Questions tagged [resources]
Resources that one may wish to ask about on Writing include style guides, instruction manuals, podcasts, blogs, articles, and other means by which experts provide writing information.
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What is a good way to practice essay writing?
I was never that good at writing essays, especially if the essays require works cited or sources. I have a basic idea of the methods but how do I practice making a good essay I am no longer in school ...
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Does anybody know a good book on writing novels that covers complex storyweaving, multiplots, or parallel plotting?
Does anybody know a good book on writing novels that covers complex storyweaving, multiplots, or parallel plotting? I have a large collection of how-to-write manuals for screen and novel writing. ...
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Short stories to practice writing
I’m writing a novel. I am planning the plot in detail and doing worldbuilding. In the meantime, I would like to write some short stories to practice writing itself (style, pacing, emotion, ...
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Where can I publish my biography online for free where it will be preserved?
I'm a strictly-amateur author. I've written my autobiography.
I don't want to be paid but I feel it has value and would like it preserved online in some fashion for posterity.
How can I go about this?...
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Are there some ways to use wiktionary to find related terms more easily?
https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Search&limit=500&offset=0&profile=default&search=insource%3A+ship&ns0=1
I was trying to use insource to find all terms related ...
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Is there a good thesaurus for slangs?
If you use rhymezone, you can only get 2 synonym for the word penis, but if you look at the slangs for penis, there's 100 different slangs for it, so I am wondering what might be the best slang ...
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Resources for beginner/intermediate writers
I'm an undergraduate student who's currently self-studying writing in quarantine. At present, I've read some books and browsed writing workshop websites on academic or technical writing. However, the ...
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How to give a main character a (believable) goal
I've been working on a story for close to two years, and have (almost) everything fleshed out — the world, the background, the characters and most scenes. I recently gave it to a friend to read, who ...
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Good resource for medieval customs/vocabulary?
I’m writing a fantasy novel that, though not strictly set in medieval times, certainly draws quite a bit of customs, vocabulary, etc., from medieval times, specifically medieval England.
Up until now, ...
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Where can I publish poems I translated to Pali?
I have been studying Sanskrit for 6 years, and have published short stories in magazines. I recently became interested in Pali and translated some classical English poems to Pali.
But unlike Sanskrit ...
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When writing an American Indian character, how to ensure an accurate and sensitive portrayal as a cultural outsider?
(Similar question can be found here, but I think mine is broader in scope, as that question only asks about names.)
Background
I've been tinkering away at a few of my short story ideas with a friend ...
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What are the best resources for latin and greek roots, suffixes and prefixes?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Greek_and_Latin_roots_in_English
I found this page, but the problem is that it's on three pages, the other issue is that we search for the meaning instead of ...
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Visual collaborative platform to plan a book
I have searched and found some tools for writing, but I need a platform to be able to plan a book - can anyone point me in the right direction? This is for a group of people who want to plan and ...
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Examples of Good Novel Blurbs? [closed]
I am trying to find examples of good novel blurbs that are both informative and engaging. I've looked back at some of my favorite novels and found their blurbs represented the contents poorly. Some ...
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Knot Theory and Creative Writing
I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Creative Writing and an M.S. Student in Mathematics. I'm writing my master's thesis on knot theory and trying to tie in applications to creative writing. Has anyone come ...
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How to make sure that my book is "accurate"
I'm not exactly writing historical fiction or realistic, but I want my story to be "accurate."
For example, let's say that my character got into a car crash after being chased by the police. ...
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Original source of "Hero's Journey," and related writing tropes?
Where can I find the basic texts on a story theory - books or things like that that discuss ideas like the "Chosen One" and the "Hero's Journey"?
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I’m trying to describe a character who broke his leg [duplicate]
I am a young author writing a fantasy series. I am re-writing a chapter that I wrote a few months ago because it’s an earlier one, and I didn’t really know what I was doing, so it sounded bad. Anyway, ...
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Is it okay not to write something you feel you don't want to write?
Okay, the title is dumb, but let me elaborate.
When it comes to scenes in books or movies, show me a character's family, or part of their family getting killed and you've successfully immobilized me. ...
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What is the authority on literary terms and phrases
I'm thinking of terms like Character Development, Character Progression, Character Growth, Character Regression, Narrative Arc, Main Character, Protagonist, Supporting Cast, Side Character, ...
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Is there a name for a poem with rhyme scheme ABABCB?
I have just started writing a new poem, and I am thinking about rhyme schemes. The one that jumps out to me looking at the few lines I have already written is: ABABCB CDCDED... (in dactylic dimeter, ...
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Can anyone recommend a website or other sources that can evaluate my essays and offer feedback [duplicate]
I want some professional or expert to review my essays and offer me feedback on how can I improve, things I could to do write better, tell me mistakes, etc. and inspire the examiner to award me more ...
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A peculiar problem in my writing skills
I have a problem and I'm not sure how common it is. I have often heard people say that reading will, just by pure habit, always develop the writing skills of a reader; that just by sheer recognition ...
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How do you look for words that are related to a certain culture?
How do you look for words that are related to a certain culture? For example, when I want to look for all items that existed during Ancient Rome, how do I do this as efficiently as possible. Is there ...
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Book on sentence structure/variety
Is there a good book on sentence structure and variety?
