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Useful Sites for Writers

These are websites that I have found helpful. I will add more from time-to-time.

Craft

Planning your book

A strong “logline” that keeps me on track when outlining, writing, and editing. Without it I don’t write the best possible story.   (See https://logline.it/howto/)

Point of View & Perspective

POV and perspective are different.  These are some of the best articles I’ve found on them:

All about POV, Which one should you use

What’s the difference between perspective and POV

http://www.teachinginroom6.com/2013/01/point-of-view-and-bridge-to-terabithia.html – An upper-grade teacher shares some techniques which shed light on deciding upon POV and perspective

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/POV_character – A Wiki of Fire & Ice – Analysis of POV characters in books and throughout the series, showing how many chapters are dedicated to them.

 

Adding Fun & Interest

 

The Onomatopoeia Dictionary at WrittenSound.com – Great for finding how to express a sound in written American English.

http://adjectivesstarting.com/ – When I need an adjective that starts with a specific letter, but I can’t think of the right one, I use this site. Perhaps you’ll also find it useful.

https://kathysteinemann.com/Musings/strong-verbs/ – A comprehensive list of strong verbs organized by weaker verbs.

Power Thesaurus – This is my favorite site for finding just the right word.  Recently, I used to find “yearned.”

Behind the Name.com – Provides meanings of names plus lots of other useful tools for writing, such as anagrams.

Nameberry.com – Provides meanings of names plus forums for discussion.  When you click the Search Name or Phrase, the search box includes a field that allows search by the meaning of a name.

www.ourbabynamer.com – Interesting insights into names including numerology.  For examples follow these two links to learn about the name Cactus and the name Jade.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com – Many useful resources including discussions about the solar system and a section on the colors of objects.  e.g. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/colors/blue.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_sounds https://positivethesaurus.com/list-of-interjections/ – Use with caution, as a seasoning. Also, check this site out for other positive words.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animal_sounds – Need I say more?

https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/grammar-pattern – A series of useful tools that help me to understand how, when, why, and where to use adverbs and adjectives. It also explores the various patterns–there are many of them.  It is based on analysis of Collins Corpus, an analytical database of English containing over 4.5 billion words.

www.writtensound.com/  – A dictionary of onomatopoeia – a sound that that sounds like the thing it describes, like meow.

https://unsplash.com/ – Royalty-free photographs

http://pixabay.com – Royalty-free artwork

 

 

Utilities

OneLook.com – An aggregator of dictionaries that I use to locate the exact definition I’m seeking.

https://www.topwordslike.com – A thesaurus that’s easy to use.

Grammar Notes and Games – An interesting site, with many helpful graphics.

FollowThatPage.com –  https://followthatpage.com/ – A superb (and mostly free) resource for alerting you when a web page has changed. Use it follow the pages of an editor or agent. When they say they are open or closed for queries, you’ll be advised.  Also, you may use it to follow pages on this website.

Zamzar.com – Allows you to upload a file and produce a high-quality .pdf that will not reduce the resolution of images like Microsoft Word does when you use Word 2016’s “Save As .pdf” feature. (The site also has many other conversion options.) This site may be helpful to you if you’re not concerned that placing the file on another server will result in plagiarism.

Textfixer.com – If you’ve ever needed to convert plain text to html paragraphs, alphabetize text, generate random words, remove line breaks or create tables for posts then this website can save you from hours of needless manual labor. Also, there are a variety of tools for sorting and changing text.

Windows 10 Resources – If you’re having issues with Windows 10, check out https://www.tenforums.com/

Genius Scan – This is an app for your phone.  It allows you to scan pages directly into a .pdf file and, with the paid version, to upload it or share the files that you have created.  It’s useful for making digital dummies from physical dummies.

Lexie Scores – Yes, you can use a free tool to determine the readability of your manuscript. (Other tools are also available as part of Microsoft Word.)  If you do this before you have a published book, I suggest using the word “Draft” in the title of the book.  (When preparing PB manuscripts show page breaks by using a vertical bar, “|”.)

Chalk Motion – A comprehensive library of stick figures in dynamic poses that may be useful for preparing mockups, especially if you are not an author/illustrator.  Also, see this dynamic Google search for other stick figures.

https://www.topwordslike.com – A thesaurus that’s easy to use.

Longman Vocabulary Checker – I use this to find out which words are frequently used in the text I am writing.

Longman Stress in words checker – I use this to help me understand which words are stressed.  Compare and contrast with the word stresses in dictionaries.

https://www.powerthesaurus.org/– Words ranked by how many times they were selected

https://www.k12reader.com/ – Useful site with word lists and explanations of English usage.

3-D Book Cover Creator – The best cover creator I’ve ever used.  The site also features a variety of tools that are useful for self-publishing.

OCR Image to Text Converter – Great for taking a screen capture of a collapsed outline and OCRing it to get top-level titles of chapters.

Rhyming & Meter

Rhymezone.com – A useful resource for finding rhyming words.

Rhymes.net – Another useful resource for finding rhyming words.

