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100 Most Beautiful Words In The English Language. Tips for posting to a Facebook Fan Page using an iPhone or iPad. Novelists, Inc. So, What Is This Thing Anyway … and Why? Download A Comprehensive Guide to the New World of Publishing The clock on my microwave isn’t still blinking 12:00, I’m not quite that bad. I mean, I can learn. But over the years I’ve decided two things. One, if I ever wrote an instruction manual, it would be in Simple Language that didn’t make me feel stupid if I didn’t know going-in what a left-handed flange is. And two, there are more of me out there than there are left-handed flange experts! When I approached the Ninc board with my idea for the Ninc Binder, it was with the idea that it would be written by experts for non-experts, with the caveat that if I didn’t understand something, chances were that lots of other people wouldn’t understand it either. But, oh my, look what they came up with: A Glossary of terms, right there at the beginning, and written in language that doesn’t have you hunting up a dictionary in order to understand the definition.

And that’s the real beauty of the thing! Navigation Guide to About.com Grammar & Composition - How to Find the Article, Exercise, Essay, or Quiz You're Looking For. Since it began in 2006, About.com Grammar & Composition has grown to well over 4,000 pages. Unfortunately, finding the page you're looking for can be a challenge, so the aim of this article is to help you navigate the site. Search Box The best starting point is usually the search box near the top-right of each page. As long as we're using the same terms, the About.com search engine is fairly effective. (If you're ever misdirected, click the back button on your browser and try again with a related term.) Tabs Somewhat less helpful are the four horizontal tabs at the top of (almost) every page: The links on these pages take you to the most popular articles in some of the major categories, but the lists are not comprehensive. Categories For a full site directory, look for the vertical list of 13 categories, beginning with "Writing Tips" and ending with "Grammar & Rhetoric Glossary.

" Final word of warning. Thank you for visiting About.com Grammar & Composition. Dr. Grammar and Composition - Homepage of About Grammar and Composition.

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Zotero | Home. FrontPage. Special Collections Created by ipl2. UW-Madison Writing Center Writer's Handbook: index. Online Writing Materials: About Online Writing Materials. KU Writing Center. UW Madison Writing Center. Welcome to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) Writing Tips. National Novel Writing Month - StumbleUpon. 50 of the Best Websites for Writers - StumbleUpon.

There are tons of reference sites on the web that can help you find a job or write a poem, essay or story. Here is a list of the best 50 websites for writers. Reference Websites Merriam-Webster Online - Merriam Webster is the perfect place to look up words and find information. The site offers a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, podcasts, word games and a lot of other things that may be of interest to writers and word-lovers.

General Writing Websites Writer's Digest - Probably one of the best all-around websites for writers, Writer's Digest offers information on writing better and getting published. Fiction Writing Websites About.com - About.com publishes a Guide to Fiction Writing with general information about fiction writing and a number of community forums for both current and aspiring writers. Nonfiction Writing Websites Bella Online - This site offers a large collection of resources for nonfiction writers. Websites for Freelance Writers and Authors. Writing Community for Writers, Readers and Literary Agents. Submit Works, Read & Rate Writings.

Read and Rate New Writers Online. Short Works &First Pages. - StumbleUpon. Short stories, teen writing, teen writers, teen fiction, teen short stories, short stories by teens. Fifty (50!) Tools which can help you in Writing. How I Make My Living as an Online Writer (And How You Could Too) (Photo by Antonina, a fantastic London contemporary portrait photographer) The end of this month will mark three years since I left my day job. Since then, I’ve been supporting myself through writing. It’s my dream career – and I love being able to set my own hours, work from home, and have a huge amount of flexibility and freedom.

I haven’t written much here on Aliventures about how exactly I actually make money. Maybe you suspect that there’s some amazing secret skill involved, or some sort of dark art. But there really isn’t. And … if you want to … there’s no reason why you can’t do exactly the same as me. In short, I have a bunch of different revenue streams that bring in cash every month. I’ll start with the ones that were easiest to get going with, and work up to the methods that take a bit more time… #1: Paid Writing for Blogs (2008 onwards) This is how I started out, in early 2008. My family and friends find it bizarre that I can get paid to write for blogs. Learn more: Whew! Top 3 Tips To Make Your E-Newsletter A Success.

If you want people to actually read your e-newsletter instead of deleting it from their inbox, you need to make it worth their time. You need to provide a valuable and useful gift. That means NO “free” white papers on “how to make make your Twitter account reach 10,000 followers”. Make good use of the law of reciprocity and provide something really useful and free to your e-mail recipients. What kind of rewards can you give? Shutterfly’s Wink is the king of e-mail newsletters that include a freebie. Here are the top 3 tips to make your e-newsletter a success: 1. What is the purpose of your e-mail newsletter? 2. Show how real people make actual use of your services. 3. Make sure you readers understand how your nonprofit helps the community and how they can join you, whether it is through volunteering or a donation. Transmission Model of Communication.

