Writer Tools; Spell Check and More

Must Have Tools for every Writer:

Spell Checker

Word Counter

Grammar Checker

Dictionary/Thesaurus

Roget's Thesaurus

Urban Slang Dictionary

Rhyming Dictionary

Google Translation Tool


Please Share your favorite writing tools

[edit on 9-28-2005 by worldwatcher]

Thanks for the links. I need these more than anyone. Had already found a couple of the links. Look forward to making use of the others. I have added all to my favorites.

Wow, Now this was a really good idea. We discussed it some time ago and i'm not really sure who came up with it first. Still, it is a great step in providing the writing community with help on this journey we make together.

Now i'm going to have to find out the writing tools I use and give some previews on them. The main one I use is Word2000. I think thats pretty standard with Windows anymore though.

Thanks for the thread WW and your doing one heck of a job.

Wupy

[edit on 28-9-2005 by mrwupy]

There is a wealth of information on the web relating to writing, I would think many of our writers are familiar with some of these other more specialized sites, but I feel the basics should be covered, less I take for granted that you are all skilled writers, editors and critics. These sites cover the basics and many contain additional links to great info.

The Basics:
Google: Definition of Poetry

Poetry Basics

Th e Mechanics of Poetry

How to Write Poetry

Google: Definition of a Short Story

Tips for Writing a Short Story

Ten Tips for Novice Creative Writers

Rules and Tools for Writing Short Stories


[edit on 9-28-2005 by worldwatcher]

Most serious writers consider this book to be their bible.

www.bartleby.com...

While you can purchase the book, this link provides an excellent resource as you can read the book online.

Hope you enjoy it.

[edit on 28-9-2005 by FEMA]

My favorite little plug-in has to be iespell. It's a free spelling plug-in for Internet Explorer. Now if I could only remember to use it more often.

WW, I need all the help I can get. I use Office, but will use Word in a pinch. Thanks for the links.

Hi All,

I found a few more resources that I thought were cool!


Language Dictionary

Slang Translations
(Translations for different languages! )

[Edit-- WW already had a ryhming dictionary. )



[edit on 1-10-2005 by sylvrshadow]

Thanks for all these great links,

Need to find the meaning behind a name or to choose some for your characters? Try these links.

Mega Character Naming Resources
Etymology and History of First Names
Babynames

writers-free-reference.com...

has long been one of my favorite sites. One of the first online references I give my students at the beginning of the year.

Thank you for starting this thread, Worldwatcher. For some reason it drives me nuts when people misspell in their posts.

I ran across this very useful page--somewhat like Strunk's, but those who don't swear by that staple might find this link helpful:

Dr. Grammar - FAQ

O doG! do you guys know of anything to help dyslexics? The spell checkers I need for sure! But often I have a bit of trouble because I rearange letters and can't make out the correct choice. Any suggestions besides an new brain would be helpful

The character naming resources are gonna help me a ton...I forgot where they were, and as such, have been using rather stock names. Harsh.

Anyways, I was poking around this part of the forum, and I figured I should weigh in on this for some reason.

Abiword is what I use. it has a ton of good features- dictionaries in almost two dozen languages, instant Wiki lookup, and a whole other bunch of stuff. Check it out.

DE

Thank you so much, this helps more than anything, finnaly something to help. Great finds

Wow thanks Worldwatcher

I'm in the process of writing a novel at the moment and things like this always come in handy.

CX.

Here is a link for a counter of words in a text:

allworldphone.com...

For those aspiring novelists out there:

www.spacejock.com...

It's a decent program to help keep track of chapters, scenes, characters, etc. A little too structured for me personally, but I'm sure there's probably someone here who might like playing with it.

While these aren't tools per se, I think they're something every writer who looks to get published should take a look at:

www.aar-online.org... Association of Artists' Representatives, an agent's organization that has a pretty decent code of ethics. I'd recommend finding an agent who belongs to these guys (or a similar group) instead of trying to do the vanity publishing or a random agent. One of the things that really caught my eye about this group is that reading fees are against their policy, so if you try out one of these agents you're only stuck paying postage.

My Experience With a Dishonest Publisher, an anecdote by member Justin Oldham. A very good reason why you shouldn't go the pay-to-publish route. I'm sure you can find many similar stories elsewhere on the net, but here's one of our own.

(Just a quick note--I'm not part of the AAR, although between this post and my comments on the thread I linked to it may sound like I'm pushing them. I'm sure there's other, similar groups out there, and by all means let me know if there are.)

Hope this helps someone...