Writing Resources

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Writing Resources

Postby Kerusso » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:01 am

Let's face it, fellow writers, sometimes we just flat-out need help (I know I do), and while there are great tools out there, we may not know all of them. SO! List 'em. At least the ones you know. Be sure to check if someone else has already listed it- we don't need repeats.

I'll kick this off:

Seventh Sanctum: a website with loads of random generators, from fantasy names to plots, it's got just about everything.

TV Tropes: A lot of you probably know this one already, but just to be safe... this site is a gigantic category of "tropes," repeatedly used storytelling elements. The See the Index and How To pages are of particular note.

Character Development List: One is right here on the site, by our very own Darth Kirby, no less. Another one can be found on this site: http://www.bethamos.com/abcs.htm

Your turn! :grin:
Heaven is only Heaven because God is in it.

[color="YellowGreen"][/color]There's only one good thing about Mary Sues... they don't exist in real life.

Forcing religion, or any ideology for that matter, down someone's throat, is not that different from doing the same with a physical object: it's an unpleasant experience to the recipient, who will likely dislike you for it afterwards.
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Postby Maledicte » Tue Jul 05, 2011 11:29 am

http://writersdigest.com/GeneralMenu/ Lots of general essays and pointers.

http://www.springhole.net/quizzes/marysue.htm and http://www.ponylandpress.com/ms-test.html Mary Sue litmus tests. Do your part to prevent Mary Sues.
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Postby Destroyer2000 » Tue Jul 05, 2011 6:04 pm

And what exactly is a Mary Sue?
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Postby Maledicte » Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:02 pm

From TVTropes:

The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye color, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing.

She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her into their nakama, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal. She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favorite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc. Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarySue
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Postby the_wolfs_howl » Sat Jul 09, 2011 12:37 am

Ye Olde Dictionary :P When you know how to use it, and know better than to just look for the coolest-sounding synonym that's twice as long as the word you need.

Character-naming books and/or baby-naming books (which you can most definitely find in the nearest bookstore), if you're using real-world names. Alternatively, behindthename.com (personally, I like to browse in the book and look up specific names on the website)

[url=writingexcuses.com]Writing Excuses,[/url] an excellent writing podcast led by three published and famous-in-the-right-circles authors (one is a webcomic artist): Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler. They give great advice and are full of laughs. Best of all, their motto is "Fifteen minutes long, because you're in a hurry, and we're not that smart."

http://coyotecult.com/communities/sfandf_critters/references/limyaael.php - Tons and tons of rants about what not to do if you're writing fantasy. Usually it boils down to common sense, but they're good things to think about.
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Postby FllMtl Novelist » Mon Jul 11, 2011 5:50 pm

Maledicte (post: 1489270) wrote:http://writersdigest.com/GeneralMenu/ Lots of general essays and pointers.

You can learn a lot on that site. In particular I remember poring over maybe half the "Tip of the Day" articles they have. (Which I think they stopped updating a while back, unfortunately.)

I only recently heard of this site from and author's blog, and I expect it to be useful when I go to line edit my work.

And if we may mention books, this one is my personal favorite.

Dang, I wish the writing sites I have saved were more useful or weren't already mentioned. XD
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Postby the_wolfs_howl » Sat Jul 16, 2011 8:37 pm

FllMtl Novelist (post: 1490273) wrote:And if we may mention books, this one is my personal favorite.


That's the book I have! :jump: It's very helpful, isn't it? I find it a great way to figure out how to appropriately name my characters, which is a weakness of mine. Some of the sections are disappointingly sparse, but I guess that's what the internet is for.

Also, [url]grammar.quickanddirtytips.com[/url] is like heaven for Grammar Nazis like me :angel: It's a place where you can get real, solid, nitpicky grammar advice in an easy, conversational way. It's got major grammar stuff as well as little fiddly things that most people wouldn't care about, like whether you should say Thomas' or Thomas's when you're talking about something that belongs to Thomas.
You can find out things about the past that you never knew. And from what you've learned, you may see some things differently in the present. You're the one that changes. Not the past.
- Ellone, Final Fantasy VIII

Image

"There's a difference between maliciously offending somebody - on purpose - and somebody being offended by...truth. If you're offended by the truth, that's your problem. I have no obligation to not offend you if I'm speaking the truth. The truth is supposed to offend you; that's how you know you don't got it."
- Brad Stine
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Postby FllMtl Novelist » Mon Jul 18, 2011 8:09 pm

the_wolfs_howl (post: 1491260) wrote:That's the book I have! :jump: It's very helpful, isn't it? I find it a great way to figure out how to appropriately name my characters, which is a weakness of mine. Some of the sections are disappointingly sparse, but I guess that's what the internet is for.

Yes it is. :D I actually probably enjoy the naming process a lot, and this book makes it even more convenient and fun for me.

