Writing Resources

I have a friend who is really digging into to organizing her writing things — every story she has started but not completed, her writing notes from conferences and monthly meetings she’s attended as well as from writing books she’s read, and her Pinterest page. She’s also been looking for more resources to learn more about how to write better, and she’s been contacting me with questions. Two of her recent questions have been about what blogs or websites are good writing resources and what books are good resources?

That is how I decided to write this post — to share with all of my readers — the resources I find most helpful and beneficial.

Websites: https://www.almostanauthor.com/ This is a very popular website for writers. It offers tips and advice by genre and craft. It offers support for writers and information on how to to a book proposal, as well as marketing strategies. (I actually write articles for the romance genre and the historical genre on this site — four articles for each of the two genres each year). This website is listed in Writer’s Digest’s Top 100 Websites for Writers almost every year.

https://thewritepractice.com/ This is another great website that offers lots of good tips and advice through tutorials and blog posts for writers.

https://www.writersdigest.com/ This magazine has been around for many, many years and many authors, including bestselling authors have read it and/or written for it. There website offers some great articles and competitions for writers.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles#quiz-0 I have found this website’s article helpful as well. They offer classes, but you can simply search their articles and find some great and helpful information. Simply click the “writing” box and you can scroll through their articles.

https://reedsy.com/ I have also used this website for tips, advice, and helpful articles, etc. for several years. They offer lots of good stuff, including a huge list of writing prompts.

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/ and https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2975035.K_M_Weiland/blog Both of these websites are also great helps for writers. K.M. Weiland is personable and easy to understand. She has written fiction books as well as books about writing, and she has this website and blog that she uses to offer tips and advice to writers.

I’m sure there are others, but these are the ones I find myself returning to over and over again.

Books I have read or used and found quite helpful:

All of the great books by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. I don’t have all of them yet, but they are all different thesauruses and the ones I own and have used are “The Emotion Thesaurus”, which I have used many times during the writing of my upcoming novel; “The Positive Trait Thesaurus” and “The Negative Trait Thesaurus” — these two I used to create my main characters before starting my story. These were the first three these ladies released. They have since come out with more, and whether you are a pantser, a plotter, or somewhere in between, these books are extremely helpful for writing your stories, no matter what genre you write.

Word Painting by Rebecca McClanahan. I love this book. It is a book that teaches and gives examples of how to write descriptively in a way that paints pictures in your readers’ minds without overdoing it or not writing enough description.

I also find books on any aspect of writing by James Scott Bell to be helpful.

Even though, I haven’t read these two books, they are on my shelf waiting for me to take time for them. They have come highly recommended and I really do want to read them as soon as I can. They are: “Wired for Story” and “Story Genius” by Lisa Cron.

Do you have a favorite writing website or a great book that helps you with your writing that I haven’t listed here? If so, please share in the comments section below.