The Artist's Time-Out Corner

A semi-serious writing/art blog run by Admin :D, Admin Sassypants, Admin Rick, and Admin Orange.

[opulentes]

WRITER LIFE

Tips on Getting Started

Why the Right Word Choices Result in Better Writing

7 Tips to Become a Better Writer from Stephen King

Why Writers Must Read

4 Ways To Have Confidence in Your Writing

Improve Your Paras

How to Use Reading to Become a Better Writer

How’s My Driving?

Writing Lessons

Improve Your Writing Habits Now

10 Writing Tips

Advice for Young Writers

Speed Up Your Writing

5 Ways to Add Sparkle to Your Writing

How to be Confident in Your Writing

Breaking Writing Habits

Writing Better Than You Normally Do

How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers

Inspiration and Writer’s Block

31 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Writing

Tips for Dealing with Writer’s Block

Free Association, Active Imagination, Twilight Imaging

Writing Inspiration, or Sex on a Bicycle

Finding Inspiration

Busting Your Writing Rut

Solve Your Problems Simply by Saying Them Out Loud

On Habits

MUSIC

Coffitivity

August Ambience

Rainy Mood

Forest Mood

Simplynoise

Soundrown

Iserenity

Nature Sound Player

Mynoise

Music For Writers

SOFTWARE AND TOOLS

Research Organization

A.Nnotate

Bubbl.Us 

Evernote

Freemind

The Literary Machine

Xmind

Mindmeister

Zoho Creator

Storyboard Template

Scrivener

Zotero

New Novelist

Realtimeboard

Family Trees

Family Echo

Genealogy

Legacy Family Tree Maker

Family Tree Builder

Xy Family Tree

Editing

Paper Rater

Autocrit

Pro Writing Aid

Cliche Finder

Editminion

Grammarly 

Writing 

Open Office

Calligra

Script Frenzy

Abiword

My Writing Nook

Zohodocs

Atlantis Nova

Jdarkroom

Lit Lift

Zenwriter

Ywriter5

Jarte

Storybook

Hiveword

Bighugelabs

Q10

Writer’s Cafe

Treepad Lite

Now Novel

Google Docs

Timeline Makers

Time Toast

Interactive Timeline

Preceden

Tiki Toki

Time Glider

Timeline Maker

My Timeline

Timeline Js

Timeline Generator 

X Timeline

Our Story

Dipity

Meograph

FORUMS, BOARDS, COMMUNITIES 

Fictionpress (Fanfiction.Net’s Original Fic Counterpart)

Figment 

Wattpad

Archive Of Our Own (Mainly Fanfic)

Bbc English Literature Message Board

Scribophile

Writer’s Cafe

Writing Community: Writer’s Workshop

Book Country

Greatwriting

Flickspin

Writing.Com

WRITING BLOGS

The Creative Penn

Jeff Goins

Write To Done

Writer Unboxed

The Writers Alley

Writer’s Digest

RESEARCH 

Culture

Culinary Post 1: Foraging And Food Sourcing.

Indian Names And Their Meanings

Update: Culutral Appropriation Do’s And Don’ts

Geography Post 1: Rational Impacts.

Geography Post 2: Cartography (Part 1)

Muslim Names And Meanings

Geography Post 2: Cartography (Part 2)

Primary Sources On Ancient Civilizations

Other Cultures

Clothing, Fashion And Art Post 1: Styles And Materials.

Clothing, Fashion And Art Post 2: Textile Technology.

Culinary Post 2: Food Cultures

Additional Information Post 3: Divination And Fortune-Telling.

Terminology

Fashion Terminology

Victorian Dialogue

20’s Slang

Glossary of partner dance terms

English Slang

Ballet Terms

Mental Illness

Mental Illness

Depression

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Anxiety

Kleptomania

Psychiatric Hospital

Schizophrenia

Borderline Personality Disorder

Anxiety Disorder

Crime

Mob Mentality

How Street Gangs Work

Street Gang Dynamics

Black Market Information

Survival

Limits Of The Human Body

Basic Wilderness Survival Guide

How To Build A Shelter

5 Basic Survival Skills

Basic Survival Medicine: Wounds

How To Pick A Lock

Life After a Heart Attack

How To Make A Fire

Information On Burns

How To Find Water In The Wild

Self-Defence And Fighting

Fighting And Self Defence

Fighting Scenes

Problems With Fighting Scenes

Every Type Of Fight Scene

Fantasy Battle Scenes

Death

Stages Of Decomposition

Realistic Death Scenes

Death Scenes

How Bodies Decompose

How to escape after being buried alive in a coffin.

