Your favorite informative source

Lidiya · May 21, 2013

I'm not sure I worded that correctly, but what's your favorite website which you frequent for help for your writing?

Personally, I find The Bookshelf Muse really useful. I think I was referred to it from here, but they just keep expanding the website. It doesn't only have info on how to describe emotions (which is the most popular section anyway), but settings, characteristics, smells, sights, etc.

I just thought I'd share with the class, heh.

kkbe · May 21, 2013

Lidiya said:
I'm not sure I worded that correctly, but what's your favorite website which you frequent for help for your writing?

Personally, I find The Bookshelf Muse really useful. I think I was referred to it from here, but they just keep expanding the website. It doesn't only have info on how to describe emotions (which is the most popular section anyway), but settings, characteristics, smells, sights, etc.

I just thought I'd share with the class, heh.

Okay, Teach.

Aye-Dub has been helpful on occasion she said with a wink. I peruse Thesaurus.com. Yes I do. And Grammer Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips.

buz · May 21, 2013

For the most part, the only sites I use for writing are this one and various dictionary/thesaurus and grammar sites.

Until the query stage, of course...then there's a billion agent websites and blogs and non-agent blogs featuring agent interviews, blahdeblah...

Oh, I also really like Query Quagmire, but more for entertainment purposes...

Sonsofthepharaohs · May 21, 2013

Not a fan of sites that basically provide a quick assembly kit of descriptive words - add adverb A to adjective B and noun C, and hey presto, you've got a description of a woman's opulently globular mammaries.

I have once or twice been desperate enough to google 'simile for...' but I've never found any of the search returns remotely helpful. To be honest, if you need to look up a way to describe something, you haven't read enough novels!

So go read.

quicklime · May 21, 2013

here and reading

I come here to discuss things...and screw off, and I read to analyze what works and doesn't...and for pleasure.

I haven't seen many other writing sites, the few I have looked at seemed to be much bigger on fluffery. I chose this site because I don't want to feel good, I want to get better. :tongue

Edit: and in agreement with putputt, QLH in particular has taught me more about writing, and especially writing tightly, than anyplace else here or elsewhere.

Putputt · May 21, 2013

VoireyLinger · May 21, 2013

dictionary.com
thesaurus.com
owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
google maps

Fallen · May 21, 2013

Kallithrix said:
you've got a description of a woman's opulently globular mammaries.
.

*snorts coffee* :roll:

Lidiya · May 21, 2013

buzhidao said:
For the most part, the only sites I use for writing are this one and various dictionary/thesaurus and grammar sites.

Until the query stage, of course...then there's a billion agent websites and blogs and non-agent blogs featuring agent interviews, blahdeblah...

Oh, I also really like Query Quagmire, but more for entertainment purposes...

Haha, yeah, Query Quagmire is hilarious!

angeliz2k · May 21, 2013

Various sites for historical research, sometimes dictionary.com (usually to affirm that a word means what I think it means, or to check its date of origin), and, well, AW.

I'm not big on reading writing how-tos either in book form or online. It's usually too one-size-fits-all and nonspecific.

Teinz · May 21, 2013

Lidiya said:
The Bookshelf Muse

Bookmarked! Thank you!

I come here for my info, never found anything like it.

muravyets · May 21, 2013

For writing instruction/help/advice: Here, and various writers' blogs that I got clued to here. Other than that I do my learning off-line, by reading novels. I tend to be less interested in sources that say "here's how to do it" and more interested in sources that say "here's how I (the author of the given article) did it."

For informative sources: Google or Bing. I like to start my research by casting a broad net because I may find unexpected answers in unexpected places.

flapperphilosopher · May 21, 2013

The website of my local library

Lidiya · May 21, 2013

Teinz said:
Bookmarked! Thank you!

I come here for my info, never found anything like it.

You're welcome!
I forgot to mention I visit AW lot too. My books improved MILES since I started coming here. If more budding authors came here there'd be much more published books in the world

kendallina · May 22, 2013

I faithfully listen to the Writing Excuses podcasts. The writers that put it on are fantasy/sci-fi writers, which I am not, but I still find their advice and discussions incredibly useful. Each podcast is only 15 minutes long and I feel like I get so much information from each one, so I love it.