By the way, the list of livejournal rants you posted have been very interesting to read. I'm sure I'll enjoy Grammar Girl as well. Thanks for sharing! :)
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Postby Esoteric » Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:14 am

If aspiring authors learn nothing else, they should learn this:

http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/2880.html
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Postby ShiroiHikari » Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:34 am

Esoteric (post: 1491681) wrote:If aspiring authors learn nothing else, they should learn this:

http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/2880.html


Great read; thanks for that. I'm not entirely sure I fully understand the concept of "sequel" as he defines it yet, but I'm working on it.
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Postby FllMtl Novelist » Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:43 pm

Esoteric (post: 1491681) wrote:If aspiring authors learn nothing else, they should learn this:

http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/2880.html

That was a fabulous article to read. Very interesting. I think I'll read his post on scenes as well, it might help me better understand his distinction between them and 'sequels'.
Hats wrote:"Frodo! Cast off your [s]sins[/s] into the fire!"

EllaEdric 06:53 -IM SO UNEQUIPPED TO BE A MAN ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY.
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Postby Destroyer2000 » Wed Jul 20, 2011 6:09 am

FllMtl Novelist (post: 1491776) wrote:That was a fabulous article to read. Very interesting. I think I'll read his post on scenes as well, it might help me better understand his distinction between them and 'sequels'.


I agree; very good article. Now, a question: does anyone know of any useful map-creation tools?
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Postby uc pseudonym » Thu Jul 21, 2011 2:53 am

It depends what kind of map you want to create and if you're willing to spend money. I'm inclined to say it's not worth paying for anything unless you're into cartography, since for a professional-looking map you would want it hand-drawn in any case, but some people are very fond of Campaign Cartographer.

If you're interested in the scientific details (temperature, elevation, wind currents, etc) one program I've found easy to use is ProFantasy Fractal Terrains. While not truly accurate (worlds are complicated) it is much better than a "forest goes next to the desert" approach to maps. You can also create a random world from a seed, if you like that kind of thing. This is commercial software, but if you want a map for a story the free edition is probably good enough.

But if you want smaller maps, simplicity of use, or to set up everything yourself, I would recommend AutoREALM. Easy to draw your lines, put up some icons, and so on. Everything is vectored, so you can zoom in and out (the main reason you'd want to map on a computer, in my opinion).

Sorry for no links, but the names of those should all get you to the sites via Google.
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Postby Destroyer2000 » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:23 am

Thanks. Yes, it's for a story. I'm not the best artist...my stick figures beg me to kill them. So, I was hoping to find something useful along those lines.
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Postby the_wolfs_howl » Sat Jul 23, 2011 6:51 pm

Esoteric (post: 1491681) wrote:If aspiring authors learn nothing else, they should learn this:

http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/2880.html


Eso...as ever, you are my hero ^_^

Please excuse me while my brain asplodes and my writing is hopefully revolutionized forever.
You can find out things about the past that you never knew. And from what you've learned, you may see some things differently in the present. You're the one that changes. Not the past.
- Ellone, Final Fantasy VIII

Image

"There's a difference between maliciously offending somebody - on purpose - and somebody being offended by...truth. If you're offended by the truth, that's your problem. I have no obligation to not offend you if I'm speaking the truth. The truth is supposed to offend you; that's how you know you don't got it."
- Brad Stine
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Postby Destroyer2000 » Mon Jul 25, 2011 5:57 am

uc pseudonym (post: 1491966) wrote:It depends what kind of map you want to create and if you're willing to spend money. I'm inclined to say it's not worth paying for anything unless you're into cartography, since for a professional-looking map you would want it hand-drawn in any case, but some people are very fond of Campaign Cartographer.

If you're interested in the scientific details (temperature, elevation, wind currents, etc) one program I've found easy to use is ProFantasy Fractal Terrains. While not truly accurate (worlds are complicated) it is much better than a "forest goes next to the desert" approach to maps. You can also create a random world from a seed, if you like that kind of thing. This is commercial software, but if you want a map for a story the free edition is probably good enough.

But if you want smaller maps, simplicity of use, or to set up everything yourself, I would recommend AutoREALM. Easy to draw your lines, put up some icons, and so on. Everything is vectored, so you can zoom in and out (the main reason you'd want to map on a computer, in my opinion).

Sorry for no links, but the names of those should all get you to the sites via Google.


I'd like to recommend AutoREALM to anyone, as well. There is a bit of a learning curve, but it is a very interesting program. I've downloaded ProFantasy Fractal Terrains, but have yet to try it.
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[color="Red"]Distance is to Love as Wind is to Fire...it extinguishes the small, and ignites the great. - Unknown[/color]

[color="RoyalBlue"]“Falling in love with someone isn't always going to be easy... Anger... tears... laughter.. It's when you want to be together despite it all. That's when you truly love another. I'm sure of it.â€
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Postby Contrarian » Tue Aug 02, 2011 12:54 pm

how is there NOT Write Or Die here? :o

http://writeordie.com/
http://editminion.com/


NaNoWriMo, anyone? Or Script Frenzy?

TVTropes. It is pure joy.
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