What Happens When A Person Dies

What Happens When You Kill A Man With An Erection

Body Language

Body Language Cheat Sheet

Importance Of Body Language

Non Verbal Communication

Body Language Of Flirting

Tips For Writers: Body Language

Flirting 101

Body Language: Mirroring

GENERATORS 

Names

Us Census Name Generator

Fake Name Generator

Random Name Generator

Quick Name Generator

Fantasy Name Generator

Random Rpg Name Generator

Fictional Characters Name Generator

Character Name Generator For Creative Writers

Plots

Quick Story Idea Generator

Short Story Starter

Plot Scenario Generator

Script Frenzy’s Plot Machine

Quick Story Generator

Dramatic Scenes

Plot Bank

Science Fiction Plot Generator

Random Plot Generator

Step-By-Step Story Plot Generator

Story Spinner

Story Kitchen

Prompts

Creativity Portal Prompts

Prompt Generator Lists

Creative Writing Prompts

Story Starting Sentences

Masterpost Of Writing Execrises

Writers Block?

NOVELS

Getting A Story Idea

Start Your Novel Already!

Planning The Book

Plotting The Book

Outlining Your Novel

Why First Chapters Matter

Your Novel Blueprint

Outline Your Novel In 30 Minutes

How To Write A Novel

How To Increase Your Daily Word Count From 2k To 10k

Writing First Paragraph

Writing Chapter One

Writing Chapter Two

When To End Chapters

Chapter Length

Book Length

Formatting a Manuscript

Series Vs. Standalones

Writing a Blurb

 ROMANCE

Sex

Things Smut Writers Should Know

Write a Blowjob/Prepping for Smut

How to Write a Sex Scene

A Smut Guide

Domination and Submission

Smut - The Bare Bones

3 Secrets to Writing Sex

Smut Guide: For Beginners

Writing Love Scenes

Casual Sex

20 Tips to Writing Love Scenes

Making Love

A Guide to Language in Smut

Lesbian Smut

How to: Write a First Time Sex Scene Romantically

On Love And Sex

Tips on Writing Sex Scenes

 Smut (For Virgins)

All That Sex!

Kissing

Kissing

Writing Out the First Kiss

How to Write a Kissing Scene: Valentine Edition

How to: Write a Kiss (2)

Different Types of Kisses

How to Write a Kiss?

WORLD BUILDING

Eplans 

Planet Maker 

Timeanddate 

Roomsketcher 

Average Weather Settings

Apocalypses

World Building 101

Bringing Settings To Life

Creating A Believable World

Mapping A Fictional World

Mapping Your World

Religion In Setting

Fractal World Generator 

Creating A City From Scratch

PLOT

25 Ways To Plot, Plan, And Prep Your Story

Creating A Compelling Plot

Plot and Conflict

How To: Write A Quality Plot

What is Conflict?

Plot vs. Exposition

Components Of Your Plot Page

The Elements of Plot Developmen

The Snowflake Method

Your Plot, Step by Step

Basics Of Writing A Plot

How To: Create A Plot Outline In 8 Steps

Writing a Plot Your Own Way

Writing Up A Plot

Guide To Plotting

The Top Ten Plotting Problems

How To: Write A Plot In 12 Steps

Eight Unique Plot Ideas

Adding Conflict to Your Scenes

Beginning And End, But No Middle!