Introduction Here I will outline and critique a particular, very well-known model of communication developed by Shannon and Weaver (1949), as the prototypical example of a transmissive model of communication: a model which reduces communication to a process of 'transmitting information'. The underlying metaphor of communication as transmission underlies 'commonsense' everyday usage but is in many ways misleading and repays critical attention. Shannon and Weaver's model is one which is, in John Fiske's words, 'widely accepted as one of the main seeds out of which Communication Studies has grown' (Fiske 1982: 6). Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver were not social scientists but engineers working for Bell Telephone Labs in the United States.

C & W's original model consisted of five elements: An information source, which produces a message. For the telephone the channel is a wire, the signal is an electrical current in it, and the transmitter and receiver are the telephone handsets. Metaphors. 73 Ways to Become a Better Writer. How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me) - Austin Kleon - StumbleUpon. Wednesday, March 30th, 2011 Buy the book: Amazon | B&N | More… Here’s what a few folks have said about it: “Brilliant and real and true.”

—Rosanne Cash“Filled with well-formed advice that applies to nearly any kind of work.” Read an excerpt below… Tags: steal like an artist. Getting NaNoWriMo Done: How to Write a Novel in 30 Days. With November 1st almost upon us, NaNoWriMo is set to begin. There are plenty of tools to help budding novelists achieve the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days, but what about the reasons behind committing to such a daunting task in the first place? Surely, many of those taking on the challenge have other priorities that they have to deal with – myself included – so adding on the pressure of pushing through those commitments and the occasional bout of writer’s block is going to take herculean effort, right? Well, yes…and no. Just as there are many people who have yet to give NaNoWriMo a try, there are many who have – and have met the challenge while maintaining a modicum of their regular lives (and sanity) in the process. There are those who have taken on the challenge and have fell by the wayside again, myself included), but there are things you can do to keep you on track to finally typing “The End” at the end of your rapidly-created opus.

Set Up Rituals While Writing Wash my face. Keep. 25 Things Every Writer Should Know. An alternate title for this post might be, “Things I Think About Writing,” which is to say, these are random snidbits (snippets + tidbits) of beliefs I hold about what it takes to be a writer. I hesitate to say that any of this is exactly Zen (oh how often we as a culture misuse the term “Zen” — like, “Whoa, that tapestry is so cool, it’s really Zen“), but it certainly favors a sharper, shorter style than the blathering wordsplosions I tend to rely on in my day-to-day writing posts. Anyway. Peruse these. Absorb them into your body. Let your colonic flora digest them and feed them through your bloodstream to the little goblin-man that pilots you.

Feel free to disagree with any of these; these are not immutable laws. Buckle up. 1. The Internet is 55% porn, and 45% writers. 2. A lot of writers try to skip over the basics and leap fully-formed out of their own head-wombs. 3. 4. I have been writing professionally for a lucky-despite-the-number 13 years. 5. Luck matters. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Eight Secrets Which Writers Won’t Tell You. Image from Flickr by Lazurite This is not particularly relevant to the post, but I’m getting an awful lot of comments telling me, often a little snarkily, “it’s ‘THAT’ not ‘WHICH’”. The “don’t use which for restrictive clauses” rule comes (as far as I can tell) from Strunk and White.

Plenty of authors, including Austen, have used “which” exactly as I use it in the title. It’s very commonly used like this here in England, so I’m guessing my comments are coming from US readers. There was never a period in the history of English when “which” at the beginning of a restrictive relative clause was an error. I thought about putting “that” in the title – but I like the sound of “which” between “secrets” and “writers”.

And with that out of the way, enjoy the post! A few years ago, I’d look at published writers and think that they were somehow different from me. They were real writers. I’m going to go through eight secrets. Secret #1: Writing is Hard The truth is, though, that writing is hard.

Romance Writing

The Writing Process: From Idea To Print - StumbleUpon. Interactive Fiction: Playing, Studying and Writing Text Adventure Games (Dennis G. Jerz, Seton Hill University) Your personal homepage. Nowadays, we are all content creators. Whether it's work or a school project, the next blog post, or even that next tweet, we all suffer from writer's block from time to time. Traditional advice suggests taking a break from your monitor and getting some fresh air. That's great old school advice, but it isn't a useful suggestion for anyone tied to their computer. We've pulled together some top ideas, tools and services for beating writer's block in an online environment, so you can break through that barrier without leaving your desk. Have a read below for our quick tips to help you beat writer's block online and let us know in the comments about any methods that have worked for you. 1.

