Writing Tips, Guides, & Advice

• How to Write Good
• Show, Don’t Tell
• The Name Game
• Your Novel Blueprint
• The Seven Major Beginner Mistakes
• Finish Your Novel
• Choosing the Right Name for Your Story
• Titles Sell Book!
• “Prove” Your Story with Evidence
• Research for Fiction
• How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method
• Should You Use Flashbacks?
• Components of a Good Opening Scene
• 101 Tips to Fight & Overcome Writer’s Block
• Outline Your Novel in Thirty Minutes
• How to Start Writing in the Third Person
• 7 Tips to Become a Better Writer from Stephen King
• George Orwell’s Tips on Writing: 6 Questions/6 Rules
• Ernest Hemingway’s Top 5 Tips for Writing Well
• Neil Gaiman: 8 Good Writing Practices
• Nine Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, Part I
• Nine Common Fiction Writing Mistakes, Part II
• The Use and Abuse of Dialogue Tags
• How to Write Really Bad Fiction and Enjoy the Benefits of Rapid Rejection
• How to Use Reading to Become a Better Writer
• Why Writers Must Read
• How to Finish What You Start: A Five-Step Plan for Writers
• 31 Ways to Find Inspiration for Your Writing
• A Guide to Writing Well
• Learn from the Greats: 7 Writing Habits of Amazing Writers
• Using Foreshadowing
• Foreshadowing — Don’t Your Love it?
• The Physiology of Foreshadowing
• Are You Trying to Write a Well-Written Book or Tell a Great Story?
• What Makes a Good Ending?

Conflict & Plot

• What is Conflict?
• Conflict in Romance
• Conflict: Basic Principles of Writing
• External Conflict Worksheet
• Building Better Novels Through Conflict
• Conflict: Can’t Live With It; Can’t Write Without It
• Stop That Fighting! Conflict Aren’t all About the Punches
• Using Gender Differences to Create Conflict and Advance Plot
• Adding Conflict to Your Scenes
• Guides for Using Inner Conflict That Makes Sense
• Raising the Tension and Conflict in a Scene
• How to Escalate Conflict in Your Novel
• Adding Small Problems to Your Plot
• Effectively Outlining Your Plot
• Thirteen Prime Plot Principles
• Too Much of a Good Thing: Over Plotting Your Novel
• Plotting Your Novel
• Plotting a Fantasy Novel, Part 1
• 9 Ways of Looking at Plot
• To Plot or Not to Plot
• Plotting Your Novel
• The Top Ten Plotting Problems
• The Elements of Plot Development
• Actions vs. Choices: Crafting Better Plots

Encyclopedias

• Bartleby
• Encyclopedia Britannica
• Encyclopedia of Life
• Encyclopedia Mythica
• Encyclopedia of Psychology
• Healthopedia
• Herbal Encyclopedia
• J.R.R. Tolkien: Encyclopedia of Arda
• Monstropedia
• Godchecker.com
• Medicine in 19th Century America

Dictionaries/Thesaurus

• Dictionary.com
• Thesaurus.com
• Oxford Dictionary
• Spanish Dictionary
• Medical Dictionary
• Your Dictionary
• Botanical Dictionary of Plants and Flowers
• Cambridge Dictionaries Online
• Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
• RhymeZone — Rhyming Dictionary
• OneLook’s Reverse Dictionary
• Online Etymology Dictionary
• LexScripta - Dictionary of Slang

Spelling, Punctuation, & Grammar

• SpellCheck.net
• Why You Can’t Rely on Your Spellchecker
• Index of Commonly Confused Words
• The 200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words in English
• Top Four Spelling Rules
• Grammar Slammer!
• American vs. British Grammar
• HyperGrammar
• Grammar Girl
• Guide to Grammar & Writing
• Using i.e. and e.g. Correctly
• Guide to Grammar and Style
• 40+ Tips to Improve your Grammar and Punctuation
• Better Writing: Grammar & Spelling
• Semicolons and Colons
• Underlining and Italicizing
• Dashes and Parentheses
• Hyphens
• Apostrophes
• The Ellipsis
• Special Cases for Capitals
• Abbreviations of Position or Rank
• Avoiding Comma Confusion
• Owl — Purdue Online Writing Lab
• English Grammar
• Kill the Adverbs!
• 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-ups
• Correct and Effective Punctuation & Mechanics
• Top Ten Proofreading Tips
• Edgar Allan Poe on Punctuation
• Punctuating Dialogue
• How to Use the Semicolon
• Introduction to the Basic Rules of Punctuation
• Guidelines for Using Apostrophes Correctly
• Top Four Guidelines for Using Commas Effectively

