Fantasy World News Generator - 24-Hour Mirror-Universe News from Another World Woodmist hits five-year low, pay growth matches inflation Britannia's unemployment rate fell more than expected and pay growth caught up with inflation for the first time in nearly four years. Sterling jumped and royal debt prices fell after scribe statistics showed the unemployment rate sank to a five-year low of 6.9 percent in the three months to Darkweb, down from 7.2 percent in the three months to Copperrayn. That was below the 7 percent level originally set by the Dreamglass of Britannia for considering an increase in interest rates. The Dreamglass has since given fresh guidance about when it might start to tighten monetary conditions. Snakerope than 300 people missing after gold dragon ferry sinks: coastguard Almost 300 people were missing after a ferry sank off Lizardspire on Wednesday, the coastguard said, in what could be the land's biggest peacetime disaster in nearly 20 years. Treesteels show force in skyward the Tower of Mirrors before talks
Timothy Hallinan - Writer's Resources Finishing Your Novel “A writer is someone who finishes.” -- Thomas Farber This section is for you if: You’ve started a novel but are having trouble finishing it, or You want to start a novel but aren’t sure you’ll be able to finish it. I’ve been writing novels (and teaching about writing novels) for twenty years, and one thing I’ve learned is how to finish. This section is about how to handle those things. Finishing a novel (or any kind of writing project) is a transformational experience. A long time ago, something funny happened to me. I thought I was a writer. And then my house burned down. So I made some notes on the book I remembered best, flew to Thailand, and wrote the whole thing in seven weeks. This area of the site is based on what I've learned since then.
d20 Modern Character Generator d20 Modern Character Generator This little program is my gift to my fellow-gamers, and my way of saying "thank you" to the hobby's developers. Over a quarter-century, I have enjoyed a cordial relationship with people at TSR/WOTC. This big javascript program runs best on "Netscape" browsers. If you want to save your character's html file to your hard drive, Netscape seems to work better. Please be sure your browser is javascript-enabled. Please accept my apologies if this large program fails to load on your computer. So far, this usually seems to work okay on Netscape, but is slower on Explorer. I have fixed the way action points are calculated (6/11). It will eventually be possible to select mutation damage boost and the psionic mutations more than once each. d20 Future abilities are still under development. Feats: Placed. Dark Matter material is still under development. Eventually I may add the CyberRaver gray wealth. Much of their enduring appeal is the focus on right and wrong.
Story Starters & Idea Generators One of the best ways to break through writer's block or stretch your writing skills is to pick a story starter and just start writing. Suggestions on how to use each generator are included with the generator. Caveat: There's always a temptation to keep looking for the "perfect" idea, but then you need to ask yourself...are you really just trying to avoid writing? Problem: You can't get a story started Solution: Archetype's Plot Scenario Generator What it is: This generator provides you with the event that gets the story rolling and a secondary conflict to keep you going! Problem: Your characters lack depth Solution: Archetype's Character Generator What it is: A quick character sketch filled with the kinds of little details that makes stories engaging: character gender, cardinal traits, weaknesses, and most prized possession. Problem: Your characters don't feel like "real" people Solution: Archetype's Everyday Problems Generator Looking for something you don't see? Getting Yourself Started
Random Plot Generator You can hit your browser's Reload button for another set of plot ideas, though that's not the point of the exercise. Advice for the Evil Overlord: I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat. Advice for the Hero: People who whine about not being trusted are either (a.) Advice for the Bad Auxiliary Character (Alien or Monster on the Rampage): Don't climb tall buildings to evade capture unless you can fly from the top. Advice for the Good Auxiliary Character (Innocent Bystander): Evil Overlords' friendly overtures are never sincere. Further Evil (Advice for the Evil Empress): The appearance of weakness can be as useful as the appearance of strength. Murphy's Laws of Combat: A grenade with a seven-second fuse will always burn down in four seconds.
The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes Starting anything new involves mistakes. Tons of them, if you plan on being good. Although you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, there are a few that often go ignored. These mistakes accompany the first phase of anything and it is easy to repeat them in everything new that you do. I don’t claim to be immune to these mistakes. Motivation is necessary to start anything new. I’ve made this mistake dozens of times before. Long-term goals are great, but it’s the next-step goals that really matter. More correctly, too much false knowledge. It isn’t a sin to say, “I don’t know.” I’m privileged enough to have a journal that has recorded my highly erroneous predictions. It’s scary to start something new. How do you know what will work? When I commented that I exercised almost daily, many people informed me that this was bad. A lot of self-help is concerned with people giving up too early. Just because something is difficult, doesn’t mean it needs to be complicated.
Writing Inspiration, or Sex on a Bicycle | CornerScribe Writing Inspiration, or Sex on a Bicycle I don’t know about you, but I get inspired by all sorts of things, many of them downright weird. I love to listen to people talk. Or the quote that kept running through my head last week. Sometimes I think about the people I’ve known, the stories I tell. Or how about the coworker who married a woman he’d seen in person off and on for a week; she worked at a resort where he was staying. Or my grandmother, the mother of nine children, about twenty years from oldest to youngest. Or our family friend, who totaled her husband’s car because she was sick of his drinking. I bet you’ve got some stories that would make great stories as well.
Creative Acceleration: 11 Tips to Engineer a Productive Flow Focus is essential to getting work done. If you can’t engineer a productive flow to your work, everything crawls to the finish. Tasks become a sluggish crawl to the finish that is both inefficient and almost painful to work through. Any writer that has felt writers block or a programmer stuck on a difficult problem can probably relate from experience. Focus is also critical for quality. Athletes often describe it as “being in the zone” the sensation where self and time disappear and 100% concentration is devoted to the game. Getting into this state isn’t always easy. Eliminate Distractions - This may sound obvious, but it is easily forgotten. This website is supported, in part, by affiliate arrangements (usually Amazon). Debate is fine, flaming is not.
Busting Your Writing Rut {*style:<i>(Reprinted from Writer’s Digest) by Linda Formichelli </i>*} The business article came out great, but I was stuck for an ending. My sense of wordplay wasn’t the only thing stuck in a rut — even my article ideas were getting frayed from overuse. Not that reusing ideas is inherently bad. But what’s good for the pocketbook isn’t necessarily good for the soul. Hoping to leap out of my writer’s rut, I started checking around for advice. Two other writers and I came up with a game to rev up the idea generating process. Another way I break out of writing ruts is to check out magazines that I wouldn’t normally read. I’m a freelance writer. So one day, I surprised myself — and gave my writing a shot of adrenaline — by signing up for karate classes. On top of all that, my new diversion got the idea wheels churning, and I ended up selling an article on the benefits of martial arts to a women’s fitness mag. Taking a break doesn’t always require a lot of free time and cash.
Solve Your Problems Simply by Saying Them Out Loud How many times have you gone through explaining a problem to a friend, and before he could say a word about it you had already figured out the solution by yourself? The very act of explaining a problem out loud can, by itself, be enough to solve it. How can this deceptively simple strategy work so well? How can we leverage it, transforming it in a problem-solving technique we can use at anytime? The Magic Behind Explaining Problems Out Loud Communicating your problems out loud has several advantages over silently thinking about them: 1. In order to put your problem in a communicable form you must clarify it, stating it in objective terms. Putting your problem in words will tremendously help you grasp it: language is not only a tool of communication as many believe, but also a tool of thought (for more on that, check ‘Top 3 Reasons to Improve Your Vocabulary‘). 2. Explaining your problem to someone else is particularly effective when you assume no knowledge on the other person’s part. 3.