small 'chunks' or scenes is an excellent way to reduce the mass of overall work required into small manageable sections. What yWriter does so well, is to allow you to plan your overall chapter and scene descriptions beforehand, without having to write a word of actual content. |
|
| |
|
|
| Submissions and critiques are © individual writers. Other material is © critiquecircle.com.
|
©2003-2009 CritiqueCircle.com |
|
|
