Writers

“You’re a kind girl..”

~ Kakashi Hatake

Useful Writing Resources

This is an extensive list of resources for every problem you could come across while writing/planning/editing your novel. Use it well;)

{ *** } Indicate a Highly Reccommended Resource

Planning/outlining Your Work

How To Outline ***

Zigzag Method : Creating Plots

How to Plot a Romance Novel 

Seven Great Sources of Conflict for Romances 

Let’s talk about brainstorming

Writing Something With Meaning ***

Past Or Present Tense? : How To Decide

Writing Your Work

How To Write A Fabulous Chapter #1 ***

How to Build a Romance Thread in Your Story 

The Big Book Of Writing Sex ***

6 Ways to Get Your Readers Shipping Like Crazy 

Romance Writing Tips ***

20 Tips for Writing Lovable Romance Novel Heroes

7 Ways To Speed Up Your Writing *** 

80+ Barriers to Love: A List of Ideas to Keep Romantic Tension High 

9 Romance Writing Mistakes to Avoid 

Removing the Creeps From Romance

19 Ways to Write Better Dialogue ***

50 Things Your Characters Can Do WHILE They Talk ***

How To Write Action And Fight Scenes

10 Steps To Write Arguments

9 Ways To Write Body Language

Writing Good Kissing Scenes

Writing Murders

Create And Control Tone ***

Tips for Writing Ghost Stories

Incorporating Flashbacks

12 Tips To Avoid Overwriting ***

Characters

Behind the Name

Top Baby Names

Looking for a name that means a certain thing? ***

7 Rules of Picking Names

Most Common Surnames ***

Minor Character Development

Writing Antagonists, Antiheroes and Villains

Characters With Enhanced Senses

5 Tips to Help You Introduce Characters

How Do You Describe a Character?

How To Write Child Characters

36 Core Values For Building Character

Questions To Answer When Creating Characters ***

4 Ways to Make Readers Instantly Loathe Your Character Descriptions

5 Ways to Keep Characters Consistent

Character Archetypes

25 Ways To Fuck With Your Characters

Building Platonic Relationships Between Female Characters

9 Simple and Powerful Ways to Write Body Language 

33 Ways To Write Stronger Characters

Conveying Character Emotion 

How to Make Readers Love an Unlikable Character…  

How to Create Powerful Character Combos

How To Describe A Character’s Voice ***

Describing Clothing And Appearance ***

Career Masterpost ***

Creating Your Character’s Personality ***

Character Flaws ***

Editing

DON’T EDIT>>> REWRITE THE WHOLE THING FIRST

Ultimate Guide To Editing Each Aspect Of Your Work ***

Why You Would Read Your Novel Out Loud ***

Grammar and Punctuation ***

How To Write A Captivating First Sentence

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

Saving Your Story: Finding Where It Went Wrong

How To Condense Without Losing Anything

The Stages Of Editing

Dialogue/Description Balance

3 Proofreading Tips

The Short Story Form

Chapter & Novel Lengths

Anatomy Of A Novel : Chapters and Parts ***

How To Write Chapter After Chapter Until You Have A Book ***

Where Chapter #2 Should Start

Step By Step Guide To Editing Your Draft

Writing Tool: CTRL-F (How And Why You Should Use It) ***

How To Kill A Character

25 Steps To Edit The Unmerciful Suck Out Of Your Story

5 Ways To Make Your Novel Helplessly Addictive ***

Setting

{Setting} How To Describe Setting In Your Stories ***

20 Questions To Enhance Setting

How To Bring Your Setting To Life

Miscellaneous Resources You Can Use In Between

How to Write from a Guy’s POV 

The Emotional Wounds Thesaurus

Text To Speech Reader

Compare Character Heights 

A Visual Dictionary of Tops

Writers Helping Writers

7 Tricks To Imrove Your Writing Overnight

Work Out/ Word Count : Exercise Between Writing ***

Most Important Writing Tips ***

Let’s talk about diversity in novels

Letting Go Of Your Story

Keeping A Healthy Writing Schedule And Avoiding Procrastination ***

How To Create A Good Book Cover

Write or Die

Tip of my Tongue

Character Traits Form

Online Thesaurus

Writing Sketchy/Medical/Law

Coma: Types, Causes, etc

Tips for writing blood loss

Gunshot Wound Care

Examples of Hospital Forms

Common Legal Questions

The Writer’s Forensics Blog

Brain Injury Legal Guide

Types of Surgical Operations

Types of Mental Health Problems

A Day in the Life of a Mental Hospital Patient

Global Black Market Information ***

Crime Scene Science

Examining Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Writers’ Block Help/ Productivity

