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Writing Resources

Writing can be hard. Here are some guides and articles which may make the written word easier to master.

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Tips on Avoiding Word ConfusionWord confusion. You’re and your. To, two, and too. Their, they’re, and there. Effect and affect. Its and it’s. Then and than. Who’s and whose. Get the point? Good. Now learn the difference between these words.

You’re and your.
You’re is a contraction, meaning that humans, being lazy like we are, decided to make two words into one. You’re and you are mean the same thing. Your is possessive, meaning it shows ownership. Replace you’re with you are, then read the sentence again. If it doesn’t make sense, you’re probably looking for your. (Hey, look, a proper use of you’re.) If youTips on Avoiding Word Confusion by ~TheBloodyEpicPumpkin

The Devil's in the DetailsImagine for a moment a time not so far from now. All your hard work has come to fruition. You’ve been published. You’ve made bestseller lists. You’ve won over hordes of fans. There are tours and signings and interviews. You’ve even been invited to speak at a convention where no one can get enough of you. You’re the life of the party and the star of the panel. Then the floor opens up for questions. Your self-proclaimed greatest fan ever is the first to the microphone. They excitedly ask why Bob, though clearly literate, always signs his name as just an X. To which you reply, “Well, I just thought it was an iThe Devil's in the Details by ~Faraleigh

The Necessity of Flaws in CharacterizationOkay. Close your eyes (well, maybe just one) and imagine your favorite fictional character. Are they strong? Compassionate and giving? Witty and clever? Wise and intelligent? No matter the make-up of their awesomeness, they probably bring a smile to your face and that warm, fuzzy feeling to your insides. You probably remember vividly their adventures and hijinks, their clever retorts, or how amazing they were at figuring out some wild and crazy puzzle. They probably inspired your own writing. You probably wanted to recreate that smile and fuzzy feeling with your own readers, so you made your version of the character (or took some of their traThe Necessity of Flaws in Characterization by ~Faraleigh

To War Against the Dialogue Tags!I am waging a war. Consider this your invitation to join my army.

What is this war about, you ask? It's about destroying dialogue tags. What are dialogue tags, you ask? They are the parts that explain who's talking, like "he said" and "she asked". Why am I doing this, you ask? It's not that they kicked my puppy (I don't even have one, despite the opposition's claim). It's not that they burned my toast. It's not even that they opened my favorite book too far and creased the spine. Here. Let me explain why you're going to be fighting the good fight.

Dialogue tags have a use. It's a very useful use, even. They prevent confusion about who generTo War Against the Dialogue Tags! by ~Faraleigh

The Chronology of StorytellingImagine you're reading to a live audience. It can be as big or small as you'd like. It can be your writing or someone else's. It doesn't matter. Indulge yourself in the fantasy. So you're reading to a live audience. They're enraptured. They're engrossed. They're generating a movie in their heads as you weave your tale. Imagine how important every word you produce is to these movies. Every detail you provide adds another layer. They smell the flowers. They feel the roughness of the brick. They see the vivid colors of the clothes.

And then you require they perform time travel to make the movies accurate.

Wait. What?

The chronology, or order The Chronology of Storytelling by ~Faraleigh

Ten Quick Tips to Write Prose1.) Ideas. Use imagination and experience.

2.) Find ideas. Use the five senses: touch, taste, see, smell, hear. Maybe mix 'em up. Color smells like ___?

3.) The five 'w's. Use who, what, when, where and why. They're usually good to know.

4.) Story elements. Use setting, rising action, conflict, falling action and resolution. Often needed, whatever the order.

5.) Action. Use active verb forms, action settings and active characters. They're more fun for writers and readers.

6.) Description. Describe in small doses through action and observation. Readers like it. They can use imagination.

7.) Plot. Use items listed above. Outlines are okayTen Quick Tips to Write Prose by *xlntwtch

Describing your CharactersDescribing your Characters
When it comes to characters, we writers have a certain goal: to bring these people to life in the readers' imaginations. But for this to work, two things need to happen.
1) The character needs personality.
2) The readers need to be able to visualize the character as they read.
The first is achieved through characterization, while the second is traditionally thought to be achieved through physical description. What I’d like to discuss in this journal entry, however, is how physical description also needs to contribute to a character’s personality, and how it’s actually characterization, more than anything, that helps the readers visualize a character.
Character Description:
Take a look at the following example.
1) When I entered Mr. Jed's office, he stood and smiled at me. He had a big nose and short, brown hair. He wore a dark suit. I shook his hand.
What do you know about Mr. Jed from this brDescribing your Characters by =Inkfish7

The Drafting ProcessAmong the countless number of writers in this world, each of us writes according to his or her own process. It's a routine we settle into, a habit we develop. That being said, there are good and bad habits out there, and to produce the best work we can, we need to adopt the very best of these habits while discarding the rest.
In this guide, I'd like to introduce one such habit: a basic (though incredibly effective) seven-step writing process that I've read being thrown around by a few authors (Stephen King in particular). From my own experiences, it has proven indispensable, and I highly recommend it. Not as your absolute process, mind you (although following it to the letter would still be effective), but as a base to work off of, making your own additions here and there to make it your own.
Step 1: Write the first draft.
The writer that creates something perfect on his first try is an incredibly rare specimen (although, so I've heard, not completely noThe Drafting Process by =Inkfish7

HyphensTHE HYPHEN: A NEVER-WERE-THERE-SO-FEW-SOLID-RULES PUNCTUATION MARK

You can use a hyphen to split a word at the end of a line, but you can also use a hyphen to join compound words.

