Helpful Writing Links

[Angela Ackerman]

I thought it might be good if we could get a list going of links to help with writing. Here are some of my favorites. Let's try to keep the chit chat to a minimum on this thread so that it will make an easy reference, sound good?

One Look Reverse Dictionary--need a word but not quite sure what it is? Work backwards, type in a concept close to the word you need and all the possible words tied to it will pop up! http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

Rhyming Dictionary--If you need a rhyme, this is heaven! http://www.rhymezone.com/

Autocrit--want a tool that will show you all those weak repeated words and have it tell you approximately by what % you are overusing them? Put your excerpt in the text box and it analyzes the date for you. http://www.autocrit.com/index.php

Encyclopedia Mythica--One stop shopping for Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic and Native Amerinac mythology. http://www.pantheon.org/

Verla Kay's Blue Board--Most of you know this one and if you don't, you need this resource! Without a doubt the best place to find up to date info on all things YA & Kidlit, including Response Times for both Agents and Publishers http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php

Urban Dictionary--good place to look up slang terms or modernisms and decide if they are right for your novel. (use with care--don't date your novel by going slang crazy ;)) http://www.urbandictionary.com/

Medieval Beastiary--need a fantasy beastie? Start here! http://www.bestiary.ca/beasts/beastalpha.htm

Writing Realistic Injuries--gunshot wounds, hypothermia, dislocated shoulders...need accurate info for your scenarios? Have a look here. http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~leiafee/ramblings/realistic_injuri...

The Character Therapist--Whatever issue, mental or emotional condition/nerosis your character has, the Character Therapist has you covered. http://www.charactertherapist.blogspot.com/

[Jessica Milar]

Hi Angela,

I'll delete this after you answer, but why not have this as a group? You may want to contact Georgia and see if it can be made into a group. This is a great resource!

[Angela Ackerman]

I'm not sure what you mean by group. I'm just finding my way around. I figured the forums would be the most visible place for the links to be stored in one place, but if there's a better way then I'm all ears. :-)

[Lori L. Clark]

This is my favorite editing place: http://www.essayrater.com/ When I first started writing, I was told that my weakest part was my grammar and punctuation. :( I would love to buy software that did this much work.

[Aimee Bussard]

Great links! Thank you!

[LM Preston]

Thanks everyone! These are awesome. Keep it coming.

[Clara W]

Wonderful resources, thank you very much for this! =)

[Georgia McBride]

Thanks, Angela. We'll put this to the Craft Masters group as well! Its where we keep track of important craft related stuff.

[Angela Ackerman]

Awesome--thanks!

[Tabitha Olson]

What a great resource!

I'll add the sites I use when I need character names:
http://www.behindthename.com/
http://surnames.behindthename.com/

These sites have amazing searching capabilities, and the definitions and histories of names are thorough.

[Michelle Witte]

This is a great resource. Here are a few I love:

Merriam Webster's Dictionary—This is the dictionary used by most US book editors. www.m-w.com

Thesaurus.com—I love the different tools they have here for the thesaurus.
-They also have a reverse lookup:
-My favorite tool is the visual thesaurus. Try it out and see how cool it is. You can do a basic search for free, but to have unlimited access you have to pay. But you can search for a term or two each time you visit the site for free.* http://www.visualthesaurus.com/

Chicago Manual of Style—The style manual used by book editors. Their search function is great, plus they have an excellent Q&A that answers some tricky questions. If you want to know how to format some of the more tricky grammar and style issues, this is the place to go. Plus, following Chicago Style makes your manuscript look more professional. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html

*A note on Visual Thesaurus: It's only $2.95/month or $19.95/year for an online subscription. Or the desktop version is $39.95. For everything you get, it's definitely worth the cost. Plus I just read that they do visual thesaurus searches in other languages. Too cool.

That's all I can think of for now, but I'll add more as I remember them.

[Angela Ackerman]

Normally I would not put up a link here from my own blog, but I feel it addresses a theme prevalent in YA--Coming of Age. I have a Symbolism Thesaurus which looks at symbols found in nature and society for different themes. Coming of Age is hugely important to YA, so I wanted to link to it here in hopes that it might be of use for times that you want to reinforce this message/theme through description.

Symbolism Thesaurus: Coming of Age http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/2010/04/symbolism-thesaurus-en...

(If this is inappropriate for me to post, Georgia, please remove it with my apologies)

[Barbara Bell]

I think this is a great list! I want to recommend a book that's just come out...and while you may not use it for reference...you will definitely want it on your shelf for a pick-me-up.

Writing is hard and solitary work, and I know I take myself waaay too seriously sometimes, so the Book of Awesome helps to remind me to chill out and be cool. I laughed out loud reading some of the excerpts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I posted a review and some of my favorites here: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-15378-San-Jose-Young-Adult-Liter...