Writing Resources

by louli Sat May 01, 2010 2:37 am

I noticed that ther was a lack of help 4 aspiring writers in this forum - ya know, a sticky containing a list of useful links & information - so I decided 2 start a thread on it with some links 2 some sites & forums dedicated 2 writing.

General writing help

NaNoWriMo's official website. For those of you who don't know, NaNoWriMo is an annual event where thousands of writers attempt to write a 50000 word novel in the month of November.

Its forum is an incredibly useful tool when writing anything. There are many sections with advice in them, and you can ask questions on specific things. You have to wait until November to register, though, I think, but reading the forums is more than good enough.

Limyaael's fantasy rants. Be warned, the rants often contain bad language and many of them discuss sexual orientation. Here are all of Limyaael's fantasy rants in order.

The Inkify Writers' Community is a very nice place to discuss the art of writing with other aspiring authors, and there you can find advice on worldbuilding, plotting and many other things.

Showcasing your work

Fiction Press is a website where aspiring writers of original fiction can post their work for criticism by other writers and readers. It is the sister site of FanFiction.net, a place for showcasing works of fiction based on existing works (such as books or television programmes), often referred to as "transformative works".

The Archive of Our Own fanfiction archive. AO3 is run by fans, for fans, and is one of the better places to showcase your fanfiction online. It's still in its open beta but it's very, very active. More information can be found at The Organization for Transformative Works. The current chair of the organisation is Naomi Novik, author of the fantasy series Temeraire.

Legal

Writer Beware, a site that deals with what to do when you have been scammed.

Predators and Editors, a "guide to publishers and services for serious writers."

A Guide to copyrights from CIPO. (Canadian Intellectual Property Office)

Character and plot realism

TVTropes Wiki is a very useful site dedicated to character types and various plot elements used in writing fiction. Don't be put off by its "TV" tropes name - it's very useful for anything that has characters and plots. Very useful.

Medical resources

Writer's Forensics Medical Lab contains a wealth of information and questions and answers in its archives.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Diseases Registry contains information on toxic substances and what they do to the body, as well as many diseases.

St John Ambulance on first aid.

History

The BBC on history. Very useful.

University of Washington Library contains many, many useful links on world and American history.

Science and technology

Technovelgy, a website where science and fiction come together

Physics Factbook is just that - a physics factbook.

Planet Math is an open source encyclopaedia for mathematics

Religion and spirituality

Sacred Texts has religious texts for many of the world's religions.

Ocean contains sacred texts and holy books for download.

Occultopedia's entries are brief, but they provide a good start on all things paranormal.

God Checker is basically a guide to various gods.

Encyclopedia Mythica is an encyclopaedia of the various gods, demons and "beings" of many of the world's cultures.

Miscellaneous

Pregnancy website. Informative.

Seventh Sanctum's name generators.

Online Conversion for conversions between metric and imperial. Does weight, length, distance et cetera.

Writing to get published is an article that might be useful to people trying to get published. Thanks to photoFreak for the link.