The rules about when to hyphenate a compound word are extremely vague. The problem is that compound words go through an evolution from open compound (two separate words), to hyphenated compound, to closed compound (one word with the two parts together)-and sometimes back again-and the changes can seem arbitrary. For example, when the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary was released in 2007, it eliminated sixteen thousand hyphenated words. Some words (leap-frog) advaHyphens by =purrrplcat

An Argument against All-CapsThe problem:

As a writer you have certain obligations to your reader, obligations that if left unmet are grounds for the reader to set your work down for good. One such obligation is to do all you can to make your piece readable. This involves ridding your work of typos, smoothing out awkward phrasings and transitions, and otherwise. If there is anything you can do to make the reading process easier, you should make it happen.
Thus, we come to the issue at hand. In writing, it isn't uncommon for both professional and novice writers to stress words or sentences by capitalizing every letter. It often expresses shouting. For example:
Janette pushed him away and said, "DON'T touch me!"
Leonidas shouted, "TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!"
This type of emphasis has been criticized throughout the years foAn Argument against All-Caps by =Inkfish7

Copyright: A RundownWhat is copyright?

Copyright is a form of Intellectual Property protection provided by law to "original works of authorship." This includes literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. For the purpose of this guide, I will be focusing on copyright as it pertains to literary authors. This protection is available to both published and unpublished works. It gives the author the exclusive right to do and authorize the following:
Reproduce work in copies
Prepare derivative works based on the work (spinoffs, series, comics, movies, etc. Also: charaCopyright: A Rundown by *linaket

5 Ways to Get Fantasy WrongYes, you're writing a fantasy story. Yes, that means many of the normal "rules" of reality are suspended. It doesn't mean you can just write whatever you like and expect your readers to swallow it. The existence of dragons they'll probably accept. Moscow being the capital of France they probably won't.

The key to "selling" weird, fantasy stuff to your reader (like dragons and half-elves) is making the world at large believable. This means getting the simple things right. So on that note:

1. Factual Errors

There are things in the wide-world of fiction that are fantasy elements; things like dragons, unicorns, and women who find beards sexy. 5 Ways to Get Fantasy Wrong by ~MetalMagpie

A Brief Guide to Dialog TagsPart of being an aspiring writer is receiving feedback, and a big part of getting feedback is giving it. I've belonged to several critique sites over the years, including but not limited to deviantART (which, while a good site, leaves much to be desired if your goal is useful feedback on lengthly prose), Critique Circle (which is a great site, but I started to have trouble keeping up with the queue), and Scribophile (which is useful, but unfortunately much of the useful bits for novel-writers require that you sign up for the premium membership).

However, the point of this post isn't to analyze the various websites out there, but rather to emA Brief Guide to Dialog Tags by ~eldestmuse

An Argument for "Said"Preface:
Before reading this argument, I want to explain that the following principle applies primarily to writings of the English language. Although it may apply to others as well, I have learned through the comments below that at least in German and Russian this principle is reversed. Therefore, this is a principle of culture and linguistics, and unless you are planning to write in English, you should look to writers of your own language before making any decisions on the matter. That being said, on to the argument.
An Argument for "Said:"
When writing dialogue, one of the necessary elements is the use of "dialogue tags," which identify who is speaking (hence their other name, "identifiers"). They're pretty easy to recognize, but just so we're clear, here are a few examples with the tags in bold:
"It's quite sunny today," she said.
"Release her, you fiend!" he roared.
An Argument for "Said" by =Inkfish7

The Basics of Comma UsageThis guide is meant to give you, as a writer, a thorough foundation in comma usage. I won't cover every use, but I will go over a majority of them, all of which are worth knowing.
As far as this tutorial's subject matter is concerned, I feel comfortable explaining about ninety percent of what follows. However, I want this to be as accurate as possible, so I've gone to other sources online to back me up (primarily to fill in the gaps of my knowledge in terminology). I've included the links to these sources immediately below as well as in the author's description. I will refer to them throughout the tutorial by their source number (Source 1, Source 2, etc). If you wish to better your grammar even further, I particularly recommend grammarbook.com (Sources 2 and 3). Note that all the examples I give in this tutorial were not taken from the sources; they are my own.
1) grammar.ccc.comnet.edu ("Conjunctions")The Basics of Comma Usage by =Inkfish7