Matirin · May 25, 2013

I think google is my favorite source. When I need to know the meaning of a word, I type "word definition", and the word and definition appear as the first thing on my search list. If my protagonist has a certain attribute, that I don't know much about myself, I'll look the attribute up, and try to find inspiration with what I find. It helps to like research.

Cornelius Gault · May 25, 2013

1. I used Google in general for "gothic buildings", "Victorian language", "radiation poisoning", "time travel", etc, as needed.,

2. I use Google Images to give me ideas for characters.

3. I have searched for "henchmen" to give some depth to my 1-dimensional "unnamed henchman" character.

4. I have searched for "strong male leads" for the same purpose.

5. I have assigned certain actors as "inspiration" for various characters, usually from a specific movie or series. Then, when I need to write action or dialog, I can clearly imagine how that actor might react or speak. In most cases, I choose more than one actor. I pick out traits of those actors/roles that I want for my character. Of course, the reader would never know the actors I used for my inspiration and I would hope that their new-found personalities (an amalgam of actors, roles and traits) would be interesting.

PowerWriter · May 25, 2013

Google Maps so I can learn about my locations.

DennisB · May 26, 2013

Broadly speaking: the internet. I do check out books on a particular topic, but that seems to take a long time to glean particular information. I Google a lot, but it's become so commercial, it can also be somewhat time-consuming. Wikipedia is great, but you have to be careful.

gothicangel · May 26, 2013

JSTOR and my favourite second-hand bookshop Barter Books in Alnwick. They have an awesome Classical History section.

Edit: I also love TV Tropes:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage

Ann-Marita · May 28, 2013

I go to Writers Digest often. It has some very informative articles.

I also follow Brooke Warner on twitter. She's a writing coach and tweets links to great articles about writing and also posts some inspiring little tidbits of her own for writers.

WeaselFire · May 29, 2013

Google, WikiPedia and Youtube. I almost never check spelling, style, grammar or the like online.

Jeff

Substitious · May 29, 2013

Thanks for the resource! Lots of good stuff on the Muse.

I use http://www.thesaurus.com often.

I also pay attention to innovative lectures on TED both for story ideas and for forming thoughts about our connection to the world around us (e.g. morality in animals).

Chasing the Horizon · May 29, 2013

The only websites in the writing section of my taskbar other than AW are Dictionary.com and Wikipedia. I know people complain about the accuracy of Wikipedia, but there's no other site on the internet where I can find all the random, obscure, and weird bits of information I need for secondary-world fantasy all together. I mean, where else can you look up a diagram of a square-rigged ship, the invention date of rubber bands, and a list of mythological shape-shifters all without leaving the site?

Otherwise, I just type questions into Google. I have looked up story structures a few times, though I'm not sure how much use it was. I still don't understand how a book can have 'acts', since it's not a play, and ended up basing my last book's structure on the Labors of Heracles anyway.

Oh, I also have a bunch of sites for names favorited (two baby names site, the SS admin site, fantasy name generators, Google Translate). I've *finally* figured out how to come up with good fantasy names and it only took me six years.

I've never cared for 'how to write' articles or sites. No-one can tell you how to write. You have to figure it out for yourself by experimenting and reading (and reading and reading and then reading some more).

William E. Harlan · May 29, 2013

I love wikipedia, dictionary.com and grammargirl.
I was on those sites all the time when I was writing.

Your favorite informative source

Skimming galaxies

Huh.

can't stop hemorrhaging emojis

Still writing the ancient Egyptian tetralogy

all out of fucks to give

permanently suctioned to Buz's leg

Angel Wing Fetish

Stood at the coalface

Skimming galaxies

never mind the shorty

Back at it again.

Old revolutionary

Skimming galaxies

New writer since 07/2012.

Toughen up.

Benefactor Member

Blowing in the Wind

Fierce Pretender