Naming

• Behind the Name
• Behind the Name: Surnames
• Behind the Name: Ancient Greek Names
• Behind the Name: Ancient Roman Names
• Behind the Name: Ancient Celtic Names
• Behind the Name: Japanese Names
• Behind the Name: Portuguese Names
• Behind the Name: German Names
• Behind the Name: Italian Names
• Behind the Name: Romanian Names
• Behind the Name: Scottish Names
• Behind the Name: Chinese Names
• Behind the Name: Arabic Names
• Behind the Name: Native American Names
• Behind the Name: Korean Names
• Behind the Name: Russian Names
• Behind the Name: Greek Names
• Behind the Name: Irish Names
• Behind the Name: Indian Names
• Behind the Name: French Names
• Behind the Name: Spanish Names
• Behind the Name: African Names
• BabyNamer: Baby Names and Meanings
• Parenthood: Baby Names
• Fantasy Name Generator
• 20,000+ Names From Around the World
• Fairy Names
• Dragon, Serpent & Snake Names
• Seventh Sanctum — Name Generators
• U.S. Social Security Administration: Popular Baby Names
• J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth List of Names
• Tolkien Names: Naming Your Children in Elvish
• Tolkien’s Elf Names in Quenya
• The Hobbit Name Generator
• The Elvish Name Generator
• Victorian Era Names
• Egyptian Names
• Viking Names
• Viking Given Names (How to Pronounce Them)
• Renaissance Period Names in Italy
• Renaissance Period Names in England
• Medieval Names Archive: English, Old English, and Anglo-Norman Names
• Medieval Names Archive: Names from Other Countries

Character Development

• Name That Character
• How to Pick Character Names: 7 Rules
• Writing Technique: Character Interview
• Developing Realistic Characters
• 10 Questions for Creating Believable Characters
• Adding Character Depth Through Perception
• Character Questionnaires
• 100 Character Development Questions
• Characterizing Secondary and Minor Characters
• Character Creation Form
• Fiction Writer’s Character Chart
• Character Chart for Fiction Writers
• Creating an Original Character
• Creating Character Depth with Astrological Signs
• How to Write a Character from Start to Finish
• Seven Common Character Types
• Fast and Easy Guide to Writing Characters of the Opposite Gender
• Writing the Male Point of View
• Writing the Female Point of View
• 10 Body Language Tricks for Deeper Characterization
• Character Flaws: When is Too Far Too Far?
• Character Development: Personality Components
• The Major Role of Minor Characters
• How to Write Effective Supporting Characters
• 5 Tips for Writing Kick-Ass Characters
• Character Chart
• 5 Steps to Dazzling Minor Characters
• List of Character Traits
• 35 Weird Traits Your Characters May Have
• Writing Fantasy Gender Stereotypes, Part One: Your Heroine Is Too Beautiful
• Writing Fantasy Gender Stereotypes, Part Two: Writing the Opposite Gender
• Writing Fantasy Gender Stereotypes, Part Three: Alphas, Betas, and Losers, Oh My!
• The Human Beneath the Hero
• Character Development: A Step by Step Method
• Heroes & Villains
• Villains vs. Antagonists
• Creating Villains People Love to Hate
• The Sixteen Villain Archetypes
• The Eight Heroine Archetypes
• The Eight Hero Archetypes
• The Hero’s Journey: The Steps
• Ten Tips for a Terrific Antagonist
• How to Make Your Villains Scary
• What to do When Your Bad Guy Isn’t a Person?
• Develop Your Antagonist
• The “Villain” Spectrum: Creating a Layered Antagonist
• It’s All About Character
• Talking About a Character’s Past
• Dealing With Back Story
• Building Fictional Characters One Stranger at a Time
• List of Character Traits
• Descriptive Words for Characters
• Character Trait, Descriptive Adjectives, and Other Words
• Archetypewriting: Character Traits List (PDF)
• Creating a Character Bio Sheet
• Character Development Part One: Virtues
• Character Development Part Two: Vices
• List of Negative Personality Traits
• List of Positive Personality Traits
• Brainstorming List: Character Hobbies and Skills
• How to Use Your Character’s Voice
• Speaking of Dialogue
• 8 Tips for Writing Dialogue
• Writing Gender-Specific Dialogue
• Character Voices in Non-P.O.V. Characters
• How to Avoid “Stepping Out of Character”
• How to Write Accents and Speech Patterns
• How to Write Authentic Foreign Accents in Dialogue
• Dialogue: Writing Dialects and Accents

