Resources for Writers

Welcome! This page is a work in progress because I’m always adding stuff to it as I write, edit, and publish.

It’s a bit of work to put it all here instead of on a worksheet on my computer, soooo…

…. if there’s value in it for you, please consider helping me continue doing it. I truly hate to ask, but writers generally make less than 10k a year.

Buy Me a Coffee

Patreon image.pngPatreon is here and Paypal  

Help me keep providing content, and you know, eating? Amazon Wishlist too.

Writing resources: 

Things I’ve found helpful in the pursuit of writing well.  This is going to be a long and varied list—and will be ever growing—but it might be helpful for others.

Stuff I use/have made to further my process:

My very own fillable (if I did it right!) character sheet: Gender neutral character-sheet-for-writer-y-folks

Novel Critique form courtesy of K.J. Harrowick

Writing Contests/Twitter Pitch events/Twitter Hashtag Games:

102 hashtags

Carissa Taylor’s Pitch Generator page

Twitter Pitches & Contests

DVpit

(I’m disabled, autistic, and mixed-race, so fit the ‘qualifications’ of this pitch event.) I Do NOT in any way endorse it due to reported or witnessed awful behavior on Twitter by many of the organizers. At least two of the people reportedly involved in this event have attacked autistic people on Twitter. Including me. One, maybe two of the organizers started the harassment barrage that ended up with me leaving Twitter, entering an eight-month period of autistic burnout, and actively ideating suicide. I know of another one of them that has reportedly attacked an autistic book professional as well. (I know the professional, and I believe them.) The proof is all on Twitter if you want to go look. I wash my hands of it. 

PitchCB

SFFpit by Dan Kobalt

PBPitch

Pitch América

PitDark

PridePitch

IWSGPit

Ultimate guide to twitter pitch contests

Note: I no longer update this section. Do please let me know if you find a broken link and I’ll remove it. I will never let traditional publishing near my fiction work again, so I have no need of pitch events, as they focus on traditional publishing.


Web pages of interest: Writing advice, how to’s, what not to do, realities of writing, et cetera

THAT BLOODY QUERY LETTER!!!

Query Shark

LOGLINES

List of publishers accepting un-agented submissions. 

Query Tracker

Agent Query

Manuscript Wish List


Genre Definitions, some DOs and DON’Ts, IS and ISN’Ts and generally helpful pages

What is Erotic Romance

What Magical Realism ISN’T

Pitfalls of Writing SFF and how to avoid them (Turkey City Lexicon)

Writing with Color


Weird resources I’ve found helpful

Someone said my character is a Mary-Sue… are they? The Universal Mary Sue Litmus Test

List of psychic abilities

Pictorial height and weight chart

Those Pesky Pronouns, an absolutely gorgeous, inclusive chart.

Aesthetic Attraction, say what?

Word List/Definitions for Sailing Ships

Euphemisms for murder: Wiki

Scent trailing dogs and how they do it

Slang/urban dictionary

Dictionary of Motorcycle Slang

British Slang

100 Most Beautiful phrases in British English

Writing believable British Characters for an American Writer.

List of Daggers

List of World Mythologies

Map of First Nations Tribes before conquest/colonization

Raphael (his artwork)

Whiskey VS Whisky 

Pistol Ready Positions


Technical stuff of interest

Filler words to remove from your novel, by Meg LaTorre

Debut Author’s Advice series

Michael Mammay’s Blog, interesting and useful thoughts on writing.

Dan Kobalt’s Science is Scifi Fact in Fiction series.

Showing VS Telling

Don’t Annoy Your Readers: Self-Editing for Dummies

Crap Someone Should Have Told You Writers By Now

Kim Long’s Final Editing Checklist

Jami Nord’s Blog, opening with a bang

Why an author platform?

Author Blunders, bloopers and boo boos, what to avoid

Article for Indie publishers on making books friendly for Dyslexic Readers.

List of martial arts strikes

400 Euphemisms for Sex

25 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WRITING MYSTERIES, BY SUSAN SPANN Via Chuck Wendig’s blog

9 most misused gun terms

Grammar rules: Capitalization

Locksmith Terminology-Dictionary of Locksmith and Security terms


Legal Beagling

PUB LAW By Susan Spann

Taxes for Epub/Self-Pub

Can I use this image on social media? OR Creative Commons Copyright.

Watch out for these contract terms

Avoiding Scam Publishers 


Some How-To and Details: On this THING we do

List of English Contractions

Master List of Facial Expressions for Writers

Fillers/Filters

Character Flaw Database from tvtropes.org

8 Point/How to Structure A Story

Three Act Structure

Snowflake plotting structure

Word Counts: How long should your book be?

Character Arcs 

Welcome To The Matrix (article on how content creators are working for free)

List of Martial Arts Weapons

Trans Masculine health care

Euphemisms for female masturbation

Real Writers Get Critical Reviews

Writing for Film, Screenplays, and Scripts. (Thanks, Anna! Keep writing, it’s worth it 🧡.)

And thank you Ms. Taylor, fostering and encouraging young writers is a marvelous thing. The world needs more teachers like you.


Recommended programs I use. I’m not affiliated with any of them, but I do enjoy them and use them in my work.

Plottr
Scrivener
Scapple
ProwritingAid
World Anvil 

Feel free to send me interesting resources to add to this list via my email address:

kaija.rayne.author@gmail.com (For my safety and because I’ve been harassed so badly, I don’t do social media much, so this is the fastest way to reach me.)