Writing Resources

Last updated August 6, 2020

Articles and resources I’ve collected over the years. Sharing does not equal recommendation (checkmarks coming soon, I hope). While I have read most articles, I have not used all the advice or tested all of the tools.

(This is a recent rebuild I’ve somehow managed during our at home sequester with the kids. It has been a chore, and stands as is for a few months until focus provides another opportunity. If you see a way to improve the presentation, please send advice to dweade -at- gmail (dot) com)

Writing in the Time of Coronavirus: Practical Tips

Quick links: General Resources, Production, Building a Platform/Presence, Storycraft, Character Development, Women Characters, Writing about People of Color / Disability and LGBTQ, Color Terminology, Worldbuilding, Cartography, Words Beyond Dictionaries, Grammar, Editing, Other Improvement Methods, Genre Specific Resources, Historical References, Terminologies/References, Fact(oid)s, Visuals

General Resources

Feedback/Critiquing

Inked Voices (Where I hang out)

Inked Voices Critique Guide

Past Lectures (membership required)

Critters

10 Questions to Ask Beta-readers

Communities

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Writing.com

WOW! Women on Writing

Workshops

Internet Writing Workshop

Critters Workshop

One Stop for Writers

Other Resource Sites

Purdue’s Online Writing Lab’s resources

Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers (Cat Rambo)

Clarify Editing’s Resources for Writers

Writers Helping Writer’s Help Guide

Links and Resources for Fantasy and SF writers

Best Practices

4 Authors Share Their Best Tips for Writing Fantasy & Science-Fiction

13 Kick-Ass Tips For Writing Fantasy From Professional Fantasy Editors

Gotham Writer’s Workshop: George Orwell’s 6 Rules

Vonnegut’s 8 Tips for a Great Story

Five Things Epic Fantasy Writers Could Learn from Dorothy Dunnett

Susan Sontag on the Four People a Great Writer Must Be

Six Tried and Tested Methods for Writing a Novel

Keeping a Visual Diary

2017 Ultimate Writing Guide

Novel Writing Training Plan by Pro Writing Aid

Getting in the Writing Zone

Thirteen Things (some) Writers Need to Remind Themselves of

How to Use the Writing Skills You Have to Learn the Ones You Don’t

Best Books About Writing Fiction

Moebius Gives 18 Wisdom-Filled Tips to Aspiring Artists

The System I Used to Write 5 Books and Over 1000 Blog Posts

Writing as a Business

Use These Business Tips to Become a Successful Authorpreneur

How to Make a Living Writing Fiction

Six Figure Author Podcast (many topics)

Motivation

10 Authors Share What Inspired Them To Write Their Books

Self Care

Play Around and Have Fun as a Writer

Boosting Creativity – 10 Easy Steps

8 Powerful Evening Habits That Will Prepare You For a Better Tomorrow

Routine:

This Morning Routine will Save us 20 Hours Every Week

Be More Productive in 7 Days

The Psychology of Writing and the Cognitive Science of the Perfect Daily Routine

How to Build Systems as a Writer

How to Start a Daily Writing Habit

Writing challenges

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)

Challenge yourself to write a story in six sentences

Education

Writing Excuses podcast

Brandon Sanderson Lecture Series

Brandon Sanderson Lecture Series Notes

Advice From Writers

Jim Butcher

Holly Lisle

Agents, Editors, Publishers, Markets

Publishing a Book: A Guide to Becoming an Author – a nice overview of the process and options

Writer Beware – Warnings for writers

Ralan.com: Market overviews

Critters Blackhole benchmarks: Average wait time from publishers

The Grinder: Submission tracker

The Paid Publishing Guidebook for 2020 – Includes a list of publishers and what they pay.

23 Publishers that Accept Science Fiction or Fantasy Novels

How to Escape the Slush Pile

Finding/Querying

Duotrope: Find publishers and editor

Manuscript Wish List – Find agents and editors

Finding and Working with an Editor

5 Ways to Find the Right Freelance Book Editor

Agent Query – Search agents to find their current interests

What Publishers Want – Greenleaf Book Group

How To Write a Query Letter That Grabs an Agent’s Attention

How to Write a Darn Good Query Letter

A Professional Editor Reveals the Dos and Don’ts of Writing Your Query Letter

The 10 Dos and Don’ts of Writing a Query Letter

Working together

What Authors and Editors Wish They Could Say to One Another

Emotional Labor of Editing

Create a Buyer Persona – Hubspot’s tool to identify your core audience

Types of Writing Contracts and How to Approach Them

Advice from Agents

Pt 1 – Developmental Editing

Pt 2 – Line-Editing and Copy-Editing

Legalese/Contracts

A Writer’s Guide to Fair Use and Permission + A Sample Permissions Letter

Evaluating Publishing Contracts: Six Ways You May Be Sabotaging Yourself

Getting Started/Idea Generation

Random Logline Generator

Sounds/Music for Writing

Spring Walk nature sounds generator

Long Ambients1: Calm. Sleep. by Moby (free music)