CHARACTERS

How To

Backstories

Writing An Attractive Character

Effective Supporting Characters

Minor Characters

Creating Believable Characters

A Flirtatious Character

How to write Disabled Characters

Writing A Character Who Has Lost Someone Important

Writing A Bitchy Character

Character Under The Influence Of Marijuana

Writing Rich Characters

Make Your Characters Better

Pansexual Character

Writing Rebellious Characters

Writing A Character Based On Yourself

Eccentric Intelectual Character

Writing Vampires

An Indifferent Character

Writing A Character Who Self-Harms

Character With Night Terrors

Writing Child Characters

British Character

Make Your Character Special

Ballerina

Writing Convincing Male Characters

Writing A Drunk Character

Friends With Benefits Relationship

Writing Popular Characters

Writing A Character With Memory Loss

Writing A Female Bartender

Writing Villains

Writing Manipulative Characters

Writing A Feminist

Writing A Sociopath

Archetypes 

Villain Archetypes

The 12 Common Archetypes by Carl Golden 

Jung’s 16 Personality Types

Depth

Character Quirks

Celebrity Secrets

Addictions and Bad Habits

16 Character Traits

300 Possible Secrets to Give Your Characters

Questionnaires

Character Development Questions For Writers 

Character Questions 

Character Questionnaire 1 And 2  

Child Character Questionnaire 

Mbti Personality Test

Character Description

100 Character Development Questions

Character Development Questionnaire

30 Day Character Development Meme

Character Development Check List

Adult Character Questionnaire 

The Mother Of All Character Questionnaires

Character Questionnaire 

Character Outlines

Names

Popular Baby Names In 1930

Popular Baby Names In 1945

Top 100 Names In England And Wales In 1924

Top 100 Names In England And Wales In 1934

Top 100 Names In England And Wales In 1944

1000 Most Popular Victorian Names

Victorian Era Names, A Writer’s Guide

Victorian Darlings - British Baby Names

7 Rules For Picking Names

Character Names

Popular Baby Names In 1924

English Surnames

Dutch Surnames

Spanish Surnames

Scottish Surnames

German Surnames

Italian Surnames

Irish Surnames

French Surnames

Scandinavian Surnames

Welsh Surnames

Jewish Surnames

Surnames By Ethnicity

Most Common Surnames In The USA

Most Common Surnames In Great Britain

Most Common Surnames In Asia

EDITING AND REVISION

Reference Materials

Dictionary.Com

Thesaurus.Com

Oxford Dictionary

Spanish Dictionary

Medical Dictionary

Your Dictionary

Botanical Dictionary Of Plants And Flowers

Cambridge Dictionaries Online

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Rhymezone — Rhyming Dictionary

Onelook’s Reverse Dictionary

Online Etymology Dictionary

Lexscripta - Dictionary Of Slang

How To

General Revision Tips

Cliché Finder

Reading What You’ve Wrote So Far

Synonyms For Common Words

Urban Legends On Grammar

Common Grammar Mistakes

Proofreading

Three Self Editing Tips

Revising A Novel 

Synonyms

25 Synonyms for ‘Expression’

How to: Avoid Misusing Variations of Words

Words to Keep Inside Your Pocket

Words Instead of Walk (2)

Other Ways to Say..

300+ Sophiscated and Underused Words

List of Misused Words

Words for Sex

100 Beautiful and Ugly Words

Transitional Words

Words to Use More Often

Alternatives for ‘Smile’ or ‘Laugh’

Words to Use Instead of ‘Walk’, ‘Said’, ‘Happy’ and ‘Sad’

Synonyms for Common Words

Alternatives for ‘Smile’

The Many Faces and Meanings of ‘Said’

Synonyms for ‘Wrote’

A Case Of She Said, She Said

Editing Services

Academic Edit

Firstwriter.Com

Editavenue

Editorial Freelancers Association

Editing And Writing Service

Editor World

The Penn Group

Grammar

Grammar Girl

Common Errors In English Usage

Common Writing Mistakes

Grammar Handbook

A Guide on Punctuation

The 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups

English Practice

Guide To Grammar And Style

Commonly Confused Adjectives

The Tongue Untied

Guide To Grammar And Writing

Hypergrammar

How To Use English Punctuation Correctly

PUBLISHING

Self-Publishing

Making Your Own Poetry Chapbooks

Content Models for Spreading Poetry on the Internet

The Future of Ink: Digital Publishing

Putting Your Poetry In Order: The Mixtape Strategy

Top 10 Digital Publishing Posts for 2013

DIY Poetry Publishing Cooperative

Internet Poetry & Self Publishing

Making Chapbooks

Agents

1000 Literary Agents

Agent Query

Preditors & Editors

Subscribe to Publisher’s Marketplace 

AAR (Association of Author Representatives)

