Writing Resources Thread

[Polipuff]

Here is a handy list of websites I have compiled over months for writing Pokemon fanfiction. It's a bit overkill, but feel free to add your own personal ones to the thread. Also, I haven't seen a thread like this yet. Happy New Year!

College Courses
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4ZDBOc2tX8&feature=youtu.be&list=PLH3mK1NZn9QqOSj3ObrP3xL8tEJQ12-vL An excellent free 12-class course about writing science fiction/fantasy in Brigham Young University in Utah, taught by professor Brandon Sanderson, a Hugo award winning author.
http://arts.uottawa.ca/writingcentre/en/hypergrammar - A grammar guide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Sf5q9WNZ3E - An introduction to novel writing in Falmouth University.

Pokemon
http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/ - Basically the Wikipedia of Pokemon. There are actually pictures and descriptions of attacks used in the anime, so you can get an idea of how to describe it in your story.
http://www.serebii.net/ - Also a great website, very reliable and fairly easy to navigate.
http://pokemondb.net/ - A website with a Pokedex, sprite gallery, game mechanics, and locations.
https://veekun.com/ - A website unknown to many, it contains a gallery of abilities, moves, items, and a Pokedex. It also contains an ‘awesome search’ search engine for Pokemon and moves.
http://www.smogon.com/ - The strategy Pokedex has actually come in handy for a variety of uses, such as making realistic, strategic battles.
https://www.dragonflycave.com/ - If you type /writing after, you will be brought to a writing guide.

Characterization
http://www.poewar.com/10-days-of-character-building-wrap-up/ - Building characters.
http://www.fictionfactor.com/guests/common.html - Types of characters.
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/greenway3.shtml - Getting to know your characters.
http://www.springhole.net/writing/marysue.htm - A Mary Sue identifier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_most_common_surnames - For some reason, this is my favourite surname finder.
http://www.behindthename.com/random/ - Possibly the best first name/middle name generator.
http://random-name-generator.info/ - You will be able to generate many names at once.
http://theboson.deviantart.com/art/Blank-Character-Sheet-2-1-4-390-Questions-460031650 - A character sheet with over 390 questions.
http://www.bryndonovan.com/2016/05/25/serious-injuries/ - If you don’t want your character to die, but want them to be injured, well here you are.
http://writershelpingwriters.net/2010/10/emotion-thesaurus-entry-collection-samples/ - The emotion thesaurus.
https://imgur.com/a/66r9k - An emotion chart.

Plot, Outlines, Narration, Structure
http://joshuasowin.com/archives/2007/01/08/a-guide-to-writing-well/ - A guide to writing well.
http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/ - This is method is also shown in “Novel Writing for Dummies”.
https://i.imgur.com/ORWIfzP.jpg - A cheat sheet to plot.
http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ - Edit your story with this.
http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/outlining.html - Outlining your plot.
http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/createconflict.html - Conflict and suspense.
http://trutor.net/plot.html - tips on creating a plot.
http://writerswrite.co.za/45-ways-to-avoid-using-the-word-very - Very angry? No, use furious.
http://chir.ag/projects/tip-of-my-tongue/ - Find the word you’re looking for.

Dialogue
http://writetodone.com/10-easy-ways-to-improve-your-dialogue/ - To improve dialogue writing.
http://www.novel-writing-help.com/writing-dialogue.html - Another resource for dialogue.
http://trutor.net/dialogue.html - More for dialogue.
https://litreactor.com/columns/talk-it-out-how-to-punctuate-dialogue-in-your-prose - Punctuating dialogue.

World-Building, Setting
http://www.sfwa.org/2009/08/fantasy-worldbuilding-questions/ - Questions around worldbuilding.
http://www.web-writer.net/fantasy/days/index.html - 30 days of worldbuilding.
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/nov98/creating-the-perfect-setting-part-i-11984 - Creating the perfect setting.
http://www.writing-world.com/fiction/description.shtml - Bringing your settings into life.
https://www.dragonflycave.com/making-fake-pokemon - This a neat guide on creating fakemons.

