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With incredible contributions from Sami Von Disco, I present to CSD, the Writing Resources thread.

AKA: a link-list to fun stuff that could help us figure out how write better.

I'd prefer if you only posted links to resources or your own guides in here, not an actual discussion... but I'm also probably not going to enforce that. razz

As suggestions are made, I'll be starting to divide them up into categories & probably mini-descriptions! It might be a mess now and again when you come in as I organize, but come back in a few minutes and it'll be fine again!

Also, let us know if these links aren't working or there's some sort of error! Post a comment here or PM pythonesque


References:


Wikipedia (You know you love it.)

The Free Dictionary (Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Thesaurus and more)

Archetype: The Fiction Writer's Guide to Psychology

Duotrop (resource listing Fiction and Poetry publications)

Fiction Factor (online magazine for fiction writers)

Seventh Sanctum (Generators for genres, prompts, names, etc)

Yet Another Fantasy Name Generator

Project Gutenberg (Free books online)

Enhance My Vocabulary (Relearn the basics or skip to the vocabulary stretches)

Color Thesaurus

[T]itle Grabbing by Acronym Abuser

Rhyme Zone

NonVerbal Thesaurus (Guide to adding nonverbal communication into your stories)

Learn Your Damn Homophones (Warning: swearing is plentiful here)



Guides & Handbooks:


How to Name a Fictional Place

The Keables Guide

Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing

Writer's Handbook (Writing center through the University of Wisconsin - Madison)

An Online Guide to Dream Interpretation

Guide for Internal Conflict

Guide to Female Behavior

Guide to Advanced Character Creation

More Guides by OokamiKasumi



Character Development:


The Mary Sue Litmus Test

The Character Creation Thread by Arcturus Highwind

The Writer's Mary Sue Test



World Building:


Magical World Builder

30 Days of World Building



Role playing:


Learn To Roleplay (LIKE A BOSS) by THE Grapey Mango

Roleplay 101 by Electric Kool-Aid

So You Wanna Take it Outside, Huh? (Combat RP Guide) by Wahoozerman

Dos and Do nots of Being Taken Seriously as an RPer post by Syndrama

100 Questions to ask About Your RP Character

School for Better Roleplaying Guilde




Communities:


YALITCHAT

Absoulte Write (forums about writing)

Write to Done (blog all about writing)

Limyael's Rants: Master List (Rants about writing, mostly fantasy-based)




Contests:


Writers of the Future (Fantasy and sci-fi awards for young writers)




Writing Challenges & Exercises:


Write or Die (Putting the prod in productivity)

Prompt me! Words, phrases, and images by Dev Kimkio

Writing exercises

Exercises for Writing for Beginning Writers

Creative Writing Prompts

National Novel Writing Month (Write a 50k word novel in 30 days)

Script Frenzy (Write a 100 page script in the month of April)




Non-Internet Sources:


Book in a Month

This one has a lot of great articles in reference to almost anything you could need for writing fiction.

Fiction Factor

The Writer`s Mary Sue Test

7th sanctum ftw!
Also YAFNAG.

You said you wanted more resources so here you go. Don't hate me xd

Dream Dictionary I find it helpful for inspiration if my character is going to have recurring dreams or something of that nature.

Thesaurus.com Ever helpful when you can't think of just the right word.

Expressive phrases This site seems to be geared toward vocabulary building, but these phrases are pretty nifty.

Adjective order Just some basic rules for adjectives and describing things.

Semi-Colons! When, where, and how to use them.

Brackets, Ellipses, Hypens, and Capitalization More helpful advice for people that struggle with unusual punctuation.

Prompts

Tips for Proofreading

Avoiding Cliches

Color Thesaurus More fun than a normal thesaurus because you can see the colors biggrin

World Building and on the same site 30 days of World Building one aspect a day, 15 minutes a day (though if you want to devote 8 straight hours to it I'm sure that would work too xp )

Naming a fictional place

I think that's enough for right now xp

Maybe if you organized them in to categories of Planning, Writing, Proofreading/Grammar, and Editing that would work out smile

My one most used resource.

The Free Dictionary - A multilingual dictionary, encyclopedia and thesaurus. I use it on a daily basis, mostly to find synonyms and a description on occasions.

I second this. It's great!
I use the thesaurous feature the most but it really helps with figuring out what word to use where and when.

Actually, I'm gonna up it.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Limyaael's Rants. She mostly does stuff for fantasy, but a lot of it can apply to other stuff, too. They also tend to be hilarious.