Creative Mind Mapping for Novelists Brainstorming ideas seems to be one of the hardest stages in the writing process for many novelists. As I discussed in a previous post, this storm of ideas that flash and thunder in our brains often appears unruly and difficult to harness. I introduced the practice of mind mapping, which is used across many disciplines—such as in classrooms for essay writing and in business meetings to problem-solve. Mind mapping can be used in just about any situation when ideas need to be reeled in and transformed into practical application. Mind Map on the Macro and Micro Levels I’ve never seen anyone specifically focus on novel structure or fiction plotting via mind mapping, so I’m going to show you ways I feel mind mapping can be useful for the novelist. Going deeper, you can merge mind maps, which I’ll explain in a later post. Brainstorming Characters and Theme Together I’m a character-driven novelist, so I always first start with character ideas along with theme. Focusing on Theme in Your Mind Map
Free iTunes U Courses for Writers & Readers | GalleyCat Earlier this year, Apple unveiled iTunes U, a vast collection of free courses to download for Apple devices. Here’s more about the massive collection: “Learn a new language. Study Shakespeare. We’ve been exploring the courses over the last few weeks, uncovering ten free courses for writers and readers can download right now. 10 Free iTunes U Courses for Writers & Readers 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
How to write a book - Now Novel 12 sites that will teach you coding for free Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. There was a time when knowing how to program was for the geekiest of geeks. That's not exactly the case today. As most entrepreneurs, freelancers and marketers will tell you, learning how to program can help you succeed. Over the past year, I've been learning to code. You don't even need to shell out a ton of money or put yourself in debt to learn how to code, either. 1. One of the most popular free places to learn coding is Codeacademy. Related: Want to Take Your Business to the Next Level? 2. Founded in 2012, Coursera has grown into a major for-profit educational-technology company that has offered more than 1,000 courses from 119 institutions. 3. edX EdX is another leading online-learning platform that is open source instead of for-profit. 4. Founded in 2010, Udemy is an online learning platform that can be used as a way to improve or learn job skills. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
23 Fiction Writing Ideas That Will Revitalize Your Story Posted by Melissa Donovan on September 29, 2015 · Refresh your story with these fiction writing ideas. Sometimes our fiction writing projects dry up. The characters turn out to be flat, the plot becomes formulaic, and the story suddenly seems lackluster. This is when a lot of writers give up and file their half-finished manuscripts into a bottom drawer never to be seen again. What a waste of time and energy. Before giving up on a project, why not try to resurrect it? Fiction Writing Ideas Today’s writing ideas will help you enhance stories that are suffering from a variety of maladies ranging from boring plots to unrealistic characters. Give your characters more than a goal. Got Any Fiction Writing Ideas? Got any tips or ideas to add? About Melissa DonovanMelissa Donovan is a website designer and copywriter.
16 Best Plugins to Improve WordPress Comments System Comments are an integral part of many WordPress blogs as an effective way to engage users and build community. The default WordPress commenting system is good but it is quite plain and basic. However, you can extend the this basic commenting system into a powerful user engagement platform for your website. In this article, we will show the best plugins to improve WordPress comments and take them to the next level. Video Tutorial If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading. 1. De:comments is an all in one plugin to totally transform your WordPress commenting system. 2. Yoast Comment Hacks is a suite of tools that helps make comment management easier. 3. This plugin simply adds quicktag buttons in WordPress comment form’s textarea. 4. Comments are a powerful way to build communities. 5. Sometimes when a user submits a comment, they immediately realize they have made a spelling mistake or some other error. 6. 7. oEmbed in Comments 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.
OmPad: Free, beautiful, minimal and inspirational writing web app Welcome to OmPad! Free minimal writing app that helps you focus and concentrate on writing great content. Format your text with headings, bold, italic, links, images, lists, code and quotes. Customization: Change the theme, size, font and width by hovering over the OmPad logo (bottom left)Formatting: Select the text and a floating toolbar will show up.Images: Type in a URL, select it and click the image buttonHTML: Click the bottom right word-count You can start editing this text you are reading right now, go ahead, click here and start typing! "This is the best writing app ever, and it's free!" Put your browser on full screen mode for an immersive distraction-free experience. Simple, powerful, beautiful. There is no Save button, everything is auto-saved as you type. Made with ❤ by Xavi Esteve
100 Useful Web Tools for Writers All kinds of writers, including poets, biographers, journalists, biz tech writers, students, bloggers and technical writers, take a unique approach to their jobs, mixing creativity with sustainability. Whether you’re a freelance writer just scraping by or someone with a solid job and more regular hours, the Internet can provide you with unending support for your practical duties like billing, scheduling appointments, and of course getting paid; as well as for your more creative pursuits, like developing a plot, finding inspiration and playing around with words. Turn to this list for 100 useful Web tools that will help you with your career, your sanity and your creativity whenever your write. Getting Organized Thanks to the Internet, disorganized writers are no longer a cliche. Finding Inspiration Beat down writer’s block by using these online idea prompts and inspirational tools. Getting Gigs For many writers, finding a gig is the hardest part of their career. Networking and Marketing
Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. The blank white page. Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. There are two things more difficult than writing. It’s so easy to hide in your little bubble, typing your little words with your little fingers on your little laptop from the comfort of your tiny chair in your miniature little house. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer. Available in print withThe Best of McSweeney’s Internet Tendency
Writing Magazine | Latest Issue | Writers Online The Maltings, , Bourne, Lincs. PE10 9PH Tel:+44 (0)1778 391000 • Fax: +44 (0)1778 421706 Last Updated: 10th May 2012 This page (together with the documents referred to on it) tells you the terms on which you may use and access our website whether as a guest or a registered user. Our Site is a site operated by Warners Group Publications Plc ("We"). We are a public limited company. Access to our Site is permitted on a temporary basis, and we reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our Site without notice (see below). From time to time, we may restrict access to some parts of our Site, or our entire Site, to users who have registered with us. If you choose, or you are provided with, a user identification code, password or any other piece of information as part of our security procedures, you must treat such information as confidential, and you must not disclose it to any third party. loss of income or revenue; loss of anticipated savings
Writing tips - James Thurber In his 1949 book, Thurber Country, celebrated author, cartoonist and satirist James Thurber offers some amusing rules for comedy writers, "established [...] after receiving dozens of humorous essays and stories from strangers over a period of twenty years." Those rules are as follows. (Source: Thurber Country; Image: James Thurber, via Wikipedia.) 1. Writer's Café fiction writing software - novels - screenwriting - short stories - creative fun
One Sentence - True stories, told in one sentence. What software do published authors use to write their books? - Quora