Shifter Sheet by `GrimFace242

The How To's of Dialogue: Grammar and OtherwiseWhen writing dialogue, it's easy to get confused as to what's proper grammar and what isn't. This is no surprise when considering all the variables involved, but not to worry. I'm going to go over the rules and variables of dialogue right now so you can clearly understand the do's and dont's.
This guide has eight sections:
- Basic Dialogue
- Using other Identifiers
- Actions as Replacement Identifiers
- Interrupting Dialogue
- Using Ellipses, Hyphens, and Dashes
- Paragraphing
- Long-Winded Dialogue
- Italics (Expanded: 5-1-12)
- One Last use of Italics (New: 5-1-12)
Basic Dialogue:
Example A1:
The man said, "Pass me the cricket bat."
The woman said, "I don't think I will."
- Observations:
1) A comma after "said," before the quotation mark.
2) The first letter of dialogue is capitalized since it is the first word of a vocalized sentencThe How To's of Dialogue: Grammar and Otherwise by =Inkfish7

A Guide to Character SheetsAlmost as soon as they were invented, people have been feuding over the effectiveness of character sheets. Some say they are godsends and they couldn't possibly create characters without them. Others say they only create flat characters and there's absolutely no reason why any writer should need to know the smallest and most minute details that character sheets call for. And then there are the writers that don't know which side of the debate they should listen to.

The easiest answer to that question is it's a personal decision that every writer needs to make for themselves. But before you make thatA Guide to Character Sheets by `GrimFace242

Style vs. Voice - A Guide

A Writer's Guide to Style vs. Voice

Here on dA, there seems to be a lot of confusion and general mass hysteria when it comes to the subjects of writing style and voice. What are they? What's the difference? Can you write one without the other? How important are they, anyhow? Do you really need either of them? Wait, what are they again?

I like to think I'm somewhat of a self-made genius in the art of simplifying the complex, so here's my boiled-down summation of the two topics:

Style is the form and structure with which you write.

Voice is the attitude and perspective with wStyle vs. Voice - A Guide by ~illuminara

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Fear Not thy SemicolonGrammar is a force to be reckoned with, armed with such mighty weapons as: , : ; ' " . and ?. In short: quite an impressive arsenal. Unfortunately, one mighty piece of punctuation has been sadly both abused and underused over the years. I am here writing this to attempt to rectify that!

Here, let me show you…

"As a child I used to jump off the roof of my house, it was all part of a fiendishly clever scheme to force my body to evolve wings and fly free around the world."

This sentence is incorrect. The comma alone isn't strong enough to hold a sentence together; I guess it hasn't spent enough time at the gym. A comma is only a breath oFear Not thy Semicolon by ~EvilpixieA

Writing TipsWriting is a complex subject, a subject one can never fully capture on paper. But it is possible to share some basic tips that might help you.

One of these tips is to just get your thoughts onto paper. You need to give yourself enough time to do at least a little writing everyday. It doesn't have to be a lot, especially if you don't have a lot of time, but you have to keep in the practice of it. Write as much as you can, because it's the thought that counts.

Another thing you might like to keep in mind is repetition. Avoid it! As much as you can at least. This applies to both ideas and words. You may want to reinforce character traits such Writing Tips by ~blakrosebleedinheart

Characters, A Guide to Fiction If there is one thing I know about story-telling, it's that you need for your readers to empathize with your story. The only way a reader can empathize, properly a least, is for there to be characters, with emotions and with a notable characteristics.
WARNING PAY ATTENTION TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH!
Don't worry about the plot yet! With a good character, it will come running to you. Don't worry about grammar, style or those other things. Firstly, you need a major character to carry your story.

So, how indeed do you make such a character?
There are so many different ways. In fact, there are probably a billion out there, if you look. HowevCharacters, A Guide to Fiction by ~me4music

The Imperfect Guide to WritingWriting. A form of art that is perhaps more difficult than the creation of a magnificent painting. Artists may be inclined to disagree with that, but the truth is, anyone can write, but the question is, can they write well? It is something that can be born naturally, the ability to create a story in one's head, and transfer it through a skillful mind to the paper with lithe fingers. Yet it can also come through time, learning, and much practice.

So, to begin and to get to the point. What a writer needs to write well:

If one is a poet, one must read poetry.

If one is a novelist, one must read novels.

And if one is a comic writer (and perhaThe Imperfect Guide to Writing by ~ValkyrieNix

dA Writers-Get NoticedIt's hard being a writer on dA. For every one writer, there are at least 15 artists, 10 of which are fan-artists. And why would people turn away from fanart, comics, and/or yaoi to read your poetry/prose? You have to give them a reason.

This tutorial will take you through a few steps which will hopefully bring your writing more attention, If you'd care to read:

1. REVISE!
I cannot stress how crucial this step is. Once you have your 1st draft done, revise for typos and grammatical errors. On the second time, read it out loud to revise for flow. Then check again for grammar and spelling. Read it again, revise word by word.

Can you create mordA Writers-Get Noticed by ~Puppy-eater

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~Puppy-eater Jun 30, 2011 Student General Artist

Hello, I'd like to suggest *OokamiKasumi's tutorials for this section.
I've found her dialogue tutorials particularly useful. [link]

Reply

~monstroooo Jun 30, 2011 Hobbyist Writer

Thanks for the tip!

I'll have a browse and maybe submit some highlights

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