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100 Useful Web Tools for Writers | College Degrees 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

Academy of Achievement: Achieve*NET Curriculum -> Creative Writing: Learning from the Masters The Creative Writing lesson focuses on the lives and craft of six of America's most preeminent writers of fiction. Through intimate and revealing discussions, these authors attempt to unravel the mystery around the art of creative writing. The writers brought together in this lesson are: Ernest Gaines, Carol Shields, Joyce Carol Oates, Amy Tan, Norman Mailer, and John Irving. Using a traditional backward-design teaching method, this interactive eLearning module delivers one-of-a-kind lesson material and evaluation tools to help students learn from the inspirations, challenges, methods, and advice of these great writing masters. This module is appropriate for students in grades 7 through 12 in English, Civics, History or other relevant Social Sciences settings. Click here to launch the Creative Writing: Learning from the Masters Module (requires Flash ) Click here to view the Educator Guide

50 Alternatives to the Book Report | WriteToLearn m.guardian.co.uk From time to time, this column is asked for advice, sometimes obsessively, about decoding the many mysteries of "the world of books". There's a widespread view, held by those looking from the outside, that there must be a philosopher's stone for success in literature, a magic formula that will turn everything to gold. The truth is much closer to Thomas Edison's definition of creativity: "1% inspiration, 99% perspiration." So this is not an advice column. In the celebrated words of the American screenwriter William Goldman, "nobody knows anything". However, in the season of goodwill, here is my list of 50 things I've learned in the byways and saloons of Grub Street. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. Finally: anything goes. Happy Christmas!

Scriffon: Write and publish on the Web How I Went From Writing 2,000 Words a Day to 10,000 Words a Day When I started writing The Spirit War (Eli novel #4), I had a bit of a problem. I had a brand new baby and my life (like every new mother's life) was constantly on the verge of shambles. I paid for a sitter four times a week so I could get some writing time, and I guarded these hours like a mama bear guards her cubs - with ferocity and hiker-mauling violence. But (of course), things didn't work out like that. Needless to say, I felt like a failure. When I told people at ConCarolinas that I'd gone from writing 2k to 10k per day, I got a huge response. So, once and for all, here's the story of how I went from writing 500 words an hour to over 1500, and (hopefully) how you can too: A quick note: There are many fine, successful writers out there who equate writing quickly with being a hack. Drastically increasing your words per day is actually pretty easy, all it takes is a shift in perspective and the ability to be honest with yourself (which is the hardest part). Update! Side 2: Time

Cliche Finder Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase... Over 3,300 clichés indexed! What exactly is a cliche? This is Morgan, creator of the Cliche Finder. Or, you might like my crazy passion project: Spanish for Nerds: Learning Spanish via Etymologies! Back to cliches... if you would like to see some other Web sites about clichés? © S. Special thanks to Damien LeriAnd to Mike Senter Morgan's Web page

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