US Literary Agents

Poetry & Writers Guide to Finding an Agent

Software

Scribus

PagePlus

Libre

Spring Publisher

Querying

Query Shark

Writer’s Digest Series on Writing Queries

Media Bistro 

Literary Magazines

How to Submit to Literary Magazines

AIM (America’s Intercultural Magazine)

Calliope

Cicada

Cricket 

Listen Magazine

Seventeen

Suddenly Lost in Words

Sucker 

YARN

Publishing

25 STEPS TO BEING A TRADITIONALLY PUBLISHED AUTHOR: LAZY BASTARD EDITION

ACADEMIC

General

The Five-Paragraph Essay

Using Punctuation Marks

Deadly Sins Checklist

Formatting Your Paper

Writing About Literature

Basic Essay

Revision Checklist

Planning And Organization

Editing And Proofreading

Latin Terms

Essay Structure

Tips On Introducing Quotes

Academic Writing Tips

Introductions

Introductory Paragraphs

Introductions

Writing An Introduction

Preparing To Write An Introduction

Introduction Strategies

The Introductory Paragraph

Writing Effective Introductions

In The Beginning

Introductions And Conclusions

The Introductory Paragraph

Writing Introductory Paragraphs

How To Write An Intro

Body Paragraphs

Paragraph Development And Topic Sentences

Transitions

Transitions

Transitions

Four Components Of An Effective Body Paragraph

Writing Paragraphs

Paragraph Development

Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Strong Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Writing Body Paragraphs

How To Write Body Paragraphs

Writing The Body

Writing Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs That Defend A Thesis