Research

Getting Access to Paywalled Papers

Quick References

Writer’s Cheat Sheets

Inkilicious Cheat Sheet

Checklists and Tip Sheets

Production

Publishing Tools

Vellum: Create Beautiful Books

Sigil: multi-platform EPUB ebook Editor

Apple Books for Authors

Premium Book Design Templates

Online Marketing and Selling

Responsive Storytelling Best Practices

Payhip – digital memberships and downloads

Covers

11 Years of Best Selling Novel Covers

Fonts

The Best Fonts for Books

Blurbs

The Difference Between Blurbs, Queries, and Synopses

Kindle Keyword Strategies for Fiction Authors

Amazon Blurb Previewer

What’s in a Blurb? How to Write the Perfect Book Description

Audiobook Production

Audiobook Production Guide

Here’s what I’ve learned from recording 25 of my own audiobooks

Libro.fm (Cory Doctoraw’s support of)

Preparing Novels

What’s Your Novel’s Log Line?

Building a Presence/Platform

How to Build your own author platform – from scratch

The Art and Business of Author Platform

Marketing

Note to All Creatives: Marketing is Your Job

How to Create Engaging Email Marketing Content

Monetizing

Wealthy Web Writer: Make money online with your writing

Research scams to get a fair deal on your writing

Growth Tools – Grow your online business

How to Properly Disclose Affiliate Links and Endorsements Online

Crowdfunding

How to Crowd-fund a Novel

Newsletters

A 201 guide for taking your newsletters to the next level — growing the lists, making money, and more.

Grow and Email List From Nothing

Social Media

Tagdef – Discover what hashtags stand for

Twitter follower blocker

Author Web Presence

Building an Author Website: The First Step to Publishing

Comparison of 10 Website Builders

WordPress compliance with GDPR/ePR and CCPA

How to Design a Writer’s Site that Converts

Crowdtangle: Track who shared your content

Clockpunk Studios: Professional WordPress design and development for authors

Blogging

5 Tips to Writing Eye-Catching Headlines Readers Need to Click

Build Your Author Platform Through Blogging

The System I Used to Write 5 Books and Over 1,000 Blog Posts

5 Helpful Tools for the Constant Blogger

5 Biggest Mistakes Bloggers Make

Podcasting

Anchor Podcasting App

Storyboard Podcasts

Extras

An example of supporting others through your site

Storycraft

Creating a book series “bible” using Scrivener, Scapple, and Aeon Timeline

Specifications

What is the Right Length for My Book?

How Many Words Should an E-book be?

Chapter Length Matters. Here’s why.

Story Structure/Plotting/Outlining

Naming Scenes to Tighten Your Plot

Hero’s Journey 101: Definition and Step-by-Step Guide

The MICE Quotient: How to Structure Your Story

Four Acts, Not Three

My Outlining Process: How I Prepare to Draft My Novels

A Four Act Structure

The Benefits of Story Subplot

The Paradigm Worksheet

Trilogy Building: Star Wars and Halo Plots

20 Master Plots and How to Build Them

20 Master Plot Exercises

Fabula Deck – Card Deck story structure framework

Perspective/Viewpoint

Using Third Person vs First Person Novel Narratives

6 Simple Ways To Handle Viewpoint Changes

How to Write Deep POV

Tension/Conflict/Suspense

Infusing Microtension in Your Novel

41 Ways to Create and Heighten Suspense

Pacing

What is the right pace for your story?

10 Ways to Master Pacing in Writing and Keep Your Readers Riveted

Short Fiction

Self-Editing Checklist for Short Story Writers

A Good Short Story Is “A Pill That Lets Us See the Real”

10 Resources to Help You Write a Great Short Story

Short Story Tips: 10 Hacks to Improve Your Creative Writing

Templates for Writers

The Organized Writer Annie Neugebauer – Novel development and professional templates

Fictionary – Online Story Editing Tool

The Editorium’s Freebies

Extras

Stuck: three narrative mistakes that plunge me into writer’s block

Action Beats: The Author’s Multi-tool

Storytelling

Fairy Tales and the Necessity of Fear

In the shadows of dark forests

What Tolkien Knew About Love

Maps of Hidden Structures of Choose Your Own Adventure Books

The Real Reason Fans Hate the Last Season of Game of Thrones – sociological vs psychological story styles

How Rowling Revised ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’

Writing Magical Realism

Dialogue

Dialogue in Fiction

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue

Show vs Tell

Showing vs. Telling: How Do We Choose?

