Writing
Here you will find podcasts, e-zines, communities, websites all dedicated to writing. We've also got some very useful online reference material.
Writing Blogs
A Writer's Year
Louise Doughty writes a weekly column for The Telegraph as she goes through the year writing her sixth novel. It's a sequel to her A Novel in a Year column from 2006 where she steps readers through writing a novel in a year.
Writing Podcasts
Whispers at the Edge
Philippa Ballantine is a New Zealand fantasy writer with two published fantasy novels: Weaver's Web and Chasing the Bard. In her podcast she shares how her writing life is going, talks about a writerly topic, gives us Pip's Picks of books or websites and a Slice of New Zealand Life.
I Should Be Writing
Mur Lafferty is a self confessed wannabe writer. Wannabe fiction writer that is and she does have several fiction credits to her name. In her podcast she shares how she is doing in her pursuit for fiction publication, covers all writing topics from preparation and writing to the great agent hunt and provides interviews with published writers.
The Secrets
Michael A. Stackpole is a bestseller writer of science fiction and fantasy. Author of several Star Wars novels he has been writing and published since the late 1970's. In The Secrets podcast and the companion newsletter he shares his years of wisdom.
The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy
Tee Morris is a fantasy writer who hosted Philippa Ballantine on the Pimp that Kiwi tour. The Survival Guide focuses on what happens after you have a book published.
Holly Lisle on Writing
Holly Lisle is a fantasy and romantic suspense writer who makes her living from writing. Founder of Forward Motion and her own resource rich website she also took on podcasting. Though the last podcast was July 2006 the existing five episodes are worth a listen.
E-zines
Vision
Vision is an e-zine published as part of Forward Motion every two months. It covers every aspect of fiction writing you could want to know about and has issues going back to 2001.
The Secrets
The Secrets is the companion newsletter to The Secrets podcast by Michael A. Stackpole. It covers, in detail, such areas as character development, worldbuilding and plotting.
The Writers’ Ezine
The Writers’ Ezine is presented by members of Writers’ Village University and includes articles on writing, fiction pieces and poetry pieces every month.
Communities
Forward Motion
Forward Motion is a writer’s community started by Holly Lisle and now run by Lazette Gifford. It contains an amazing amount of information including free online classes, an array of writing challenges and general camaraderie.
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month is an event in November where participants are challenged to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. Though this is a single event the forums at NaNoWriMo are up year round and are a great source of information.
NaNoPubYe
National Novel Publishing Year builds on the concept of NaNoWriMo providing a year long adventure to publication or at least submission. Each month you will be taken through a different step in the novelling process.
My Writers Circle
A community of helpful and supportive writers. You can chat about writing or put up your work, script and poetry for review.
Websites
Fiction Factor
Fiction Factor is a site full of writing articles and has great genre sections.
Writer’s Digest
Writer’s Digest is the website of the magazine. Not only does it have articles and interviews but an annual top 100 writing websites list.
The Scriptorium
The Scriptorium is another great resource of writing articles and links to other resources.
Robert Sawyer's sfwriter page
Robert Sawyer isn't just
Canada's most successful science fiction writer, he's one of Canada's most successful writers full stop. Here, he shares all his "secrets" for anyone who will listen.
BBC Get Writing
The BBC helps us to get writing by providing mini-courses, tools and quizzes, useful links and articles about the craft.
Holly Lisle
Holly Lisle is a fantasy and romance suspense writer who has also written books about writing and an impressive array of articles. Her website is vast, her advice priceless.
The Writer's Life
The Writer's Life focuses on eBooks and ePublishing providing information on writing, publishing and promoting.
Reference Material
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopaedia that has a vast array of information on all subjects. Content on Wikipedia can be added by anyone but is strictly monitored by Wikipedia.
Questia
Questia is an online library with functionality for users to manage research projects. Previews and snippets of books are provided free but there is a charge to gain access to the complete access.
How Stuff Works
How Stuff Works provides articles on how stuff works. If you need a quick rundown on home something works this is the place to go.
Writing Software
yWriter
Writing software written by a writer for writers containing all the basic features needed to put together a novel. Each novel has its own file and chapters and scenes are easily acessed.
Adding new scenes is easy and conflict, goal and outcome can be set for each and every scene. Best of all this wonderfull software is free to use with alot of regular updates.
Sonar
This program tells you which market has each story, whether a story
has been sold or rejected and which stories are gathering dust instead
of earning their keep. If you decide to use it, you will be able to
view a list of all your stories and then filter them in various ways
(e.g. only show stories which are available to send out). You can add
markets, stories and submissions and best of all it's completely free.