How To Write Body Paragraphs

The Perfect Paragraph

Topic Sentences

Topic Sentences

Writing Topic Sentences

Topic Sentences

Topic Sentences

The Topic Sentence

Paragraphs And Topic Sentences

The Topic Sentence

Topics, Main Ideas, And Topic Sentences

Writing A Good Topic Sentence

Good Topic Sentences

Conclusions

Writing Effective Conclusions

Introductions And Conclusions

Conclusion Paragraphs

Conclusion Strategies

Conclusions

Tips For A Strong Conclusion

The Concluding Paragraph

Ending The Essay

Types Of Conclusions

Writing A Strong Conclusion

How To Write A Conclusion

Writing Conclusions

Guide To Conclusions

Thesis Statements

The Thesis Statement

Thesis Statements

Writing A Thesis Statement

Thesis Statement

Tips And Examples

Writing A Thesis

Writing The Thesis

How To Write Your Thesis

The Thesis

Thesis Statements

Guidelines For Writing A Thesis

Thesis Statements

Thesis

Thesis Statements

The Thesis

Create A Strong Thesis

How To Write A Thesis

Developing A Thesis

Guide To Writing Thesis Statements

Thesis Statements

Citing

When To Cite

Apa Documentation

Mla Documentation

Suggestions For Citing Sources

Research And Citation Resources

Citation Information

Mla Guidelines For Citing Poetry

Mla Style For Poetry

How To Format Your Paper

Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essays

Argument

Argumentative Essays

Persuasive Or Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essay

Argument/Argumentative

Argumentative Essays

How To Write A Good Argument

How To Write An Argumentative Essay

Writing Conclusions To Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essay

Persuasive Essay Writing

Writing Concluding Paragraphs

Constructing The Argumentative Essay

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poetry Q & A

Poetry Explications

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poems

Explicating A Poem

Writing About Poetry

Writing A Thesis Paper About A Poem

How To Start A Poetry Introduction

Poetry Essay Structure

Poetry Explication

Expository Essays

Structure Of A General Expository Essay

Expository Essay Examples

Sample Expository Essay

Expository Writing

Expository Essay Model

Elements Of Expository Essays

Expository Writing Information

Expository Essays

Writing Expository Essays

How To Write An Expository Essay

Tips On Writing An Expository Essay

Expository Essays

Essay Map

Writing Expository Essays

How To Create A Strong Expository Essay

Expository Essay Writing

The Expository Essay

Research Papers

How To Write A Research Paper In Literature

Writing A Research Paper

The Research Paper

How To Write A Research Paper

Five Paragraph Research Paper

Sample Research Paper

Writing A Research Paper

Tips For A Research Paper

How To Write A Research Paper

Writing A Scientific Research Paper

Writing Research Papers

Research And Writing

Research Papers That Rock

How To Write An Effective Research Paper

College Application Essays

Application Essay Tips

Application Essays

Tips

10 Tips

Application Essays

How To Write A College Application Essay

Tips For An Effective Essay

Do’s And Don’t’s

College Application Essay

How To Write A College Application Essay

Narrative Essays

Narrative And Descriptive

Narrative Essay Writing

The Personal Essay

Narrative Essays

Narrative Essays

Writing Narrative Essays

Narrative/Descriptive

Narrative Essay

Writing A Narrative Essay

Tips On Writing A Narrative Essay

[bossies]

useful tools

amazing custom water/light reference tool http://www.madebyevan.com/webgl-water/

online perspective manager/maker http://www33.atwiki.jp/kndy/pages/94.html

online photoshop http://pixlr.com/editor/

[victoriousvocabulary]

How It’s Said (substitutes)

In a happy way: laughed, rejoiced, giggled, joked, lilted, sang out.

In a sad way: cried, agonised, bawled, blubbered, lamented, sobbed, groaned, snivelled, wept, mourned.

In a bossy way: insisted, bossed, demanded, preached, dictated, professed, ordered.

In an angry way: raged, miffed, seethed, fumed, retorted, thundered, blurted.

In a pained way: barked, cried out, cried, screamed, jabbered, bellowed, groaned, howled, shrieked, roared, grieved, wailed, yelped.

In a frightened way: quaked, stammered, shuddered, quivered, trembled.

In an understanding way: empathised, accepted, consoled, crooned, comforted, sympathised, agreed.

In a tired way: mumbled, struggled, emitted, wearied.

In a begging way: beseeched, begged, implored, pleaded, entreated, appealed to.

In a mocking way: mocked, ridiculed, derided, hooted, japed, insulted, jeered, parodied, taunted, teased, chaffed, flouted, degraded, sneered, disdained, jibed, gibed, disparaged, belittled, decried, flouted, fleered, leered, scoffed, sniggered, swiped, scorned, repudiated, lampooned.

In a seductive way: purred, simpered, coaxed, wheedled, persuaded, baited.

As an answer: As an answer: responded, retorted, replied, rejoined, answered, acknowledged.

[Source] [[Jack Teagle]

[writingwithcolor]

We discussed the issue of describing People of Color by means of food in Part I of this guide, which brought rise to even more questions, mostly along the lines of “So, if food’s not an option, what can I use?” Well, I was just getting to that!

This final portion...

[sno4wy]

How To Draw Better In 2 Minutes

[kechiarts]

I expected this to be a troll video about sacrificing your soul in exchange for art skills or something but this was actually very informative.

[fixyourwritinghabits]

I've been working on the same project for more than three years now but I leave it for a while and now the more I read what I've wrotten the less I like it, I see the story is going nowhere and same on the characters, I wouldn't like to leave it unfinished but every time I try to fix something I end up hating everything and feeling really sad about it and idk what else can I do about it.

Stories like this are like zombies. They shamble behind us, half-formed and decaying. “Why didn’t you finish me? Didn’t you love me?” and we feel guilty. We look at the monstrosity we’ve created, and we know what Dr. Frankenstein must’ve felt. There’s a certain amount of love there, “Let me save you!” but deep in your heart you know there’s nothing salvageable. Eventually, the zombie story catches up but instead of nomming on your brain it noms your energy.

After three years if you haven’t made any headway, I’d say it’s time to throw in the towel. Some things to do as you move on:

Don’t delete it. Just pop it in a folder and archive it.

Give yourself time to clear your head and get your creative juices rebalanced. No rebound!

Take a moment to critically think about what went wrong with the other story. Was it something structural in your plot? Was it the characters? All of the above? Once you’ve done that, then you can do a new project.

Try something new. A new genre or style, maybe? Branch out.