Staring at your choice of word processing program is not likely to inspire you. Alternatively, music can help with creativity, but don't just hit play on the usual suspects. Images can also trigger a creative response. 2. 3. 4. 5. Two brains are better than one. More Productivity Resources from Mashable: The Independent Author Network - Home at IAN. The Creative Writing MFA Blog. 10 Commandments for a Happy Writer by Nathan Bransford. Writers aren't generally known as the happiest lot. As a recent Guardian survey of some top writers shows, even the best ones don't particularly enjoy it all that much. And in case you think this is a new development, an 1842 letter from Edgar Allen Poe to his publisher recently surfaced in which he was found apologizing for drinking so much and begging for money. But believe it or not, writing and happiness can, in fact, go together. For our Thursday entry in Positivity Week, here are ten ways for a writer to stay positive: 1.

Enjoy the present. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Nathan Bransford is the author of JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW, a middle grade novel about three kids who blast off into space, break the universe, and have to find their way back home, which was published by Dial Books for Young Readers in May 2011. Make your own book. Make it great. Guide to publishing a successful ebook. Tweet Mashup image by Mike Licht on Flickr … and Renoir. And 7 services that let you earn income for your works Target audience: Authors, journalists, researchers, nonprofits, cause organizations, NGOs, educators, Web publishers. By Kim Bale Socialbrite Senior Writer Becoming a published author is easier now than it’s ever been, particularly if you’ve got the itch to write an ebook. If you’re a nonprofit or a social cause organization, think about some of the materials, studies and reports that you’ve produced and consider whether they can be organized into an ebook that offers value to the community.

Google’s entry into the ebooks marketplace last week will likely provide new opportunities for authors and readers, given that its open platform is not tied to a proprietary ebook reader. In an effort to make sense of the e-publishing landscape, we’ve compiled this list of user-friendly websites guaranteed to help your ebook reach an interested audience. Smashwords: 25,000 ebooks on the shelf. Self Publish a Book - Lulu.com. General Fiction. Getting Around... Career Essentials Getting Started Queries & Manuscripts Market Research Classes & Conferences Critiquing Crafting Your Work Grammar Guides Research/Interviewing Writing Contests The Writing Business Income & Expenses Selling Reprints Collaboration Pseudonyms Negotiating Contracts Setting Fees/Getting Paid Rights & Copyright Tech Tools The Writing Life The Writing Life Rejection/Writer's Block Health & Safety Time ManagementColumn: Ramblings on the Writing Life Fiction Writing - General General Techniques Characters & Viewpoint Dialogue Setting & DescriptionColumn: Crafting Fabulous Fiction Fiction Writing - Genres Children's Writing Mystery Writing Romance Writing SF, Fantasy & Horror Flash Fiction & More Nonfiction Writing General Freelancing Columns & Syndication Newspapers/Journalism Topical Markets Travel Writing Photography Creative Nonfiction Memoirs/Biography International Freelancing Business/Tech Writing Other Topics Poetry & Greeting Cards Screenwriting.

Online Rhyming Dictionary for Poetry and Songwriting. Poem Starters and Creative Writing Ideas. Enter your e-mail to get the e-book for FREE. We'll also keep you informed about interesting website news. "I have searched the web and used different worksheets, but none have come close to your worksheets and descriptions of (what to do and what not to do). Both courses I have taken have with Creative Writing Now have been amazing. Each time I have learned something new. The one thing I love, you take everything apart and give examples. " - Katlen Skye "As usual - I already love the course on Irresistible Fiction, rewriting a lot and improving greatly even after the first lesson.

Thanks so much for the great courses. " - Kitty Safken “Essentials of Fiction proved that I could indeed write and I wrote every day, much to my boyfriend's dismay (waa sniff).” - Jill Gardner "I am loving the course and the peer interaction on the blog is fantastic!!! " "I'm enjoying the weekly email course, Essentials of Poetry Writing. "Thank you for all the material in this course. "I'm learning so much. Save The Words - StumbleUpon. Synonym Finder & Find synonyms, antonyms & definition for (almost)... - StumbleUpon. The Alphabetizer puts just about any list in alphabetical order. ... - StumbleUpon. Writing. FREE Online Rhyming Dictionary.

Urban Dictionary, January 19: Premature exasperation. Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus - An online thesaurus and dictionary of over 145,000 words that you explore using an interactive map. Visuwords™ online graphical dictionary and thesaurus. About WordNet - WordNet - About WordNet.

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