Story Plot Generator

@aveeragemusings ‘ Cure To Writers’ Block ***

50 Romance Plot Ideas

Reading Like A Writer ***

Defeat Writers’ Block

Writing In A Bad Mood ***

Writers Block

When You’ve Lost Motivation To Write A Novel ***

What To Do When The Words Won’t Flow ***

9 Ways To Be A More Productive Writer

“I Cannot Write A Good Sentence Today” (How To Get Over It) ***

Real Writing Advice ***

Info You Need To Know & Words You Didn’t Think Of

A Writer’s Thesaurus ***

Words To Describe… ***

Words & Phrases To Use In Your Sex Scenes ***

Colors (An Extensive List Of Colors)

List Of Kinks & Fetishes ***

List Of Elemental Abilities

inkarnate.com : World Creator And Map Maker For Your Imaginary Setting

Body Language Phrases

List Of Legendary Creatures

How To Write Magic

Hairstyle References

Hemingway : Writing Checker

Body Types: Words To Describe Bodies and How They Move Around

Poisonous Herbs and Plants ***

The Psychology of Color

The Meaning behind Rose color

Types of Swords

Color Symbolism

How a handgun works

How to Write a Eulogy

Types of Crying

Avoiding LGBTQ Stereotypes ***

Superstitions and More

The 12 Common Archetypes

Language of Flowers

12 Realistic Woman Body Shapes

Using Feedback And Reviews

Turning Negative Reviews Into Positive Ones ***

Proofreading Marks : Easy Symbols To Make Reviewing/Feedback Easier ***

Authonomy Teen Ink Figment Fiction Press ReviewFuse

These Are Trusted Critique Sites ;)

The Signs As...  "Pirates Of The Caribbean" Characters

Aries: Davy Jones

Taurus: Joshamee Gibbs

Gemini: Hector Barbossa

Cancer: Pintel

Leo: James Norrington

Virgo: Captain Jack Sparrow

Libra: Cutler Beckett

Scorpio: Elizabeth Swann

Sagittarius: William Turner

Capricorn: Ragetti

Aquarius: Tia Dalma

Pisces: Weatherby Swann

At the end of every year, the team at Writers Write looks at which posts were viewed most over the previous 12 months. This year, however, we were curious to find out which of our writing posts were the most popular of all time.

So we decided to start 2017 with the 25 posts you’ve viewed most on our blog over the past five years. (The number of views indicated here are from 31 December 2016.)

Our top post has almost 2 million views, and we’ve seen it used in varying formats across the internet. The second and third posts have more than 1 million views combined.

The posts vary. They include reference sheets for writers, longer posts on grammar and creative writing, a selection of excerpts from poetry, business writing tips, writing prompts, and quotations. We hope you enjoy them.

Our Top 25 Writing Posts Of All Time

1.    45 Ways To Avoid Using The Word ‘Very’

