Current mood:	still somewhat bleery-eyed
Entry tags:	writing help

Writing help links

In this post I'm trying to link all kinds of stuff that I think might be of interest for young would-be writers, a few posts by me mostly they are made by others. A big Thank-you to all of you experienced authors who wrote one or more of those pieces, letting others share in your experiences and knowledge. A lot of those links I found either via metafandom or because someone linked me. Thanks.
Some of this primarily concerns HP-fanfiction, most of it is more general for all kinds of fanfiction or even original fiction. I'm trying to sort everything in categories as well as I can - though it's sometimes hard. (Feel free to tell me if you have better ideas for how to sort some of these essays.) - The order in which I posted links is mostly random, often due to the order in which I found them - apart from trying to group similar topics together.

I'm continuously updating this list, new marks the links I've added recently.

Collections of links
Sites, groups, communities, etc. that have good resources or give writing help and tips
Single essays and tips
- Mixed tips for young writers
- Plot, Writer's Block and the like
- Marketing, Betaing, Criticism
- Some people's views on what makes "good" fiction
- Stylistic tips, certain situations, pacing
- Characterization and POV
- Writing Dialogues
- Sex Scenes
- Various posts that somehow didn't really fit in another category
- Style, spelling, grammar, word choice and punctuation
- Fandom, Ficathons, Challenges and similar
- Somewhat Meta
- Parody and the like - OR this was too funny not to link
HP-centric Stuff
- Single essays
- Sites, communities, other resources


Collections of links (a lot of the links in those collections are also linked below singly but not all of them)

A collection of links for Writing Help by delurker. His memories link to very diverse writing tips. (Most of them are linked below under the appropriate category.)

Writing Help and Rants by limyaael. She has written both writing tips and rants on clichés for a long time. In particular there are (currently) 246! Fantasy Rants dealing with clichés, characters, races, destiny, the world, weather, etc. Most of them are written primarily for Original Fiction and the creation of your own world but a lot of it also applies in fanfiction. I tried to pick out a few of those that I think also are important in fanfiction but I simply can not link all of them, so if you like the style of her essays and rants, please check out the memories yourself.

Musings on Writing - Several essays on diverse topics to do with writing by minisinoo. She has written quite a few good essays full of tips. (I linked a lot but not all of them below.)

kerryblaze's Fav Writing Resources. Quite a few useful links - some are HP-centric, severals are very general. (As he already has them so nicely sorted, I saw no need to nick them.)

Bren Keubler's Writing Rambles also has a few interesting things to say.

Various Rants on diverse but common Mistakes by grazhir. Rants on topics such as language abuse, contradictions to HP-canon and more.


Sites, Groups, Communities, etc. that have good resources or give writing help and tips - Particular thanks to blonde_cecile for this part

RomanceWritingTips is a MSN Group with tons of good stuff. Despite the name, lots of the stuff on there is about general writing: plot, conflict, symbolism, theme, etc. It's very useful. It's organized kind of strangely, but if you scroll down the sidebar on the left of the page, you'll find all sorts of cool things.

Dark Erotica is a great blog by Morgan Hawke that has, again, all kinds of great writing topics. As the name suggests, it's aimed toward dark, erotic writing, but much of the info is useful for all kinds of writers. You'll find lots of stuff along the right sidebar around half-way down the page. (I personally did not like the site a lot due to the colour scheme. Red and green font on a black background hurts my eyes so badly, I run screaming.)

Unfit for Society has some very good resources about Grammar & Style, Dictionaries & Thesauri, The Craft of Writing, The Beta Process, Copyright Information and a few links for Other Resources.

Writers Resources has a few interesting resources.

beta_search is a Community where you can post about your fic and search for a Beta for it.

con_crit doesn't have any resources but seems a good community to ask for constructive criticism.

Online Word Processor for storing stories online, easy editing, sharing stories, etc.


Single essays and tips

Mixed tips for young writers

The Craft of Writing, various tips on writing and a couple of links by Macedon.
My Ideas on Writing by pir8fancier.
Fearless Diva's Rules for Writing by fearlessdiva.
Four Spaces by ivyblossom.
Ten Things I Know about Writing by lightgetsin.
5 Things I Know about Writing by earthwhatwere.
Ten Things I've Learned About Writing by cleolinda.
Ten Things I know about writing by furiosity.
TBQ's Two Step Theory of Fanfic by thebratqueen.
A Few Tips by askerian.
Four Things That Will Fuck Up Your Fic by paradox_dragon.
When is Fanfiction not Fanfiction by minisinoo.
The Art of Storytelling and the Work of Storytelling by painless_j.