The key is, you’ve gave yourself time to grieve (and yes, you’ll grieve), and you’ve taken the chance to review what went wrong so you’ve, in theory, learned from your mistakes. By giving yourself time to do those things, you’ll be in a better spot going forward.

They say in war that, “Discretion is the better part of valor.” I’d argue that’s the case for writing, as well.

Good luck,

Graphei

Cut your Losses: How to Know when to Quit

[maxkirin]

+ DAILY WRITER POSITIVITY +

#136

YOU CAN DO THIS.

Never forget that all your favorite authors were once like you. They are proof that all you need to succeed is to write!

Want more writerly content? Follow maxkirin.tumblr.com!

[proverbialboots]

I don't what you're talking about :D -sassypants

[proverbialboots]

I think someone’s posting on the wrong blog… Get your act together, other admins

- :D

[bigbraingene]

60 Awesome Search Engines for Serious Writers

Finding the information you need as a writer shouldn’t be a chore. Luckily, there are plenty of search engines out there that are designed to help you at any stage of the process, from coming up with great ideas to finding a publisher to get your work into print. Both writers still in college and those on their way to professional success will appreciate this list of useful search applications that are great from making writing a little easier and more efficient.

Professional

Find other writers, publishers and ways to market your work through these searchable databases and search engines.

Litscene: Use this search engine to search through thousands of writers and literary projects, and add your own as well.

Thinkers.net: Get a boost in your creativity with some assistance from this site.

PoeWar: Whether you need help with your career or your writing, this site is full of great searchable articles.

Publisher’s Catalogues: Try out this site to search through the catalogs and names of thousands of publishers.

Edit Red: Through this site you can showcase your own work and search through work by others, as well as find helpful FAQ’s on writing.

Writersdock: Search through this site for help with your writing, find jobs and join other writers in discussions.

PoetrySoup: If you want to find some inspirational poetry, this site is a great resource.

Booksie.com: Here, you can search through a wide range of self-published books.

One Stop Write Shop: Use this tool to search through the writings of hundreds of other amateur writers.

Writer’s Cafe: Check out this online writer’s forum to find and share creative works.

Literary Marketplace: Need to know something about the publishing industry? Use this search tool to find the information you need now.

Writing

These helpful tools will help you along in the writing process.

WriteSearch: This search engine focuses exclusively on sites devoted to reading and writing to deliver its results.

The Burry Man Writers Center: Find a wealth of writing resources on this searchable site.

Writing.com: This fully-featured site makes it possible to find information both fun and serious about the craft of writing.

Purdue OWL: Need a little instruction on your writing? This tool from Purdue University in Lafayette, IN can help.

Writing Forums: Search through these writing forums to find answers to your writing issues.

Research

Try out these tools to get your writing research done in a snap.

Google Scholar: With this specialized search engine from Google, you’ll only get reliable, academic results for your searches.

WorldCat: If you need a book from the library, try out this tool. It’ll search and find the closest location.

Scirus: Find great scientific articles and publications through this search engine.

OpenLibrary: If you don’t have time to run to a brick-and-mortar library, this online tool can still help you find books you can use.

Online Journals Search Engine: Try out this search engine to find free online journal articles.

All Academic: This search engine focuses on returning highly academic, reliable resources.

LOC Ask a Librarian: Search through the questions on this site to find helpful answers about the holdings at the Library of Congress.

Encylcopedia.com: This search engine can help you find basic encyclopedia articles.

Clusty: If you’re searching for a topic to write on, this search engine with clustered results can help get your creative juices flowing.

Intute: Here you’ll find a British search engine that delivers carefully chosen results from academia.

AllExperts: Have a question? Ask the experts on this site or search through the existing answers.

Reference

Need to look up a quote or a fact? These search tools make it simple.

Writer’s Web Search Engine: This search engine is a great place to find reference information on how to write well.

Bloomsbury Magazine Research Centre: You’ll find numerous resources on publications, authors and more through this search engine.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus: Make sure you’re using words correctly and can come up with alternatives with the help of this tool.

References.net: Find all the reference material you could ever need through this search engine.

Quotes.net: If you need a quote, try searching for one by topic or by author on this site.

Literary Encyclopedia: Look up any famous book or author in this search tool.

