Just in time for NaNoWriMo, there is a cool new mash-up to help you find popular names for the United States and parts of Europe.
Of course, this only helps if you’re trying to name characters set in the real world…and at the current time. For those writing in the past, you can always research census data. For those writing in the future, you can find interesting names and mangle them to your heart’s content.
If you’re writing in a world of your own creation, research name generators!
Posted by Rebecca as Resources at 7:37 AM EDT
No Comments »
(Before you worry, that was both intentional and very painful to write!)
One of the things that drives me up the wall when I’m helping my writing students revise and edit their papers or when I’m editing for clients is the horrifying misuse of homophones (words that sound alike, but have radically different meanings). When I point out the misused word, nearly every single one of them, student and client alike, exclaims, “But I used SpellCheck!”
I try not to laugh, instead trying to point out that SpellCheck can only tell you if the word you’ve typed matches a word in its (rather limited) database. It can’t tell you if you’ve typed the word you meant to, or if the word you typed makes sense in the sentence you’re typing. That’s simply not what it was programmed to do, and it’s unreasonable to expect it to those things.
What you can do, though, is make use of great tools like Confusing Words. If your vocabulary isn’t strong enough, or if you haven’t learned enough grammar to know you might need to check a word, then you should consider running more words than you think you should through here. Confusing Words is nice because it gives you the word you typed in, any words it’s confused with, and the definitions of all words involved. There is also a list of examples and notes to help you determine which word you really want to use.
Homophones are a constant part of the English language, but you can appear to have mastery over them by using this awesome little tool!
Posted by Rebecca as Resources at 7:46 AM EDT
No Comments »
It’s that time of year again! The time when people around the world cluster in forums (when the site works), IRC channels, and coffee shops and start talking about word count goals and debate over whether or not to plot.
Yes, it’s time to sign up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)!
What is NaNoWriMo? It’s best described as a pure writing frenzy. From November 1 to November 30, you write a novel of at least 50,000 words. It’s a great chance to just sit down and write that novel you’ve always been meaning to!
The best part is that because of the tight deadline, you have absolutely no time to fret over the imperfections of your first draft (Just an FYI, first drafts are supposed to be bad and imperfect.) You can sit and write. You can plan. You can just sit down and write. It’s all about you and the writing.
It’s a great exercise, one that you seriously should consider doing, if for no other reason than to say, “I’ve written a novel.” No one has to know you haven’t edited it yet.
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 8:09 AM EDT
No Comments »
I’ve spent the past two months submerged in writing books, and I think I can safely say that there are some truly frightening books out there (some of which come highly recommended by respected writers). Many of them agree on a number things, but they all conflict on a wide majority of things as well.
It’s enough to make a girl’s head nearly explode.
I got through James Bonnet’s book and his stirring speech on why the act-scene structure was anathema to good story structure. That was fun, because nearly everyone else (including books on good presentation design) has proven why act-scene structure is a good story backbone, and many of them have even made the three-act structure look like a great starting place for learning how to lay out a captivating story.
I actually swore off reading another writing book at that point, and then remembered I still had Writing for Comics with Peter David sitting on my to-read shelf. Now, I have loved David’s writing since I was in high school. To this day, my favorite Star Trek: the Next Generation books have nearly all been written by him, and I own all the Sir Apropos books, and am slowly working my way through the Arthur books. Needless to say, I’m a bit of a fan.
Writing for Comics with Peter David is actually a writing book any fiction writer should read, regardless of what they’re trying to write. While his examples all come from his comic book writing experience, his advice is broad enough to cover comic books and fiction novels (both of which he has extensive experience in writing). He also includes a number of writing exercises (a coupole of which may be playing a part in my writing very shortly).
And he supports the three-act structure, too!
Posted by Rebecca as Uncategorized at 7:38 AM EDT
No Comments »