Plot, Writer's Block and the like

Plot or something like it by sageness.
Plot Panel tip sheet by rahirah.
About Plotting by furiosity.
Outlines, Storyarcs and Plotting by minisinoo.
Giving Your Plot a Good Kick in the Ass by limyaael.
Subplot Rant by limyaael.
Ways of maintaining a really, really long novel by limyaael.
Ten things of what to do when you lose interest in your novel by limyaael.
Rx for Writer's Block and Rx for Writer's Block, Part 2 by cleolinda.
Breaking through Writer's Block by minisinoo.
Thoughts on Writing inspired by WriterCon, Part I: Writer's Block & Writing Practice by entrenous88.
How to Finish a Work In Progress by zoepaleologa.
Crafting the Hook by minisinoo.
The three little letters that cause so much pain: WIP by limyaael.

Marketing, Betaing, Criticism and similar

Drafts, Revisions and Editors by minisinoo.
Three Pieces of Advice by profshallowness.
On Being Betaed by angiepen.
For Beta, for Worse - Marriage guidance advice for authors and betas and Appendices by calanthe_fics.
5 Tips for Beta-ees by author_by_night.
In Praise of Brutal Beta by china_shop.
Editing or beta-reading by minisinoo.
The Three Tiers of Editing by minisinoo.
Rant on Self-Editing by limyaael.
Critique, critique, critique by minisinoo.
Some Thoughts on Feedback and How to Get More of It by telesilla.
On letting reviews stop you from writing by limyaael.
Of Popularity and the Claw - Marketing Your Fic by penknife.
Fanfic Marketing by minisinoo.
Getting Published by minisinoo.
LJ Fandom - the Artificial Beast by minisinoo.
Copyright FAQ by telophase.

Some people's views on what makes "good" fiction

Don't Like? Don't Read. A Tragedy in Five Acts by furiosity.
It's All in the Name by accioslash.
On Summaries rather than Warnings by isiscolo.
What Summaries make you SKIP a fic by painless_j.
What makes "good" fic good? by minisinoo.
Poll results - What Readers Find Good Fanfiction by minisinoo.
When Is a Story Successful by minisinoo.
What I Think Makes Good Fantasy by limyaael.
The Fanfic Test by limyaael.

Stylistic tips, certain situations, pacing

The Fine Art of Pacing by minisinoo.
Tension and Pacing by isiscolo.
The Speed of the Story by limyaael.
Writing simple 'connective' sections by minisinoo.
Better Description in Fiction Writing by minisinoo.
Thoughts on Conflicts in Fanfiction Romance by penknife.
Layered Conflict by beccaelizabeth.
Handling Trauma in Fiction by minisinoo.
Angst and Trauma b limyaael.
Avoiding Info-dumps by limyaael.
new Show, Don't Tell by askerian.

Characterization and POV

Choosing Point of View by minisinoo.
Problems and Promises of First-Person Fantasy by limyaael.
View Point Rant by limyaael.
Deciding on your viewpoint character by limyaael.
Some things I've learned about POV + Links to essays about POV by others by profshallowness.
Characterization and POV by papersky.
Character Depth by minisinoo.
3 Point Characterization by wickedwords.
On AUs... by askerian.
Do's and Dont's for OCs in fanfic by limyaael.
Mary Sue Test by limyaael.
Classifying the Sue and Classifying the Sue, Part 2 by limyaael.
What defines a Mary Sue? by clotho123.
Limyaael's Rules for Writing Non-Humans by limyaael.
Rant on Abuse of "Abused Characters" by limyaael.
Special ability Rant by limyaael.
Non-bickering, non-love-at-first-sight relationships by limyaael.
Ten Alternatives to Writing "A Character Learns a Lesson" by limyaael.
Character Change by Gradual Process by limyaael.

Writing Dialogues

How To Write: Dialogues by sevenmes.
Spicing Up Conversational Scenes by limyaael.
Dialogue Rant by limyaael.
Interpersonal speaking styles rant by limyaael.
Silence and its uses by limyaael.