Acronym Finder: Not sure what a particular acronym means? Look it up here.

Bartleby: Through Bartleby, you can find a wide range of quotes from famous thinkers, writers and celebrities.

Wikipedia.com: Just about anything and everything you could want to look up is found on this site.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Find all the great philosophers you could want to reference in this online tool.

Niche Writers

If you’re focusing on writing in a particular niche, these tools can be a big help.

PubGene: Those working in sci-fi or medical writing will appreciate this database of genes, biological terms and organisms.

GoPubMd: You’ll find all kinds of science and medical search results here.

Jayde: Looking for a business? Try out this search tool.

Zibb: No matter what kind of business you need to find out more about, this tool will find the information.

TechWeb: Do a little tech research using this news site and search engine.

Google Trends: Try out this tool to find out what people are talking about.

Godchecker: Doing a little work on ancient gods and goddesses? This tool can help you make sure you have your information straight.

Healia: Find a wide range of health topics and information by using this site.

Sci-Fi Search: Those working on sci-fi can search through relevant sites to make sure their ideas are original.

Books

Find your own work and inspirational tomes from others by using these search engines.

Literature Classics: This search tool makes it easy to find the free and famous books you want to look through.

InLibris: This search engine provides one of the largest directories of literary resources on the web.

SHARP Web: Using this tool, you can search through the information on the history of reading and publishing.

AllReaders: See what kind of reviews books you admire got with this search engine.

BookFinder: No matter what book you’re looking for you’re bound to find it here.

ReadPrint: Search through this site for access to thousands of free books.

Google Book Search: Search through the content of thousands upon thousands of books here, some of which is free to use.

Indie Store Finder: If you want to support the little guy, this tool makes it simple to find an independent bookseller in your neck of the woods.

Blogging

For web writing, these tools can be a big help.

Technorati: This site makes it possible to search through millions of blogs for both larger topics and individual posts.

Google Blog Search: Using this specialized Google search engine, you can search through the content of blogs all over the web.

Domain Search: Looking for a place to start your own blog? This search tool will let you know what’s out there.

OpinMind: Try out this blog search tool to find opinion focused blogs.

IceRocket: Here you’ll find a real-time blog search engine so you’ll get the latest news and posts out there.

PubSub: This search tool scours sites like Twitter and Friendfeed to find the topics people are talking about most every day.

[gr8writingtips]

writing tip #801:

writing with your laptop resting on top of a successful novel will allow your story to absorb its power and increase your chances of being published by 74.82%

[maxkirin]

Savannah asked:

Hi. I’m writing a militaristic spy against the government and I was wanting to know what simply HAS to be in it. Like what is psychologically done to create a spy or what kind of spy work should there is. I don’t want this to be a James Bond lets shoot and blow stuff up, so I’m 100% trying to approach this realistically.

Hello there, Savannah! Let me first thank you for your continued support, it really does mean the world to me~ ♥︎

Now, as for your question(s) I absolutely get where you are coming from. Ironically, this is the funny thing about Spies (and any sort of shady underworld themes). You can do research, but can one really trust that? And even so— how successful can it be? After all, what are the odds that all Spies are trained the same way? Not very high if you ask me.

Unfortunately, this is one of those situations in which ‘realism’ is more a burden than anything else. Spies in the ‘real’ world are not as we perceive them in fiction— or maybe they are, this is the funny thing. There is no way to know for certain. After all, the best Spy Network should be entirely unknown to us, right?

I think that the way to approach this is to create *your* own Spy Network. I mean it. There is no way to get it ‘wrong’ since Spies in our culture might as well be supernatural creatures. Thus, you have the freedom to create *your* own version of Spies— the trick here is to make it authentic (or, bluntly put, it has to make sense).

Really, when people say something is ‘realistic’ it simply boils down to them being able to ‘understand it’ and ‘agreeing that it could happen.’ This is why some disaster movies really affect people, because it shows them how probable something is— no matter how silly it may seem from the surface.

Keeping that in mind, let’s look over how ‘PROBABLE’ we can make your Spy Network, okay?