Word Processors
https://products.office.com/en/word - For when you want to pay for word. (MacOS, Windows)
https://office.live.com/start/Word.aspx - Bascially free word, with some features missing. (Browser)
https://www.google.com/docs/about/ - Free, very popular. (Browser, ChromeOS)
https://www.libreoffice.org/ - Another free office suite, without the need for internet connection. (Windows, Linux, Ubuntu (I think))
https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php - Costs money. (MacOS, Windows, Linux), but if you have Linux, you’re lucky. That’s because there’s a free version of Scrivener just for Linux (https://www.literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=32709).
https://quollwriter.com/ - If you’re put off by scrivener’s price, check this out. It’s great. (Windows)
http://writeordie.com/ - Write or die. (Browser)
https://ulyssesapp.com/ - Great, but like scrivener, it costs money. (MacOS)

General
http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp - English grammar rules.
http://www.writing-world.com/menus/index.shtml - Great site, with hundreds of useful articles.
http://www.springhole.net/index.html - This website has many different articles on writing, many fanfiction related.
http://asoftmurmur.com/ - A customizable ambient sound maker.
http://www.rainymood.com/ - Rain and thunder sounds.
http://www.dictionary.com/ - A free online dictionary
http://www.thesaurus.com/ - A free online thesaurus
http://www.writersdigest.com/ - They have a magazine, but the online articles are great too.
http://www.boredpanda.com/color-thesaurus-char-ingrid-sundberg/ - A colour thesaurus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - For researching something not in your expertise.

Other
http://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2008/07/friction-over-fan-fiction/ - A nice essay around the legality of fanfiction.

 

[JX Valentine]

Also, I haven't seen a thread like this yet.

You probably haven't seen a thread like this because straight-up link lists are a massive gray area when it comes to Serebii's general "no advertising" rules (as seen here). While resources are nice to have in a writing community (and I'd like to thank you for your work in putting this kind of thing together), providing them without getting them cleared by a mod means we now kinda have to rush through and check every link to be sure they all lead to where you say they're going. They could, after all, be leading to someplace inappropriate for our members, to places full of viruses, to places that're trying to sell our members something, or to sites that we generally don't want to have associated with ours. It's all tricky, but that's basically why the no advertising rule exists. That and posts that are nothing but "hey, check this link out" tend to be a little bit spammy and thus violate another rule.

And yeah, I know you asked about this in the rules thread, but the post you made over there kinda sounded like you were just asking about one or two links, not ... a whole lot of them. In the future, mind clearing stuff like this with the mods first? Like ... if you want to show us a resource, give us the heads up?

In the meantime, I'll leave this up for now (and, well, let the other mods step in if this isn't quite kosher after all), but meanwhile, do you mind editing the descriptions that talk about how great sites are? That does step a little bit over the advertising rule, and in any case, it's much more helpful to users if you described what the site is, rather than just how good of a resource it can be. (Lookin' at the first link under Plot, Outlines, Narration, Structure in particular, but really, anything that isn't too specific about what the link is should really be clarified.)

ETA: At the very least, the links do check out (although the reddituploads one seems to be broken, alas—and tbqh, that one was the one I was most concerned about anyway because Reddit), so unless the other mods have objections to this thread being a thing, the base here is good to go. Folks should definitely wait for the OK before offering up their own resources, though, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Polipuff]

. In the future, mind clearing stuff like this with the mods first?

Will do. Sorry for the inconvenience.

do you mind editing the descriptions that talk about how great sites are?

Sure.

Lookin' at the first link under Plot, Outlines, Narration, Structure in particular

Done, thanks.

although the reddituploads one seems to be broken

The image didn't connect to the site in any way, but it was broken so I removed it.

 

[JX Valentine]

Awesome! Thanks for the edits!

Also, just shared this with the other mods, and two out of three co-mods approve. b)'')b You're good to go, as are other folks, if they so wish to contribute. Thanks for your patience!

 

[charlenestark]

Awesome collection. These links are great for polishing your writing skills. But first of all everyone should know some basic rules, right?
That's why I would also add this link: https://custom-writing.org/blog/rules-of-writing

 

[FlamingRuby]

Some of what's in my toolbox:

https://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/--just about any generator you could ever want, and even some creators, too.

https://japanese-names.info/ When you are explicitly needing a Japanese name, this will generate realistic names. You can even search for names by kanji, if you need a specific meaning.

 

[TheCharredDragon]

https://japanese-names.info/ When you are explicitly needing a Japanese name, this will generate realistic names. You can even search for names by kanji, if you need a specific meaning.

-checks out- Oh it's this site. I used it once before. I think it's pretty good with an immediate list for Japanese names and alternate kanji spellings. Though since you mentioned this site...

https://jisho.org This is the site I mainly use for picking Japanese names based on kanji. I kinda like its "interface" better as I can go "put word in English, find kanji, copy, paste and search kanji, see which names uses that kanji" until I find a name I like. It also has "spellings" (aka kanji writings) that aren't listen on japanese-names (like Romi using 朗実. Though not EVERY spelling possible afaik since Romi Park's name is spelled with 璐美 and that's not listed on jisho or japanese-names) and more meanings to each kanji.