Advice, tools, and other goodies for writers

[Bob Schroeck]

This thread is for links/recommendations/what-have-you to references and resources that might be of use to writers.  I'm going to start it by repeating a couple of my recent posts on the subject, but it's open for everyone to add their own favorites and discoveries.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

The Five Best Distraction-Free Writing Tools

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

A big page of helpful articles on writing. I haven't actually read these myself, but my source for the link seems to think highly of them.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Copied from a post by Skyefire in another thread:

Writing Excuses is one of the best writer's resources I've ever see-- er, heard. And it's gut-busting funny, too. The first podcast I ever got into on any kind of regular basis. And an episode is only 15min long, so why not give it a shot?

And folks? This thread's not just for me to post things in.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

The Five Best Distraction-Free Writing Tools

 Right now I'm trying out Q10.  I must admit, I'm starting to warm up to its simplicity... though being able to translate things to a page-count would be nice.

[Bob Schroeck]

Writer's Digest's 101 Best Sites for Writers

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

This is the Writer’s Prayer. This is the Penmonkey’s Paean.
I am a writer, and I will finish the shit that I started.
I will not whine. I will not blubber. I will not make mewling whimpering cryface pissypants boo-hoo noises. I will not sing lamentations to my weakness.
My confidence is hard and unyielding. Like a kidney stone lodged in the ureter of a stegosaurus.
These are my adult pants. The diapers have burned away in the fires of my phoenix-esque rising.
I will burn down the forest. As the conflagration rages, all my excuses shall come scurrying forth like syphilitic rats whose backs smolder with the smoky scent of my coming victory. When my excuses bound, shrieking and squealing, toward my feet, I shall use my mighty wordhammer to squash them all, ‘asploding each like a sausage stuffed with self-deception and disillusionment.

Read the rest here.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

Here's the blog of a writer that, while her primary fare is fantasy romance, her advice is excellent. She gives commentaries on basic and advance skills that a writer needs to create good stories and she does so using plain English (complete with the occasional typo . Of course, she uses the blog to plug news about her current writings, but that's easily ignored if you aren't interested in it. Just scroll down to the 'categories' area and pick out what you like.

http://www.ravenclark.net/news-and-updates.html

Enjoy! (^_^)

[Black Aeronaut]

This looks useful - it's one of those "xx-number of tools for amateur writers" pages, and some of these look very useful indeed.

http://mashable.com/2007/10/25/30-tools-amateur-writer/

[Bob Schroeck]

FriedBeef's Tech offers 5 of the Best Free Writing Software and Tools for Aspiring Novelists

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

Holy crap! There's a public beta going on for a Windows version of Scrivener! Check it out!

[Bob Schroeck]

James Hudnall, graphic novelist and web comic ("Obama Nation", "Useful Idiots") author, is have a book called "The Secret of Writing" published in late 2011. As a bit of a teaser, has put several very useful excerpts up on his website.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Andrew Cowan, senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, offers his choice of five books to help aspiring writers.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

Ten Tips on How to Write Less Badly

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

Writers Dreamtools - History by Decades

Quick history for the 1650s to the 2000s, sorted by decade, for historical writing. Events, who's "in", who's bad, who dies, what's new (including music and science), what are the current slang terms.

Here's the page for the 1910s.

[Black Aeronaut]

Wow. I want this in off-line format.

[Bob Schroeck]

Not exactly a tool, per se, but a useful reference that might just inspire ideas and approaches:

40 literary terms you should know

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

And because citing it in another thread reminded me that it's out there (and its URL changed when my website did a few months back), there's also my eternally-incomplete Fanfic Writers' Guide, which covers both basic writing mechanics and high-level structure stuff, as well as offering random bits of genre- and fandom-specific advice here and there.

Update, 2/17/13:  Next to it in the same directory you can find my Great List of Misused Words.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Bob Schroeck]

A review (which is itself rather useful) of a useful book entitled How to Write a Sentence and How to Read One, by Stanley Fish.

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

A net.wars column about collaborative writing. (It's specifically about sitcom writing, but it applies to any other group-writing effort.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Bob Schroeck]

Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Tips on How To Write a Great Story

-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Black Aeronaut]

For a while now, Scrivener for Windows has been available out of Beta for the price of 40USD. But what I just discovered is that it now has a thirty day trial period... with a twist.

What makes it different? They're pretty literal about the Trial Days. If you use it for only two days, then you've only used two days of your trial period. And then when the trial period is up, it kindly gives you the option of exporting your work in a useful format.

http://www.literatureandlatte.com/

I cannot recommend this piece of software enough. Beautiful. Simply beautiful.

[Wiregeek]

http://www.city-data.com/smallTowns.html

intriguing reference for generating or stealing names for settlements, towns, bases, what have you.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies

[Black Aeronaut]

Or even just outright using them as the setting! Thanks, WG! Now I know that the Darkwood homestead is located just outside of Highland Haven, TX, upstream on the Colorado River.

[robkelk]

I appear to have not posted links to my favourite site for people's names, "Behind the Name." They don't list every name, but the names they do list are sorted by culture, and definitions are provided. Two sites - one for surnames and the other for given names.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012