First you need the founder(s). Who made this Spy Network? What is the purpose of it? Is there disagreement amongst the founders? What do they disagree on? Is killing civilians okay? What about torture? Now, what do they all agree on? What are values of this organization? Spy Networks are some of the best-run businesses, because the last thing they want is their own people launching a hostile take-over. This is why power needs to be split carefully. Who runs the show? Who makes the choices? Is there a council, or a single mastermind?

Remember, a spy network is about CONTROL. This can be done in many ways (one of which is shooting things and blowing this up, of course). Control can be obtained through Information (using blackmail as leverage), Terror (using violence as leverage), and Resources (using supply and demand as leverage).

If a country is growing too strong, you can find out what the lead officials do behind closed doors, and blackmail them. You can steal their money— or worse, their cache of weapons. And, of course, you can just have a sniper blow the brains of the Señor Presidente on national television.

Control. It’s all about control.

Now, what goes into the training of one such Spy? That will depend on your Spy Network. What you need to keep in mind that the Network is looking for people they can’t buy (because otherwise the enemy may end up offering more money), or people who disagree with their morals (again, hostile takeovers are bad for Spy Networks). This is why the ‘training’ is really nothing more that a systematic way to weed out everyone who is not fit for the task. Ask yourself what your Spy Network needs, what they want, and then put yourself in their shoes.

“How can we weed out the weak and the unfit?”

There is an interesting story about a secret service trainee who was asked to shoot his own wife in order to pass the next test. They locked both in a room and gave him a gun. (Spoilers: the gun had nothing but blanks, but neither wife nor agent knew that. Also, no, he did not pass the test). Is this brutal? Is this bad? Maybe, but you can’t say that test wouldn’t guarantee a soldier willing to do anything for your cause c;

Remember. It’s all about control— control over your minions, your foes, and the entire populace.

I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any more questions~ ♥︎ I had tons of fun answering this!

Thank you for the question, Savannah! And doubly-thank you for pledging to my Patreon page! Thank you for directly supporting me, my books, and the awesome posts that you see on this blog everyday~ ♥︎

Interested in becoming a Patron? Head over to my Patreon Page where you will find information on the sweet perks that can be yours from as little as $1 dollar a month, least of which is my gratitude! ♥︎

[writtenbymadeline]

A tool to use for find Synonyms: Synonym Finder.

This is a great, unique little tool I found by browsing for writing resources. It’s name speaks for itself: it’s a synonym finder.

The site is clean cut, has soothing colors, and to-the point results for any word you look up.

For example, when I look up the word “romance,” I get this:

Synonyms: romance, romanticism Definition: an exciting and mysterious quality (as of a heroic time or adventure)

Hypernyms: quality Definition: an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone Usage: the quality of mercy is not strained—Shakespeare”

I had no idea what a “hypernym” is. Apparently it’s a word with a more general meaning that a more specific word fall under. Like, color is a hypernym for green.

On the right corner there’s a button to make graphs! So you can trace each synonym from it’s root word, and see how far the other synonyms connect in comparison to others.

I really like it, so I’m going to definitely bookmark it on my writing tools list.

[theimmortalpriestess-blog-deact]

[maxkirin]

[ROYALTY AND NOBLE BLOOD] is a writing mix about feudal dynasties, bad blood, and royal turmoil. This playlist contains 15 of my favorite tracks for writing in a feudal/medieval setting. Unlike my other mixes, though, this one evolves like a story— at first it is calm, a new day, and little by little the mood heads into darker places. Threats of war. A nimble hand poisons a cup of wine. Moonlight reflected on the point of a dagger. Watch your back, your Majesty…

Your heir is plotting against you.

♪ Listen to this mix on 8tracks ♪

Looking for more writing playlists? Check out my other mixes:

[WRITING IN THE DARK] Unobtrusive & relaxing!

[WRITING ABOUT LOVE] Welcome to Feels City, population: You.

[WRITING & FIGHTING!] Round One, Fight!

[WRITING ABOUT HORROR] Don’t look, it’s right behind you!

Oh, and if you want more writerly content, then follow my blog for your daily dose of prompts, advice, and writer positivity: maxkirin.tumblr.com!

[binart]

step-by-step eye painting process! i’m no so good at explaining with words so hopefully this helps ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[maxkirin]

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.

Sydney Smith (via maxkirin)