Romance

• Writing Romance
• Ten Essentials for Writing Love Scenes
• Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal Romances
• Romance Writing 101
• Twenty Steps to Writing Great Love Scenes
• Keeping it Sweet While Turning Up the Heat
• Creating Great Heroes and Heroines
• Seduce Your Reader with the Perfect Title
• How Not to Create a Villain
• On Love And Sex
• All That Sex!
• Writing the Love Scene
• What’s My Line? Character Professions in the Romance
• The Subgenres of Romance
• Writing Romantic Comedy
• Secrets of Writing an Old-Fashioned Romance Novel
• In the Name of Love…Finding the Right Names for Your Characters
• Writing Sex Scenes
• Kissing
• How to Write a Kissing Scene: Valentine Edition
• Sex in Fiction — Do They or Don’t They?
• NaNoWriMo Expert: How to Write a Kiss? And Should You Write Sex?
• How to Write a Kissing Scene in a Romance Novel
• Writing Romantic Dialogue
• Is Erotica Right for You?
• Sex in the Romance
• Sexual Chemistry and the Romance Novel
• Six Ingredients of a Sensual Romance Novel
• Writing “Real” Men in Romance Fiction
• Writing Romantic Comedy
• The Allure of the Pirate Romance
• About the Ghostly Romance
• What Makes a Time Travel Romance a Good Read?
• The Allure of the Vampire Romance
• Sex in Science Fiction
• The Allure of Paranormal Characters
• Sex Tips for Slash Writers

Horror

• How to Write Horror
• Horror Sub-Genres
• Horror Fiction - Ten Cliches to Avoid
• Do Werewolves Wear Shoes? Building Successful Horror Characters
• 10 Cliches Horror Writers Should Try to Avoid
• Horror Plot Cliches
• How To Write Today’s Horror, Part I: The Seeds of Horror
• How To Write Today’s Horror, Part II: What Today’s Readers Want
• How To Write Today’s Horror, Part III: What Today’s  Readers Don’t Want
• Creating a Character for a Horror Story
• How To Write Today’s Horror, Part IV: Horror Novel Checklist
• Just in Time for Halloween: The Dark Fiction Market
• Horror, Mysteries and Setting: Playing on the Unexpected
• Elements of Aversion: What Makes Horror Horrifying?
• What Makes a Horror Writer?
• 25 Things You Should Know About Writing Horror
• Plot and Character in Horror Fiction
• Creating An Environment for a Horror Story
• Horror Writing: How to Write a Scary Story
• The Stigma of Writing Horror: How the Genre Your Write Matters as Much as the Story

Worldbuilding

• Location, Location, Location
• Four Ways to Bring Settings to Life
• Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
• How Much of My World Do I Build?
• Creative Approach to World Building
• Five Blunders Authors Make in World-Building
• Magical World Builder’s Guide
• World-Building Through Character
• Weather and Worldbuilding 101
• Setting: The Key to Science Fiction
• Creative Uses of Magic in Your Fantasy Story
• Mixing Science and Magic: A Recipe for Disaster?
• Defining the Souces, Effects and Costs of Magic
• Partly Cloudy, Scattered Showers: Setting the Scene with Weather
• Creating Fantasy and Science Fiction Worlds
• Blueprints: Building a Home for Your Characters
• Building Fantasy Worlds
• 5 Tips on World Building from Scratch
• Creating the Perfect Setting
• Eight Tips to Help You Bring Your Settings to Life
• 10 Steps to Creating Realistic Fantasy Animals
• On the Creation of Languages

Miscellaneous

• Story Starters & idea Generators
• Fifty Quick Writing Prompts
• 400 Writing Topics/Prompts
• Write or Die
• One Word
• Language is a Virus — Writing Prompts
• Abbreviations
• Acronym Finder
• Write Rhymes
• Cliche Finder
• Word Count
• Word Counter