Writers' Resources
We provide articles, exercises, and links with an emphasis on fiction, but you'll find a bit of everything here. Our experience is primarily in the areas of freelancing, roleplaying game-writing, short stories, and web articles. We've also done a lot of reading about writing, as well as book reviewing, so we think we have some insights to share. Obviously every writer works a bit differently, so you won't find all of these articles suitable to you. But we hope you'll enjoy looking around.
A Few First Steps
Asking Questions and Getting Started as a Writer: Many people have no idea where to start when looking into writing as a career. And since so many people want to write, writers are constantly getting interrogated on various topics and asked to read other people's manuscripts. In this article we'll give you an idea of where to start when looking for information on a career in writing. We'll help you understand some of the issues involved when talking to writers. And hopefully we'll give you some ways to get the answers you're looking for!
Craft and Technique
- "But That's the Way It Really Happened!"
- Editing & Developing Manuscripts
- Giving Depth and Dimension to Overused Plots
- How to Be a Professional Reviewer
- How to Review Cookbooks
- How to Write Useful Outlines for Writers
- Prophecy Confusions
- Revenge as a Plot in Roleplaying Games
- The Seven Sins of Character Motivation
- Using Tarot Spreads to Create Characters
- The Writer as Protagonist
- Tips & Hints for Cookbook Authors
Exercises and Warm-Ups
Most of the exercises below are generalized, with variations provided, so that you can use them over and over in different ways. If you want regular, specific exercises, we provide almost-daily exercises in the Epiphanies.
- The Character Questionnaire
- Character Variation
- Childhood Traumas
- Clothing
- A Day in the Life
- Encyclopedias and Other Reference Books
- How to Use Writing Exercises... And How Not to Use Them
- The Item
- Market Listings
- Mental Illness
- The Portal
- The Review
- Roleplay
- Strong Emotions
- Taboos and Cliches
- Tarot as a Writing Prompt
- Tattoos
- Travel
- Visit Your World
- The Word
- Word-Play
365 Character Questions for Writers and Roleplayers--pdf format, 5.5 M. This is a free download available for your use. However, a fair amount of work did go into this project. If you enjoy and use this document, please consider telling others where you found it or purchasing a hard copy through CafePress.com. You may freely distribute this document for non-commercial purposes as long as you do not change it in any way.
Job, Career, and Psychology
- Advice on Marketing Your Books from the Perspective of a Reviewer and Website Maintainer
- Criticism and Learning to Write
- How I Write (Or, Inspiration and Writing to Spec)
- How to Successfully Work from Home
- On Being Reviewed
- Pay per Click Sites and the Professional Writer
- Recovering from Writers' Burnout: Steps to Happier Writing
- Seven Lessons Writers Don't Like to Learn
- Surviving the Rewrite Process
- Typing, Writing and Repetitive Strain Injury
- Write for Yourself
- Writers' Web Sites that Get Good Search Engine Rankings
