04-17-2008, 04:10 AM
I know there used to be a thread about being a better fanfic writer, but I can't find it now...
Anyway, I thought folks might appreciate sharing some of the web-based writers' tools they've accumulated over the years. I'll start by sharing a few.
First, the generally-useful sites:
http://www.askoxford.com/dictionaries/c ... d/?view=uk]Online Oxford English Dictionary - Yes, I'm a snob that way.
http://www.wordsmyth.net/live/home.php]Wordsmyth - Another online dictionary, this one with a "spelled like" function. (Very handy when I know I'm spelling a word wrong...)
http://www.bartleby.com/]Bartleby.com: Great Books Online - Another dictionary, with a thesarus, four collections of quotations, and an older copy of Strunk's Style guide. A Swiss-army-website for writers; it doesn't do any one thing really well, but it does a large number of things well enough.
http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm]The Grandiloquent Dictionary - For when the OED isn't rarified enough. More seriously, if you have to go here to find the meaning of a word, perhaps you should consider using a different word...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide]The Guardian's style guide - A newspaper's style guide might not be the best for fiction writing, but at least it's consistent.
Next, the more specialized sites:
http://snopes.com/]Snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages - Always good for a random throwaway reference by the odder sort of character. (Random throwaway references add depth to a story, in my humble opinion...)
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/]The Fallacy Files - If you're going to have a character behave illogically, it's best to be consistent; that adds verisimilitude to the character. This site gives a taxonomy of illogical ways to argue.
http://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... index.html]The CIA World Factbook - Useful when setting a story in a country you don't know that much about - the entries here let you know what you need to research in depth.
http://www.angelfire.com/il/SumieSociety/hanak.html]Hanakotoba - For those who write anime fanfiction, understanding how the Japanese culture differs from ours is important. The Japanese "language of flowers" is different from the European tradition; this page lists some of the Japanese connotations.
Any more?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Anyway, I thought folks might appreciate sharing some of the web-based writers' tools they've accumulated over the years. I'll start by sharing a few.
First, the generally-useful sites:
http://www.askoxford.com/dictionaries/c ... d/?view=uk]Online Oxford English Dictionary - Yes, I'm a snob that way.
http://www.wordsmyth.net/live/home.php]Wordsmyth - Another online dictionary, this one with a "spelled like" function. (Very handy when I know I'm spelling a word wrong...)
http://www.bartleby.com/]Bartleby.com: Great Books Online - Another dictionary, with a thesarus, four collections of quotations, and an older copy of Strunk's Style guide. A Swiss-army-website for writers; it doesn't do any one thing really well, but it does a large number of things well enough.
http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm]The Grandiloquent Dictionary - For when the OED isn't rarified enough. More seriously, if you have to go here to find the meaning of a word, perhaps you should consider using a different word...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide]The Guardian's style guide - A newspaper's style guide might not be the best for fiction writing, but at least it's consistent.
Next, the more specialized sites:
http://snopes.com/]Snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages - Always good for a random throwaway reference by the odder sort of character. (Random throwaway references add depth to a story, in my humble opinion...)
http://www.fallacyfiles.org/]The Fallacy Files - If you're going to have a character behave illogically, it's best to be consistent; that adds verisimilitude to the character. This site gives a taxonomy of illogical ways to argue.
http://www.cia.gov/library/publication ... index.html]The CIA World Factbook - Useful when setting a story in a country you don't know that much about - the entries here let you know what you need to research in depth.
http://www.angelfire.com/il/SumieSociety/hanak.html]Hanakotoba - For those who write anime fanfiction, understanding how the Japanese culture differs from ours is important. The Japanese "language of flowers" is different from the European tradition; this page lists some of the Japanese connotations.
Any more?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012