Phrase Thesaurus - ideas generator for writers | online thesaurus. Creative Thinking Tools. Five Open Source Apps For Writers and Authors. By Lisa Hoover - Jul. 17, 2009Comments (9) Even if you have the perfect idea for the next Great American Novel, getting it down on paper is never easy.
While you could always use standard word processors like OpenOffice Write or AbiWord, they don't have the bells and whistles that make writing books, manuals, and theses as easy as possible. Fortunately, there are a few open source applications that help budding authors get stories out of their heads and into the hands of readers.
Kabikaboo - This recursive writing assistant is perfect for managing large documents, technical manuals, and long novels. It arranges data in tree-form so parent modules, their children, and their grandchildren can be easily moved around and rearranged. Storybook - Any author or novelist will tell you writing a book is a complicated affair. Celtx - Many scriptwriters swear by Celtx, and with good reason. A ton of useful information about screenwriting from screenwriter John August. Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers. Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers. A Simple Novel Outline – 9 questions for 25 chapters « H.E. Roulo.
Just as every tree is different but still recognizably a tree, every story is different but contains elements that make it a story. By defining those before you begin you clarify the scope of your work, identify your themes, and create the story you meant to write. At Norwescon 2011 I sat in on a session called Outline Your Novel in 90-minutes led by Mark Teppo. I’ll give you the brief, readable, synthesized version.
Answer 9 questions and create 25 chapter titles and you’re there. Here are the 9 questions to create a novel: 1.) 2.) 3.) 4.) 5.) 6.) 7.) 8.) 9.) Now, with those 9 questions answered to your satisfaction, try to fill in a 25 chapter, 75,000 word outline. Chapters 7-18 are the middle of your book. Chapters 19-25 depict the heroic act to victory. Wasn’t that easy? Okay, sure, the work isn’t done yet. Using the idea that there are 25 chapters, I outlined my current work in progress. I hope that was helpful. Tell me what works for you. Related 6 Steps to Masterful Writing Critiques.
10 Ridiculously Simple Tips for Writing a Book. 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.
How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method. 11 Tips for Writing Success. Links for Aspiring Writers. The Seven Basic Plots: Christopher Booker Examines Common Narratives in Storytelling. According to the British journalist and author Christopher Booker, there are only seven ‘storylines’ in the world. In his book, The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, a work that took over forty years to write, Booker surveys world literature, outlining commonalities and showing that, although there are a multitude of tales and endless variety in the telling, all narratives are really variations of the basic seven. Booker’s work is detailed, interesting, and very long—over 700 pages—but his message is simple. Whether they represent the deep psychological structures of human experience or whether they are merely constructs of tradition, no matter what the story, you’ll find one or more of these basic plotlines: Rags to Riches Someone who has seemed to the world quite commonplace is shown to have been hiding a second, more exceptional self within.
Although it may seem reductive to restrict all narrative to these seven basic plots, it is actually quite instructive. Cure writer's block with writing prompts - writing tips character name generator. Jack Kerouac's Essentials of Spontaneous Prose If possible write "without consciousness" in semi-trance (as Yeats' later "trance writing") allowing subconscious to admit in own uninhibited interesting necessary and so "modern" language... 66 Writing Experiments 5. Tristan Tzara's hat: Everyone in a group writes down a word (alternative: phrase, line) and puts it in a hat.
Poem is made according to the order in which it is randomly pulled from hat... William S. The cutup is a mechanical method of juxtaposition in which Burroughs literally cuts up passages of prose by himself and other writers and then pastes them back together at random... Creative Writing Games. Writing Exercises Meredith Sue Willis Author and Teacher. More Free Writing Exercises below and here : Exercises 1- 20 Exercises 21- 40 Exercises 41 - 60 Exercises 61-80 Exercises 81-100 Exercises 101 - 120 Exercises 121 - 140 Exercises 141 - 160 Exercises 161 - 180 Exercises 181 - 200 Exercises 201 - 240 Exercises 241 - 260 Point-of-View Characters Whose Gender Is Not Yours We had a discussion in my Advanced Novel Writing Class at NYU about the difficulty of capturing a character who is of a different gender from yourself.
Writing about people unlike yourself– by race, ethnic group, age, and certainly gender or sexual preference– is always a big challenge, but also of great interest to a creative writer. One class member spoke of an excellent contemporary novel written by a woman and narrated by a man. The class member said he admired the book but that it was only about 98% believable as a male narrator. That is, of course, pretty darn good. Exercise #261 Exercise #262 Exercise #263 Exercise #264 Exercise #265 Exercise #266 Exercise #267. How to improve writing skills with writing exercises. Descriptive Writing Prompts [Slideshow] About Descriptive Writing Prompts Descriptive writing prompts can be useful tools for overcoming writer's block or simply getting you in the habit of practicing writing on a daily basis. In descriptive writing, the goal is to make the reader feel as though he is part of the scene.
You will be encouraged to write using figurative language, active verbs, sensory adjectives, and vivid modifiers. Use the following selection of descriptive writing prompts to help you get started on your next writing project. Describing the Villian Imagine this person will be the villain in a short story that you are writing. Writing Exercises. 11 Tips for Writing Success. Creative Writing | Writing Tips | Writing Forward.