Creative Writing Prompts Write a scene that includes a character speaking a different language, speaking in a thick accent, or otherwise speaking in a way that is unintelligibe to the other characters. (Note: You don't necessarily need to know the language the character is speaking—be creative with it!) Describe a character's reaction to something without explaining what it is. See if your fellow prompt responders can guess what it is. Write a story or a scene about one character playing a prank on another. Describe the scene from both characters' points of view. Writing Prompt: Write a story that involves confusion over homonyms (words that have the same spelling but different meanings) or homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently). For World Storytelling Day, share the best story you've ever heard or told by word of mouth, or have a fictional character recount their favorite story. You're making your way down a cobbled street when a stocky, red-bearded man beckons you into an alley.
50 Awesome Open Source Resources for Writers and Writing Majors With the popularity of blogging and online journals, writers working in the online realm have a growing number of opportunities all the time to practice and refine their craft, and maybe even get paid for it. And if you’re a writing major, why not take advantage of all the opportunities to get great free and open source resources that can help you to write, edit and organize your work? Here’s a list of fifty open source tools that you can use to make your writing even better. Word Processors Why pay for expensive word processing programs when you can get high quality and open source alternatives for much less? yWriter: This word processor is designed especially for writers. Reference Everyone needs a little help with spelling and grammar now and again, and these programs can get you on the right track. JaLingo: This OS independent program allows users to easily look up words in a dictionary right from their desktop, whether they have an Internet connection or not. Organization Helpful Tools
List of human emotions. List of feelings. I put this list of emotions and feelings together some years ago for use in my counselling sessions. I was aware that men in particular (though of course not exclusively) often struggled to articulate their feelings. I thought it could help to give them a list of emotions and feelings to guide them towards identifying specifically what they felt. Prof. Simon Baron Cohen, in his book “The Essential Difference”, talks about 'empathising' brains and 'systemising' brains. Men are more likely to have systemising brains while women are more like to have empathising brains. The 'emphasisers' are more 'in touch' with their feelings and so can more easily pinpoint the particular emotions they are experiencing at any time. This can mean that women are generally more able to identify and talk about their feelings than men. Of course, I learned over time that sometimes roles are switched. Oh and by the way... clients couldn't care less about the difference between emotions and feelings!
Fiction Writer Character Chart If you're a fiction writer -- whether you're working on a novel, short story, screenplay, television series, play, web series, webserial, or blog-based fiction -- your characters should come alive for your reader or audience. The highly detailed chart below will help writers develop fictional characters who are believable, captivating, and unique. Print this page to complete the form for each main character you create. IMPORTANT: Note that all fields are optional and should be used simply as a guide; character charts should inspire you to think about your character in new ways, rather than constrain your writing. If this character chart is helpful, please let us know! Looking for more character questionnaires / charts?
Writing Prompts, Blogging Prompts, Story Topic Generators, Photo Inspiration Writing : Creative Writing & Blogging Prompts Topic Starters, Picture Prompts, and Thought-Provoking Questions for You to Answer "The best learning comes in the doing, and writing from prompts engenders doing."— Judy Reeves Many writers and bloggers seek out articles, prompts, and story starters to get their creative juices flowing. We've also listed recommended resources outside of our domain featuring more free writing prompts, story starters, daily writing exercises, visual art prompts, and writing topic generators. Writing & Photo Prompts, Tools, & Generators on Creativity Portal "Novels, short stories, flash fictions, memoirs, personal narrative and creative nonfiction, even poetry — all have found publication from their start as writing prompts." — Judy Reeves Take Ten for Writers Exercises Get creative with these exercises from Bonnie Neubauer's Take Ten for Writers! Brickstorming Your Legacy Brick What would you write on your legacy brick in 3 lines with 14 characters each?
yWriter5 - Free novel writing software to help you write a book What is yWriter? yWriter is a powerful writing program which is free to download and use. yWriter is a word processor which breaks your novel into chapters and scenes, helping you keep track of your work while leaving your mind free to create. It will not write your novel for you, suggest plot ideas or perform creative tasks of any kind. yWriter was designed by an author, not a salesman! yWriter5 is free to download and use, but you're encouraged to register your copy if you find it useful. If you're just embarking on your first novel a program like yWriter may seem like overkill. (Although yWriter was designed for novels, enterprising users have created their own translation files to customise the program to work with plays, non-fiction and even sermons.) Out now! I'm Simon Haynes, the designer and programmer. I really struggled with my first novel because I wrote slabs of text into a big word processor file and I just couldn't make sense of the whole thing at once. Categories:
Links for Writers Why have a separate section for “word processing software”? Why not just put it all under “writing software”? Word processing software is writing software by definition, of couse, and much of the software in the “writing software” section above might equally be categorised as word processors. The main difference drawn here is that a word processor is usually used for writing and printing the final document; it shows on screen exactly what you will see when you print. The applications in the “writing software” section are more about developing ideas and getting the words down. Some users may use one of those applications right up to and including printing; many will use one of the dedicated writing applications in conjunction with a word processor, hammering out the first draft in one of the programs above and then exporting it to a word processor for final revisions and formatting. Nisus Writer (Pro) Mellel Bean Mariner Write
StoryToolz : Resources for Authors 150 Resources to Help You Write Better, Faster, and More Persuasively It doesn't matter if you're a student or a professional writer: there's always something new to learn and ways to make your writing more refined, better researched, and more effective. Writing is essential for students who want to succeed, whether they're enrolled in one of the top online colleges or an Ivy League university. As essential as it is, learning to write well isn't easy. The best practices for writing and research can sometimes be subjective, and the finer points of syntax and style often take a backseat to looming deadlines and strict citation guidelines. Luckily, there are many helpful resources that make it easier to build on your existing skills while learning new ones. Blogs These blogs can help you learn more about the profession of writing, brush up your skills, and even see what it takes to get a book published. Copyblogger: On Copyblogger, Brian Clark offers tips on how to improve the content, marketing, and business of a blog. Business and Legal Matters Genres Rhetoric
Dark Room | they.misled.us Dark Room is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, Dark Room is just about you and your text. Basically, Dark Room is a clone of the original WriteRoom that is an OS X (tiger) exclusive application. It is a child of necessity, as there were no viable alternatives in Windows to produce the same behavior. Sure, you can kind of emulate the behavior by jumping through a bunch of hoops in Word/Writer, but it isn’t the same. Also, you can do something similar in emacs, but who wants to learn a bunch of obscure keyboard shortcuts? The goal of the project is to capture the essence of WriteRoom, while keeping it simple and just as free. Windows XP / 2000 / 2003 .NET Framework 2.0 File Menu Clear Document: Ctrl+N Open Document: Ctrl+O Save Document: Ctrl+S Quit: Ctrl+Q Edit Menu Undo: Ctrl+Z Redo: Ctrl+Y Cut: Ctrl+X Copy: Ctrl+C Paste: Ctrl+V Select All: Ctrl+A Find: Ctrl+F Find Next: F3 Preferences: Ctrl+, View Menu Statistics: Ctrl+/ 0.7.6.2b