To Avoid

Avoid Clichés (Like the uh…Plague)

TVtropes – Megalist of tropes used in storytelling

8 Ways to Make Your Story Boring

Writing Fiction? Watch Out for These 10 Common Mistakes

Beginnings

Best Opening Lines in Young Adult Books

15 of the Best Opening Lines in YA

5 Tips for Your First Chapter from My Favorite Books

10 Things Your Opening Chapter Should Do: A Check-List for Self-Editing

8 Ways to Write a 5-Star Chapter One

Settings

How (And Why) To Treat Your Setting Like A Character

How to Ground Your Reader with Story Setting

Wandering in Wonder – On Tolkien’s Joy of Wonder

Scenes

John August’s How to Write a Scene

Jim Butcher on Scenes

Jim Butcher on Sequels

Fight Scenes

Write a Fight Scene: Hero Fends Off an Attack to Protect Friend

How to Fight Write

Storytelling Software/Apps/Services

Scrivener

Aeon Timeline – build story timelines

Milanote: Offers templates for story outlines, novel plans, character profiles, world building, and story mapping

Mind-mapping

Scapple

Mind Meister

Character Development

This first section on character development is broadly focused. For information about women characters, characters of color, with disabilities, and LGBTQ, please visit the following section.

11 Secrets to Writing an Effective Character Description

How to Write Characters your Readers Won’t Forget

Characters by Jim Butcher

25 Things A Great Character Needs

Mining the Mind of your Character

How to Construct a 3D Main Character

The 8 Character Archetypes

Dave Duncan: Arguing with Characters

Traits

Character Traits as Sliding Scales: Competence, Proactivity and Sympathy

Writing Excuses 9.13: Three Pronged Character Development (covering the sliding scale)

Tags and Traits: Characterization and Building Empathy

Harry Potter (D&D) Alignment Chart

Emotion

Wounded: Why Pain & Wounds are Vital for Fiction

Write Authentic Emotion

10 Things Get People Constantly Get Wrong About PTSD

The Logic of Emotion (includes a chart)

Antagonists/Villians

5 Steps to Craft a Great Villain

Extra

From Wonder Woman to Spirited Away: what really makes a superhero?

Names

Anthony Ryan On Naming Fantasy Characters

Behind the Name

Lists and generators

Character Visualisation

ANVL 3D Printed Characters

Women Characters

The Problem of the Improper Princess

I Don’t Want to Be the Strong Female Lead

Thread on what Strength means for female characters

Ten Things About Strong Female Characters

From Basic to Beauty: Transformations of Female Villains in Batman Films

8 Absurdities we Force on Female Characters

Women Share The Biggest Mistakes Male Authors Make With Female Characters

As a white author, I’ve found these resources helpful when developing and writing characters of color.

Writing about People of Color

Sensitivity Readers! What are they good for?

Stereotypes and Tropes Navigation

“How does kids dressing up as Pocahontas reinforce genocide?”

Writing About People of Color

7 Casually Racist Things That White Authors Do

Writing the Other Roundtable: How to Stay in Your lane

$6 ebook: Writing the Other: A Practical Approach

Writing People of Color (if you happen to be a person of another color)

Writing With Color Resources

Two excellent articles by Mod Colette:

A discussion of describing the skin tone of people of color

Human Coloration and Form

Bodies in Motion

Body language cheat sheets

Model Management: Great site with models of all shapes, colors and styles from around the world.

Skin Undertone and Colour Matching

300 Words to Describe Skin

Handy Words for Skin Tones

Eye color

Red Hair Color Shades

Writing about Disability and LGBTQ

I have not happened upon many articles on these topics. Please recommend articles to dweade -at- gmail (dot) com. Thanks

Writing About Disability

Disability in Kidlit

Writing About LGBTQ

Queering SFF: 12 Authors, Critics, and Activists on What’s Changed in the Last Ten Years

Gender Neutral Pronouns: What They Are & How to Use Them

Color terminology visual references

Complete list of Crayola Crayon colors.

The Phrontistery’s list of “obscure colour terms.”

The Symbolism of Colors

204 Words that Describe Color

Color Thesaurus: Ingrid Sundberg hosts a series of cards filled with a variety of each color (white, beige, yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, green, brown, grey and black). A wonderful resource.

Impossible Color

Color Meaning

Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding Questions at SFWA

25 Things You Should Know About Worldbuilding

Against Worldbuilding (caused quite a ruckus)

ProWritingAid’s Worldbuilding 101

Author Advice

Patricia Wrede’s Thorough Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions

For N. K. Jemisin, World-Building Is a Lesson in Oppression

Nnedi Okorafor: Creating SciFi Worlds

Jill Williamson’s Worldbuilding Series