Sex Scenes

Minotaur's Sex Tips for Slash Writers.
How to Write a Sexscene by Resonant resonant8.
The Formula for Writing Sexscenes by cupidsbow.
Writing Sexscenes by limyaael.
Write What You Know by minisinoo.
How to Write a Lousy Sexscene Handout by yin_again.
Writing Sex and Relationships by pinkdormouse.
So You Wanna Write a Slash Scene by Caro Dee.
The Ten Rules to Anal Sex.
Writing Football Slash by ninamalfoy.
Poll: The Vocabulary of Erotic Fanfiction by papersky.
Poll: Warnings by se_fics.
Two Polls about writing sexscenes by malnpudl.

Various posts that somehow didn't really fit in another category

Limitations on Magic Rant by limyaael.
Doing Research by minisinoo.
On fact-checking in fandom - or why Google is your friend by penknife.

Style, spelling, grammar, word choice, punctuation

Writing Tics by rexluscus.
Issues in Style: Sentence Length by minisinoo.
Homophones - words with the same pronounciation but a different spelling and meaning by yours truly.
List of Common Mistakes, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 by limyaael.
Meeting of Language Abusers Anonymous by grazhir.
The Proper Uses of Language by limyaael.
Let's Talk About Word Choice by tkp.
Good Action Words - for Reference by china_shop.
Rant on bad spelling, grammar and punctuation by limyaael.
Punctuating Dialogue Properly.

Fandom, Ficathons, Challenges and similar - Particular thanks go to delurker for this section.

How To Expand To New Fandoms by icarusancalion.
Celli's Survival Guide to Challenges and Ficathons by celli.
If it don't end in bloodshed, dear, it's probably not love by musesfool.
The Care and Feeding of Ficathons by likeadeuce.
Random Word Generator - for when you are in need of inspiration.

Somewhat Meta

Vocation, Occupation and Hobbies by minisinoo.
Miscellaneous and idle thoughts on fanfic by minisinoo.
The Novel, Novella and Shortstory in Fandom by minisinoo.
Play, Perfection and Process after Release by minisinoo.
Writing Very Short Isn't Necessarily Easy by minisinoo.
Writing Relationships, Censorship and Authorial Responsibility by minisinoo.
Why Writing Good Girls and Boys is Subversive by minisinoo.
Responsibility and compassion in fiction writing by minisinoo.

Parody and the like - OR this was too funny not to link
(These are obviously no essays concerning writing but make fun of common actions of Fanfic Writers. Read and learn from them. Or simply have a good laugh.)

Diseases of the Common Fanfic Writer by limyaael.
Diary of a HP Fanfic Writer by limyaael.
The Care and Feeding of Writers by rahirah.
Fanfic Warning Labels by st_crispins.


HP-centric stuff

Single essays

On Writing Luna Lovegood by Antosha antoshevu.
The Questions of Draco Malfoy in Fanfic by ravenna_c_tan.
The Lucius Problem by darkrosetiger.
How to Write HP Magic by icarusancalion.
Rant on House-elves speech by chocolatepot.
Pet Peeves concerning writers of HP fanfiction by yours truly.
Clichés that you love and that annoy you collected by me. Also look at potter_cliche.
15 Unpopular Fandom Opinions by cluegirl.

Sites, communities, other resources

HP Lexicon, the best resource for canon.

hp_essays Not actually a resource for writing tips but has a huge collection of essays concerning both canon and fanfiction. Various views on different characters, important places of the Wizarding World, etc.

hpwriterschoice is a HP rec community where fanfic authors recommend their OWN stories to readers. Authors recommend one story in response to each posted theme and discuss their writing process, giving readers a chance to find out more about their favorite fanfic writers and their stories.
It also has weekly discussions about characters.

hp_betas is a Community where you can ask for a Beta for a HP fic.

britpicking is a Community dedicated to British expressions. See in particular Index Thread Part I A-F and Part II H-W.
See also britpickery.


If you have other links that you feel I should add to this, feel free to tell me. I might not add everything I get told about - I'll probably not add stuff centered on a fandom other than HP but I'll gladly add more general or HP-related stuff if I find it helpful.
The more info you give me about the links for communities and similar, the more info I can add - without having to spend hours delving through all the great places. (While I used to write some shortstories and poems a few years back, currently I'm not writing at all, so while I appreciate reading good writing stuff, I do so more from the POV of a reader who thinks "yes, that's often disregarded" or "that writer should really have read this".) - And the more links I get, the more I'll try to categorize everything. ;)

And huge thanks to everyone who helped me compile this by pointing out interesting links to me.