Advice, tools, and other goodies for writers

[Bob Schroeck]

A couple of articles I came across today:

A Simple Way to Create Suspense

and

How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method

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

[Bob Schroeck]

H.P. Lovecraft's 11 Tips for Novice Writers.

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

[RomanFanboy]

If I'm following things correctly, people seem to think that the Latin for Fanfic Writers thread I started isn't entirely useless.  As such, sticking the link here seems the least innovative solution to the problem of keeping it easily accessible.
Latin for Fanfic Writers
http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/top ... ic-Writers
Dictionary.com is a resource I use a lot.  There may be better dictionaries out there.

[Star Ranger4]

Apparently, 3/4 is also national grammer day:

http://news.yahoo.com/7-sentences-sound ... 00095.html
Hear that thunder rolling till it seems to split the sky?
That's every ship in Grayson's Navy taking up the cry-
NO QUARTER!!!
-- "No Quarter", by Echo's Children

[Bob Schroeck]

A coworker just pointed me at this: 7 Bogus Grammar Errors You Don't Need To Worry About. I don't agree with everything in this article -- but most of it is eminently sensible to me.

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

[Bob Schroeck]

What Makes A Great Screenplay? -- Excellent advice not just for screenplays but all story-writing.

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

[Bob Schroeck]

Pixar's 22 Rules of Storytelling

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

[Bob Schroeck]

The 25 Greatest Quotes About Writing

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

[robkelk]

This has been floating around the web for a while - I think a copy belongs here, in the "Advice" column.


--
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

[robkelk]

Spotted on the SJGames forums:

7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding

The Rules of Quick and Dirty Worldbuilding
--
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]

The late Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing

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

[robkelk]

75 Contronyms

Some of them are a stretch (and I do believe the "contrary" meanings given for #27 are actually the same meaning), but it's worth a read-through.
--
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

[robkelk]

Poul Anderson's On Thud and Blunder - slightly dated, but not in any way that invalidates the points made.
--
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

[Black Aeronaut]

I recently began writing an SI. Unlike my other attempts, this is a straight-up SI like what we've been seeing come out of Space Battles lately. But that's not the point here...

The thing is, I made the classic blunder of doing a one-thousand word infodump from the get-go. Yeah, horrible, isn't it? Thing is, by the time I had it out of the way, I had such a head of steam that I kept chugging right along for another four-thousand words in that session.

That was a couple of weeks ago. I now have about 40k words of material. And I came to realize something important: as bad as a violation as that infodump was in the beginning, it did help me to nail down my own character-self.

In summary: infodumps may be bad for reading... but they are great for writing.

[Bob Schroeck]

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

[Bob Schroeck]

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

[Bob Schroeck]

Go here.

Read the advice.

Do the opposite.

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

[Rajvik]

Oh gods that's horrid. I love it.
 

[Seraviel]

A collection of tips coming from the author of Game Theory.

Read it.

http://docs.google.com/document/d/1gVU ... sgctTU/pub
-People may die, but ideas are forever. Je suis Charlie.

[Black Aeronaut]

This might be useful:
http://xkcd.com/1688/

A flow chart to determine the date of an undated world map.

How could this be useful?

If doing period fiction, this will let you determine the exact time frame you want dependent on what counties exist.

[Bob Schroeck]

Black Aeronaut wrote:

---

This might be useful:
http://xkcd.com/1688/

A flow chart to determine the date of an undated world map.

My first excursion through this tree led me to:
"'Colorado' or 'Danger-Radioactive Exclusion Zone-Avoid'?" ->(danger)-> "Does it mention the spiders?"
And then I saw things like "St. Trimble's Island" ->yes->"No, I made that one up" and then everything from "Can you see familiar continents?" on down...
I'd take this one with a grain of salt on the tip of a tongue in cheek...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

Everything I recognized is accurate, though.

Besides, it's by Randall Munroe - there's going to be some humour somewhere. "Are you sure this is a map?" ->yes-> "Did you make it yourself?" ->yes-> "It's very nice" ->Thank you->
--
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

[Niteflier]

On explainxkcd it provides a nice table to show the dates and countries listed.

[robkelk]

Stock your virtual reference shelf with legally-free PDFs of books published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

[Bob Schroeck]

In March, I sent you to Worst Muse on Twitter.

I now send you to Brooding YA Hero for how not to write your romantic leads.

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