50 of the Best Websites for Writers 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. 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 Media Bistro - This site is a good place to find freelance jobs online.
How to Plan your Publishing Business Before you explore author-publishing possibilities in this series, lets first have a look at your business plans as an author and the most important question: Why are you writing? Are you creating for yourself (as a hobby, just for the fun of writing) – or for an audience? . Can you answer these questions: how many books with the same topic / the same genre are on the market? If you’re producing work for an audience, it means: playing by at least some rules of the industrycaring what others think of your workestablishing an authors platform from which to communicateinteracting with your audience and being available to themdoing things not for your art, but out of service to your audienceputting on a performance, or adopting some kind of “brand”marketing your work and being visible . .Why should authors have a business plan? There’s no point to go without some kind of strategy in place if your objectives really are in building a writing career. . What makes your book so special? See On .
Welcome To The Page Of Generators! A 12-Day Plan of Simple Writing Exercises It’s the perfect time to restart your engine and get back into writing. Here, I offer up a 12-day plan of simple writing exercises to help you keep your creative juices flowing without eating up too much of your time. Follow this plan and in less than half a month, you’ll not only be impressed with what you’ve accomplished, but you may also have something worth publishing. The 12-Day Plan of Simple Writing Exercises Day 1: Write 10 potential book titles of books you’d like to write. Day 2: Create a character with personality traits of someone you love, but the physical characteristics of someone you don’t care for. Day 3: Write a setting based on the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen. Day 4: Write a letter to an agent telling her how wonderful you are. Day 5: Write a 20-line poem about a memorable moment in your life. Day 6: Select a book on your shelf and pick two chapters at random. Day 7: Write a letter to yourself telling you what you need to improve in the coming 6 months. Brian A.
Writing Trilogies & Keeping Track Of Characters Last year I attended a workshop taught by Anne Perry and I worked up the courage to ask her something I'd been wondering for years: how she keeps track of all her characters across her many series. Her answer: I remember them. This is a post for those of us without Anne Perry's prodigious memory. Laura Moore On How To Write A Successful Trilogy Author Laura Moore offers writers tips on writing a successful trilogy. Plan and plot like there's no tomorrow This advice may lead you to think Laura's a born plotter but not so. It ... helps if you can already have the first book in your series finished and have started the second when you make your deal with your publisher. ... Make lists of characters Make a list of characters for each book in the series. - name - age - physical traits - where he/she lives - quirks Laura writes: It’s fairly easy to keep the characters straight in a four hundred-page [novel]. Tags And Traits TAGS are words you hang upon your character when you describe them.
Not So Grand Cliche List #1 - A wedding takes place where the phrase "And if there's anyone present who can see why these two shouldn't be joined in marriage, speak now or forever hold your peace," is followed by a scene in which nobody holds their peace. (Corollary: It is a Universal Rule of Fantasy that the hero and his buddies, when attempting to stop a wedding between the hero's love interest and the villain, MUST choose the particular moment after that phrase is uttered, to launch their attack, --even if waiting to do so puts them at a strategic disadvantage.) #2. - The all-powerful wizard/seemingly unbeatable enemy turns out to be a mischievous child or a dinky old man behind a curtain. #3. - The villain's fortress starts to crumble around our heroes the moment he is defeated, leaving our heroes just barely enough time to escape before it collapses. #4. - The overly friendly (or, in some cases, vaguely menacing) bishop or church official turns out to actually be at the head of the evil cult. #15.
Worksheets for Writers The writing community is fortunate to have many great resources. Based on things I learned from phenomenal teachers like Larry Brooks, Michael Hauge, and Martha Alderson, I developed these worksheets* to help all writers, from plotters to pantsers (those who write by the seat of their pants). Let me know at my Contact page if there are other worksheets you’d like me to create. Sign up for my newsletter to receive my blog posts and hear about all additions I make to this page. * With the exception of the Save the Cat Beat Sheet, which was developed by Elizabeth Davis. New to Beat Sheets? Note: I love sharing these worksheets, but if you give others the direct links to the files, the links won’t work. (Click each image to view larger version.) Save the Cat Beat Sheet: This spreadsheet is based on Blake Snyder’s Save the Cat writing craft book. Save the Cat Beat Sheet Spreadsheet for Novels by Elizabeth Davis. Story Engineering Story Structure Beat Sheet: Jami Gold’s Basic Beat Sheet:
3 Minutes to Better Scrivener Chapter Headings | Gene Lempp ~ Writer Hi everyone! Today I have a great guest post from Ed Ditto on how to put extra spark into the presentation of our latest e-book extravaganza. Excellent to have you here Ed, take it away. Guest Post by Ed Ditto Since a correctly-constructed Kindle book opens to the first page of Chapter One, a reader’s first impression of your work often arises from your chapter heading. Does it look professional? What follows are three jazzed-up chapter headings for Scrivener users to reproduce or riff on. Note that what you’re about to read is Mac-oriented and assumes a basic working knowledge of Scrivener. 1) Simple and contemporary In this article I’ll be building headings for a novella with chapters named for the geographical locations in which they take place. Here’s the first design, the quickest and easiest one, as shown in the Kindle Previewer: Then I’ve hit the Formatting pane’s Section Layout button and entered the following placeholder tags under Title Prefix and Suffix: How do these tags work?
Brent Weeks | 1. General Writing Advice a. Tips b. Outlining c. Writer’s Block d. I.When is Enough, Enough? e. f. g. I. II. III. IV. h. i. a. i. I know a guy who hated even the thought of writing until he was 40, and since then he’s worked for Hollywood and written TV shows, movies, and novels. ii. b. i. Here’s the thing I do. You might find the book goes in a different direction than you thought it would. c. i. The first thing is to write the book. ii. I think Writer’s Block hits when you have either a lack of confidence in yourself, or in the story. See? d. As it so happens, as I write this, I’m deep into the process of editing, so this has been on my brain a lot. First, if you want to be a pro, act like a pro. If you’ve written the first draft, you’ve done something that thousands of people who say they want to be writers will never do. Done? Before, you had nothing. Re-read your book. When you see all the problems laid out in front of you in an honest fashion, you may despair. Have some faith in yourself. Done yet?