2.    Cheat Sheets For Writing Body Language

3.    155 Words To Describe An Author’s Tone

4.    Synonyms for 95 Commonly Used Words - A Mini-Thesaurus for Writers

5.    123 Ideas For Character Flaws

6.    Persuasive Writing - Emotional vs Intellectual Words

7.    The Daily Word Counts of 39 Famous Authors

8.    17 Of The Most Powerful Excerpts From Poetry

9.    15 Questions Authors Should Ask Characters

10.  The 12 Common Character Archetypes

11.  350 Character Traits - A Fabulous Resource for Writers

12.  209 Words To Describe Touch

13.  Body Language Reference Sheet

14.  20 Myths To Use As Writing Prompts

15.  Eight Commonly Misused Words

16.  37 Ways To Write About Anger

17.  30 Examples To Help You Master Concord

18.  Psychopath Or Sociopath - What’s The Difference?

19.  The 5 Elements Of A Story

20.  16 Types of Government - A Writer’s Resource

21.  5 Incredibly Simple Ways To Help Writers Show And Not Tell

22.  6 Sub-Plots That Add Style To Your Story

23.  Write Your Novel In A Year - Week 35: 3 Must-Have Scenes That Reveal Character

24.  The Top 12 Literary Love Quotes

25.  Show! Don’t tell. - 10 Verbs That Make You Tell

~~~

The posts were mostly written by Amanda Patterson, Mia Botha, Anthony Ehlers, and Donna Radley. Thank you for your brilliant contributions.

yesterday I called the psychiatric clinic where I made an appointment a couple of months ago. at the time they had told me that the waiting list period was 2-4 months, and I wanted to know what it was now.

I’m not sure if they didn’t understand that I was wanting to know specifically where my appointment was on the list, or if they just weren’t going to tell me that, but either way all they would say was that their waiting period is 4-6 months.

so that was encouraging.

my dad sent me the sites for a couple of other clinics to try applying to instead and I keep looking at them but I haven’t done anything yet.

I have it good, really. I’m living with my parents right now and they’re very supportive. they’re trying to help me get better and they’ve made it clear that I can stay here as long as I need. I’m not in any danger. I don’t have any emergency medical issues. I don’t have crippling debt. I don’t have a job right now, but that’s no one’s fault but mine. I know there are people doing so much worse than me. I see their stories every day. people who are still going out and doing things and getting by under horrible circumstances and here I am, doing nothing. not even trying. 

really, the only problem I have is me. 

when I was in school I grew to hate the question of “what are you going to do after you graduate?” so much that I banned all mention of it from my graduation party. now I get the upgraded question, “so what are you doing now?” and I hate it even more.

every time a well-meaning family member asks me that I think, nothing. I am doing nothing. I am floating. I am drifting in space.

my brother came home to visit over the Fourth of July weekend. he had a car that he wanted to bring home so my dad and I went out in my grandfather’s truck to help tow it back. 

on the ride home he asked me the question. 

I mentioned that I had made a psychiatric appointment and that I was sort of waiting on that. 

he gave me advice. about moving forward and getting your name out there. about how things will probably suck for a while because when you send out lots of resumes they’ll almost all get rejected but things will improve. you just gotta push forward a little bit at a time. it’s good that you have that appointment but you shouldn’t just wait for your situation to get better. you always think the next thing will be better, he says, but when it comes along there will be problems with that too. keep pushing forward but don’t place all your hope on any one thing to turn everything around.

uh huh, I said.

it was good advice. 

then we got distracted by a goat and he went on to give me advice about how to survive the zombie apocalypse. he was very heavily caffeinated at the time. 

I couldn’t figure out how to explain that waiting for this appointment felt like waiting for a live preserver. like I was treading water in the middle of the ocean and it was all I could do to stay afloat and someone had said, you cannot wait to be rescued. you have to swim to shore by yourself.

you’ll be alright, my brother said. you did well in school. 

and so I did. I made it on the dean’s list almost every semester, my professors usually liked me, I hardly ever missed class, I could count on one hand the amount of assignments that I had botched or missed in my entire time in school. I graduated magna cum laude and immediately received a great deal of ribbing about how my family had to find out from the program because I didn’t tell them. I had to repeat several times that I also had to find out from the program because they didn’t tell me ahead of time either.

I did not say that it was nice and all but I didn’t really care about it that much. I was tired and happy that it was over and that I could take the stupid robe off and go eat some cookies now and anyway you can’t say things like that, really. 

I did well in school and I hated it. I was exhausted and miserable and I stressed myself sick all the time. I wanted to be able to miss class when I felt bad, or to bullshit on lesser assignments instead of panicking over them. I couldn’t. the anxiety was always pushing me forward, threatening me with the consequences of failure. 

my first semester I went to see a college counselor. I said that I had a lot of anxiety.

“I notice you don’t make eye contact,” the first one said, and suggested a tentative diagnoses of PDD-NOS. I asked to see another counselor.

I saw the next one for the rest of the semester. it was difficult to fit the sessions in around class and work and productions and convocations and everything else. the counselor was nice, but I found that I was not looking forward to seeing her. it involved talking, something I have never been much good at. 

she told me early on that she didn’t believe in labels. “I don’t want to put you in a box,” she said. “Everyone is different. I want to focus on your situation, not on a diagnosis and a list of symptoms.” 