HowManySyllables.com – If you’re not sure how many syllables are in a word, or which syllable is stressed, check your dictionary or this site.  Here you can enter a sentence or phrase too.

https://www.wikihow.com/Scan-a-Poem – Detailed discussion of Scansion

https://youtu.be/_WnlZBZPp38?t=11 – YouTube video on Scansion

Proofreading

Grammarly.com – I use this regularly. It unintrusively helps me to find mistakes, including those that I habitually make such as misspellings, forgetting to add a comma, and passive writing.

Paperrater.com – This is a free service.  I’m still working on how to use it, but my first impressions are excellent. If you use it extensively, I suggest donating to them.

Ginger.com – This is a useful, affordable, somewhat limited tool.  I have a problem using it with systems that have Outlook.com implemented in Windows 7.  The add-in sometimes causes an attachment to be deleted. I also find it tedious to use as it makes me wait as it scans a document. On subsequent scans, it may not remember to ignore items that I have told it to ignore.  Sometimes, particularly with poetry, it suggests changes that I do not want.

https://app.readable.io/text/ – A tool that can be used to pinpoint readability issues.

The Business of Writing

Planning

Marketing

If you’re interested in selling more books to libraries, check out these sites:

Perspective

When I’m trying to develop a perspective, I benefit from reading the blogs of librarians and booksellers who naturally have perspective. I’ll update this from time to time.

Betsy Bird – Evanston Librarian and reviewer for Kirkus.

Librarians who Blog – Live Google Search

Abe Books – 21 Booksellers who blog.

Educational Resources

  • VW Tapes.com – Purchase recordings of major writer’s conferences, lecture-by-lecture or an entire conference.
  • Comic Book Glossary # Explanation of Shot Types:  These shot types are useful when writing Graphic Novels, screenplays, etc. Shot types that are explained include: close-up, extreme close-up, extreme long shot, long shot, full shot, medium close-up, and medium shot. Each one is used strategically to convey meaning, emotion, and hierarchy of detail.  (CS, CU, ECU, ELS, FS, LS, MCU, MS)
  • An extremely comprehensive explanation of camera conventions may be found on Rivkah Lafille’s post Camera Conventions in Graphic Novels.  It dives into details and provides easy-to-understand examples from some of the best graphic novels published. Highly Recommended.
  • See also Media College’s shot type page, but these are not specific to Graphic Novels and Comics. Here are two links for graphic novel formatting. Blambot (my preference) and Darkhorse

 

Kick-starting Yourself

Here are a few places to get ideas:

  • Atlas Obscura – An eclectic collection of information that is sure to stimulate a few ideas if your creativity meter happens to be low.
  • com– There’s so much artistic creativity in this site that I find it impossible not to be creatively stimulated. The great majority of illustrations are in the public domain.

Revising

Writing a polished manuscript requires rewriting.  Sometimes, it’s helpful to get someone’s perspective. Here are some links to online resources where you might find gentle, informed and encouraging help. Keep in mind that any one person’s opinion is exactly that–their opinion. Someone else may (and probably will) feel differently.

  • SCBWI Blue Board– Checkout the Online Critique.  Note:  You must be a member of the Society of Children’s Bookwriters and Illustrators to use this board.  Some members are experienced authors. Some are beginners who are interested in developing their skills. It’s a great site. There’s no additional charge. You can join SCBWI at any time.  Allow 3-5 days for feedback to be posted.
  • 12 x 12 Forum– Lots of encouraging advice.  Not everyone is an experienced author. You can get great feedback, often within a day or two. This is a membership-only site, and you can only join during certain periods.
  • Rate Your Story– RateYourStory.com is a membership-only site that provides critiques by experienced authors and editors.  This link allows you to get a story critiqued for a reasonable price. The critique is provided by one individual.
  • com– Provides a platform for team collaboration.  Note:  The free service is limited in scope.  This service is priced well for teams. Individuals may be better served using Microsoft OneDrive, DropBox or another file sharing service.

How many times have I written something that I absolutely love only to find that it should be discarded, and the sooner the better? Many. This advice didn’t come originally from either Stephen King or Earnest Hemingway. For an interesting discussion of the idea of killing your babies or killing your darlings, I refer you to this blog post.

Pitching

Here is a link to over 20 high-quality pitches. PB Party Pitches – Spring 2018

Query writing

Picture Books

I have come to the conclusion that query for a children’s picture book should be the equivalent what I would say to an agent or publisher at a cocktail party or a pitch session. Short, and interesting enough to make the editor or agent feel compelled to read it. If my current strategy works well, I will write out a checklist and link to it here.

 

Novels

Query Letter Check List – Per Janet Reid.  This is a useful checklist for a novel.

Query Shark – This collection of critiqued queries by Literary Agent Janet Reid lends quite a bit of insight into how to construct a query for a novel. I like this resource so much, I’d love to submit to Janet. Unfortunately, at this point in my career, I’m not interested in writing the material she is excited about representing.

 

Miscellaneous

This is a great resource to use when writing a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed Piece:

Top 500 influencers in Picturebook and Children’s Publishing in the UK and Ireland.

Free sound effects from Media College – Useful if you need to describe something in a book or if you’re preparing a book trailer or a movie.  Check out the many other resources in Media college also.

MARCH 23, 2019/BY ALAN JORDAN

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