My goal is to improve the way my sentences flow on the page and to improve the reader experience.
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How to effectively narrate losing an arm by 3 arrows? [closed]
In a pasage of a tale set in medieval age, How Should I describe a character's process of losing his right arm after an attack in some town. Conditions are as follow:
Character has been wounded by ...
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Is there a way to generate a list of the most used connector words and phrases?
I need to learn Spanish and German for my short novel and I need to learn the language fast.
One thing I wanted to do is to learn the 100 most used connector words and learn to write short and simple ...
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Are there any websites that show you the popularity and regional use of words?
There are some words and phrases in my manuscript that I think are used in America. However, a beta reader tells me my character sounds British. Are there any online sources I can use to check the ...
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What are good places (online) where a community of writers can get together and share their knowledge about writing?
It would be nice to be a member of an online community of people who are knowledgeable about writing, willing to directly help eachother in a format such as Q&A (like here on SE), but also engage ...
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Is there a good reference book on allegories used in literature?
Is there a good reference book on allegories used in literature? I am looking for a reference book that gives references to use of allegories in the creative literature. For example: If a novel uses ...
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What types of resources and primary sources are helpful for getting into historical character?
When you are developing characters for fiction, and particularly historical fiction, what kinds of resources do you find most helpful in establishing a distinctive voice?
Two suggestions I've heard ...
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Where to find primary sources for getting into historical character? (voicing)
What sites, libraries, or other organizations have strong, easy-to-browse collections of letters, diaries, and other primary sources that are great for authors doing research for historical fiction ...
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Is there a good resource on all different formatting and writing styles throughout history?
I noticed writers in the past used a different format, in terms of punctuation, indentation, quotations, spacing, and paragraph length, and the format can be different from author to author and from ...
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Books and resources to help me understand the rhetoric of other people's writings better
I am a new writer learning to write. Before I can write, I am learning how to read critically and analytically. Recently, I read a book on style, which gives good analyses on the rhetoric of a few ...
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Book on (character) voice
Any book recommendations that teach you how to make sure each character sounds different in dialogue and is recognizable even without dialogue tags?
Any book tips to learn more about character ...
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Is there any good exhaustive resource for finding idioms by theme? [closed]
Is there any good exhaustive resource for finding idioms by theme? I tried to google some, but the ones I found on google are not very exhaustive. They have maybe 500 idioms in total. I currently use ...
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Is there any tool that gives us a list of verbs often used with a certain word?
Is there any tool that gives you a list of verbs often used with a certain word? Sometimes, you forget certain words so you spend time trying to remember and it can be really frustrating at times.
Is ...
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The who, when and where of what has been written
Question: Is there a resource that categorizes existing fiction works by themes based on the authors' demographics (e.g. gender, age, historical period, geographical location, etc...)?
For instance, ...
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Software for Reading Playscripts?
I recently wrote a play and wanted to know what it sounded like before I showed it to the director, actors and so on so forth. Hence I was wondering if there is a software that just simply narrates my ...
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Sentence structure alternatives
Could you suggest a style guide or an exercise book that could teach how one sentence can be written in alternative ways, or how to rephrase a sentence in various structures, especially sentences ...
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Writing style before Elements of Style
I am looking for the representative references on writing style in English that would pre-date Strunk and White's The Elements of Style (possibly in the period between 1750 - 2000). I would like to ...
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Does a repository of analytical breakdowns of stories exist?
I'm a data scientist and for my next project I'm looking for a location where I can find stories broken down by structure. I.e. The basics of the seven point story structure, or wikipedia dramatic ...
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An appropriate way to seek suicide resources (as an author)
I'm doing the analysis for several characters who happen to be contemplating taking their own lives. While I'm not someone interested in this myself, I'd like to seek resources without wasting the ...
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What are some good historical sources for writing medieval battles?
This question popped into my mind after criticizing the strategic choices in a recent episode of a famous fantasy television show (coffs).
A lot of genre fiction (mostly fantasy, even if we may cast ...
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Many sexual situations, but no actual sex scenes?
My guile heroine's character arc is almost entirely sex and manipulation.
I tell (not show) she was a sex worker in the past, it's left ambiguous (likely) that she still is. She has powerplay scenes ...
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"[x] minutes to read?" How do they calculate that?
I've noticed a lot of platforms (blogs and such) list how long they estimate for a specific essay/post/article to take for the average reader. How is this calculated?
I always read fast, so I can'...
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What are the major weaknesses of Writing Excuses as a resourse for learning the craft? [closed]
I ask as somebody who loves Writing Excuses (https://writingexcuses.com), and relies on the podcast heavily as an educational resource. My writing ambitions are well aligned with their stated scope -- ...
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Dialect resources for early/mid 20th Century Midwestern American speech
I'm setting the book I'm writing in the 1900s ~ 1950s, in the central states of the US: Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. I'm having difficulty getting the language for narration and dialogue ...
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How to show two perspectives without solely relying on different POVs?
Unknown by the characters involved and hidden from the readers, there's this ability of one specific character that allows him to hear/perceive the truth from anyone's speech. If they're telling the ...
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Symbolism of number of crows?
After having read a few books with themes of witchcraft in them (ie. Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum), I have come to want to use some of the symbolism found in those books in my own writing.
What I ...
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