I nodded and I didn’t argue because she was, after all, the counselor, and probably right, even if it made my heart sink because goddamn did I want a label. I wanted a box. I wanted to say this is what I have, this is what’s wrong with me. I was very, very tired of saying this is just the way I am. 

in our last session she told me that her conclusion was that I was probably somewhere on the autism spectrum. I did not really feel like that was true, but even if it was I wondered why everyone seemed interested in giving me a very vague diagnosis of something autistic but resisted putting any labels on the anxiety I had very explicitly told them I had. 

I never resumed the sessions the next semester. I kept on doing well in school. college offered lots of opportunities: clubs and honor societies and extracurricular work and field trips and conferences and social events and networking opportunities. all kinds of ways to build up your future, plan for life after graduation. 

I couldn’t care about my future.I knew that I should but I couldn’t. I did the things that were right in front of me, the things that I had to do, and I didn’t have anything left. I didn’t feel enthusiastic or excited about anything.

but after all, how bad could things be, if I was doing so well?

things have never been truly dire. I have never been at risk of self-harm. I get up every morning and I do some things and I brush my teeth and shower every day. I’m not sure how much of it is driven by anxiety and guilt over not doing the things, but I do them. things were never so bad in college that anyone saw cause for alarm. things are not so bad now that I cannot wait two, four, six months in abeyance. 

you can’t wait too long, my brother said. if you spend too long out of college not doing anything, people will notice. they won’t want to hire you so much. 

it has been seven months now since I graduated. I think a lot about those old stories about people getting trapped in the faerie otherworld. how time seems to stand still, one moment stretching out forever like a dream, but when they finally return to the real world it has been centuries and centuries. 

lately life feels like floating. like anti-gravity, drifting through endless space; like swimming against a current, moving with all my might but going nowhere. things don’t work and I don’t know why. books pile up unread, projects rot, emails go unanswered and there’s no reason for any of it. things just don’t happen. 

I look at these appointment forms and I think, this isn’t going to work. they are going to tell me that there is really nothing wrong with me. that there is something wrong with me but they’re not going to say what it is because they don’t want to put me in a box. that there is something wrong with me but it’s not the thing I think is wrong, it’s not the anxiety or depression it’s something else they think is more interesting. that there is something wrong with me but there’s really not much they can do about it. that things can’t be too bad if I did so well in school, if there are no emergencies now, if I am moving from day to day. 

that I will sit in someone’s office feeling like I did sitting in the car with my brother, trying to explain why I have done nothing with my life for seven months, but being unable to get the words right, and they will shake their head and send me away. 

I wish I had not done well in school. I wish I had failed, because I am failing now, failing at the things I want to do, failing at doing the things I am expected to do, failing at finding any meaning in anything, failing to be happy. but it’s unbelievable, even to me. it makes no sense. the fault must be mine, somewhere, but I can’t find it. 

a hufflepuff finding out that their partner cheated on them

Coming up with ALL the revenge ideas.

Seven very majestic seconds.

Ragnar will avenge us.

Watch below the official trailer for the forthcoming 20-episode fourth season of Vikings, set to premiere on History on February 18th with its first batch of ten episodes, while the second is will air sometime later next year. Find more info here.

It saddens me when people think that Captain Jack Sparrow only ever tries to save his own skin. That he would push other people in harms way so he wouldn’t get hurt.

In Dead Men Tell No Tales, when the possessed Henry attacks Jack and Carina, the first thing Jack instinctively does isn’t to jump away, duck or use Carina as a shield. No. He literally PUSHES Carina OUT OF harms way and doesn’t even move himself, taking the full blow. He doesn’t want his rival’s/friend’s daughter to be hurt. Damn. If you honestly think Jack Sparrow is not a good man, then you might want to rethink.

Soundtrack for writers

Writing without music kind of gets me stuck. I don’t know what happens, I feel incomplete. The wrong type of music, however, throws me off. If, just like me, music is an important part of your writing process, this is the post for you.

Sound effects websites:

Rainy Mood 

Shower Time

Coffitivity

Soundrown

Noisli

Rainy Cafe

A Soft Murmur

Snowy Mood

Sound effects on YT:

- Journey

Night train

Night train with rain

Car ride

Car ride with rain

Airplane cabin

Pirate ship

Pirate ship with rain

Spaceship

- Nature

Garden

Swamp

Rainforest

Snow storm

Snow storm with fireplace

Winter wind

Winter waterfall

Beach

River

Desert with wind

Field

Underwater

Haunting storm

Cave water

- Places and events

Airport

Restaurant

City

Train station

Shopping mall

School

Convention center

Call center office

Fireworks

Classical music:

Liszt

Handel

Villa-Lobos

Mahler

Mussorgsky

Paganini

Clara Schumann

Robert Schumann

Haydn

G.P. da Palestrina

Rossini

Verdi

Chopin

Takemitsu

Salieri

Elgar

Debussy

Gershwin

Satie

Soundtracks:

Ghibli

Lord of the Rings

Skyrim

Pirates of the Caribbean

Harry Potter

Naruto and Naruto (villains)

Journey

Disney

Star Wars

The Terminator

The Last of Us

Cowboy Bebop

The Ring

Edward Scissorhands

Sleepy hollow

The Village

Until Dawn

Layers of Fear

Outlander

Downton Abbey

This War of Mine

Hunter x Hunter

Pride and Prejudice

Clannad

Marco Polo

House of the Flying Daggers

Baccano!

Somewhere in time

The Order

The Notebook

Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy XIII

Van Helsing

Anno 1404

Jurassic Park

Lost

Titanic

The Last of the Mohicans

One Piece