we wanted to start a new series just for useful writing resources. you can pop in any other online resources you think we’ve missed in the comments, we hope this list helps :)))
this is a slightly older post we have from the drafts, so some of these are audrey's recommendations
(we're not affiliated with any of these websites, they're just ones that we like using)
fantasy name generators
(https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com)
every writer’s holy grail!! they have so much on here when it comes to generating things, names, people, descriptions, locations and more. they even have some fandom specific content, maybe if you’re looking for something like atla or star wars inspired names for your OCs - audrey
(this isn't everything it'll help you generate - check out the navigation at the top for more)
nanowrimo
(https://nanowrimo.org)
the official nanowrimo website! organisation’s official website has a really helpful word counter, can help you keep track of your writing goals and log all of your writing projects into their database. we’ve already briefly gone into what else the nanowrimo website can do for you, so check out our camp nanowrimo post from a few weeks back for some more detail :) - audrey
(a little hint into an old project of mine when i bothered tracking the word count daily!)
reedsy
(https://reedsy.com/)
we’ve probably all heard of reedsy, but just in case you haven’t— it’s a website with many different features. it has writing advice, many different (free) courses, a short story contest, a formatting tool for your novel, and you can connect with different professionals (editors, cover designers etc.) to help you publish! - celeste
(these are all of the services offered!)
watabou
(https://watabou.itch.io/)
this website is basically a collection of maps you can generate (eg. a medieval village, townhouse structure, dungeon etc.) it might be helpful for world building or getting ideas for what you want your world to look like. I used the village map generator for my most recent wip - audrey
(again, these are just some of the options available!)
wavemaker
(https://wavemaker.co.uk/)
wavemaker is a website/app that you can use to plot and draft your novel! (i use this as a free alternative to scrivener - celeste). it has a novel/manuscript drafting feature, and different plotting tools, such as the “snowflake” tool, the “planning board,” the “grid planner”, the timeline, and many mindmaps. there is also a “challenge” mode that can be used for writing sprints! (i would recommend this for a first draft/zero draft :) - celeste
(this is genuinely one of my favourite resources!! it would be impossible to display everything i love about it but this is just the drafting area- the sidebar shows most of the features)
and that’s all for today! comment (or dm) any resources you think deserve a spotlight for our next edition of this series :))
As an eye doctor, this shouldn’t be controversial. It’s a problem. 5 years ago, nighttime headlight issues were reserved for people with cataracts or LASIK scars. Today, everyone has problems seeing the road through the oncoming headlights. People are getting anti-glare and blueblocking coatings not bc they are sitting on a computer 8+ hours a day but bc the blue tinted halogens are making them feel unsafe to drive. We are selling insane amounts of yellow tinted nighttime driving glasses even though they’re really only for people with cataracts bc ppl are desperate for anything that may help them deal with the headlights. I’ve had multiple patients tell me they just don’t drive at night anymore.
This is an actual safety issue and it needs to be addressed
Fun fact those dry markers were supposed to have water put into them to make them work. You take off the bottom thing and pour water in and bam, instant marker success. Only learned about this four years after I’d lost my set 🙃
there is something so darkly comical about tumblr potentially outliving twitter
tumblr, which is held together with duct tape and madness, run by three raccoons in blood stained Yahoo! hats and a handful of crabs, its only discernible source of income the sale of shoelaces from an inside joke so inside no one knows the original source anymore and fake blue checkmarks... that website still lives on
truly the cockroach of social media and I love it for that
I just love that multiple people not only though “the black one is a princess and those are her bodyguards” but also came to the conclusion “they’re also, obviously, samurai.”
Due to a lack of skill you failed out of the magic academy however you ended up starting a very successful business. In which you give people defective curses that cause only minor inconveniences. This of course infuriates your former classmates who actually graduated and are less successful.
Simcoe (left) and Citra (right), both girls. Both rescues. Both biological litter mates (sisters). Both long term loving projects to teach human trust to.
WAIT! WAIT!! So, are you telling me that actual, normal meow was the sister? Who, seemingly, just meowed at the moment because she saw her sister struggling so she tried to help by giving her an example???
I have complicated feelings about marine mammals in captivity but (a) this seal’s tango ability deserves recognition and (b) I’m inclined to think that this level of coordination suggests the seal legitimately enjoys it.
ok, so I’m not at all an expert, but what I’ve learned from visiting various marine research centers and talking with people who work with these animals:
1) At this point in the US, all of the large marine animals like this you see cannot be released into to wild, and they come to the centers from things like injury and rescue. We do NOT just go out to the ocean and capture random animals. That is super illegal.
2) All performances like this are purely voluntary on the animal’s part. If a seal or sea lion twice the size of a person doesn’t want to do an activity with you, there is nothing you can do about it. You can encourage behaviors through positive reinforcement, but in the end the sea lion does what the sea lion wants.
3) This kind of training is actually very necessary for proper care of large, intelligent animals! The more intelligent an animal is, the more important it is to have sufficient social and mental stimulation, and training with keepers provides both. The displayed behaviors that these tricks utilize are often seen as play and/or social behaviors in the wild.
4) And perhaps most importantly, training large animals to move and position themselves in certain ways is necessary for minimizing stress during routine medical care! You can’t safely manhandle a large sea lion into showing its belly, so if you need to do a medical check without tranquillizing the animal (which carries its own risks and stresses), you need to be able to ask the animal to roll over on its own. If you watch the dance in the above post carefully, you’ll note that a lot of the different “dance moves” are effectively presenting different parts of the body. So what this performance does is take all of the stances/actions you might need it to do for a health checkup and sets it to music!
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