Writers Writing Resources

[AZimmer23]

One resource I find fairly useful is the website Write it Sideways. It was founded by a woman residing in Australia and while it is not genre specific, there are a lot of great tips by her and other writers, as well as opportunities to submit excerpts for critique by the community. I have yet to see a sci-fi or fantasy excerpt, but I highly doubt that the site would turn one away.

Anyway, the site has a lot of great advice on everything from overcoming writer's block to fleshing out characters to getting published.

I apologize if I am repeating something said earlier; I'm new to the site and haven't looked at every entry in this thread.

Cheers!

[AZimmer23]

On Writing by Stephen King - more autobiographical, but it's also inspiring too. He does talk about his personal views on writing, some of it makes pretty good sense.

I'm not a huge King fan, but this book really helped me out in more ways than one. Specifically, the sections in which he talks about his alcohol and drug addiction reverberated with me most soundly. He first debunks the myth of writing and booze going hand-in-hand stating that such an idea was primarily based on Hemingway and Fitzgerald (amongst others) and neither of them had happy endings.

I have struggled with drug addiction in the past and am recently sober and I have found that I am actually a much, much better writer when my system is clean and my brain free of fog.

But that is not the only reason the book is a fantastic resource. King points out so many little things that can make all the difference. I highly recommend it.

Also, it's not a long read; it can easily be consumed over a few evenings or a weekend.

[zachariah]

For all you historical naval fantasy fans, this is about as exhaustive a list of old warship parts as you could wish to see.

[zachariah]

It's kind of depressing that spammers are probably the ones most likely to be at the forefront of AI research.

[tmso]

Didn't notice, Kerlinda was still at it. Banned.

[tmso]

Hey, psikeyhackr posted this over in the science fiction forum, but this article on neuroscience made me realize all the things about writing all my writing teachers have told me in the past is absolutely true. The words we choose should strive to evoke an emotional response. For good reason. It turns out when we read, it is like experiencing it in real life. Instinctively, I guess I already knew that, but it is neat to see science back that up.

[sullivan_riyria]

I recently read King's "On Writing" and was amazed at the similarities between what he does and myself. In particular writing in the morning to lunch and taking long walks to work stuff out. In particular the little write up about his accident is some of the best writing I've seen by anyone...emotional...well written. Just reading that is a great example of how to write well.

[kennychaffin]

One resource I find fairly useful is the website Write it Sideways. It was founded by a woman residing in Australia and while it is not genre specific, there are a lot of great tips by her and other writers, as well as opportunities to submit excerpts for critique by the community. I have yet to see a sci-fi or fantasy excerpt, but I highly doubt that the site would turn one away.

Anyway, the site has a lot of great advice on everything from overcoming writer's block to fleshing out characters to getting published.

I apologize if I am repeating something said earlier; I'm new to the site and haven't looked at every entry in this thread.

Cheers!

Thanks for that!

[Cirias]

I have recently published the first part of a series on creating fantasy maps in GIMP. You can check it out here.

[secluded]

Premodern weapons. Some are only descriptions, but most have images.
Here

[EricaW]

I recently read King's "On Writing" and was amazed at the similarities between what he does and myself. In particular writing in the morning to lunch and taking long walks to work stuff out. In particular the little write up about his accident is some of the best writing I've seen by anyone...emotional...well written. Just reading that is a great example of how to write well.

I liked the book as well. He had lots of interesting insights about what to be on guard against and how to approach things without being heavy handed and saying you HAVE to do it a certain way. The bits about his own life were interesting as well. I'm not a big reader of Horror, but I find myself wanting to read some of his books now.

[AZimmer23]

I've often professed to dislike King, but honestly, I think that spawned from jealousy. I don't like everything he does like some folks, but his Dark Tower series is amazing and I grew up on some of his stuff like Dead Zone and Firestarter. Gee, I wonder where I learned all that colorful language?

I found "On Writing" the best book on the subject so far. Not that there aren't others out there worth reading.

[theonefirestorm]

kalitara, this particular thread is not the right place to ask that question. The intention of this thread is to provide a place to list resources for writers to assist with their craft.

I would suggest you search the Writing forums for agent-related topics. I don't think you're likely to find someone who will just pop up names for you, however. It's a bit harder than that to find an agent willing to represent your work, I'm afraid.

SO the point is this thread is a for people to post what can help them in writing a book?

[theonefirestorm]

For what makes a Good Science Ficition Story.

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Science-Fiction

[Taramoc]

I just bumped into this "tool", a make or break kind of thing to give a kick in the pants to the procrastinators like myself:

http://writeordie.com/#pc

Can you handle the kamikaze mode?