Online Toolkit - Introduction All writers should learn how to navigate the Internet through their favourite search I cannot stress enough the importance of researching on the net. http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/transition/toolkit/advice.htm
Extractions: Mapping the transition from page to screen Advice Mapping the Transition Home Introduction Computer Basics Text ... Download Toolkit as PDF We asked respondents to our 2002 survey of Writers using Computers and the Internet what advice they would give to writers considering working online. Here are just a few of their many suggestions: All aspiring writers, whether they write fiction, non-fiction, poetry or plays, need to look beyond the flashy aspects of the Internet. Buried beneath the surface of the graphics and pretty text is the mother lode of information that a writer can use for research and for insight into a host of subjects. All writers should learn how to navigate the Internet through their favourite search engine, and I heartily recommend they learn more than one of these. The faster and more comprehensive the search, the better the writing that can come of all this knowledge. In the old days, we went to the library. Now the library can come to us. Allow yourself *plenty* of time to explore gently and think about what you're doing, what routes you would like to pursue and which ignore. Also, be very open to change plans, to turn your perceptions upside down as you gather more evidence and see what is out there, what can be done and what is difficult to do. Accept no one else's view or manifesto of what it is you should be doing or how it should be done. What do they know about your writing? If you trust them to tell you the 'best way' then why not let them write it for you? Listen to their advice, learn, and then decide for yourself.
Disclaimer - Electronic Collection Internet Research for writers FAQ, A guide to virtually everything you would need to know about researching through the net; ResearchIt! http://collection.nlc-bnc.ca/100/202/300/images_dma/vol1/links.html
Extractions: You are viewing a document archived by Library and Archives Canada. Please note, information may be out of date and some functionality lost. You will be redirected in 15 seconds or follow this link to continue to the document For more information see the Electronic Collection's Web site. Vous visualisez un document archivé par Bibliothèque et Archives Canada. Veuillez noter que linformation peut être périmée et que certaines fonctions peuvent être inactives. Vous serez redirigé dans 15 secondes ou suivez ce lien pour voir le document Pour plus de renseignements veuillez consulter le site Web de la Collection électronique Last Updated: 2005-04-12 Important Notices Avis importants
Internet Guidebook For Writers Also, while I ve been thorough in researching these sites, the Web is a highly volatile medium. writers Information network www.christianwritersinfo.net http://www.horsburgh.com/h_writer4.html
Extractions: F inding specific information on the Web can be a frustrating experience. It seems that after spending hours on the Web, all you have to show for it is eye strain. In this article I will talk about places on the Web to find information on specific genres of interest to writers. While I can't cover all areas, I'll focus on eight specific genres: young adult and children's writing, Christian writing, drama and playwriting, mystery, poetry, romance, history, and science fiction. Now let's get to the sites. In each genre I've listed the Web sites in alphabetical order. If a site is particularly excellent, I've added a " Recommended " note. Here are some quick links to jump to a specific topic: Aaron Shepherd's Kidwriter Page
Citation Orders Citation is a bibliographic database program for academic writers. trail, documenting the internet resources you find, as you are researching a topic. http://thewritedirection.net/
Extractions: Have you heard the one about the editor at a writer's conference? She'd been "on" for hours and was enjoying a much-needed moment of privacy in the bathroom. Then, from the adjacent stall, came an eager voice. "Hi," it said. "I'm so happy to finally meet you. Let me tell you about this picture book I've written…" Truth or urban legend? Well, maybe a bit of both. But the fact is with more and more publishing houses closing transoms to unsolicited manuscripts and more and more "pre-published" writers desperate for entrée, this kind of story isn't far-fetched. Only slightly less dramatic stories have been verified, and they demonstrate the real frustration editors have with conferences. Because of these tales, I decided to ask a number of editors what they like and dislike about these events. It's my hope that both writers and organizers will benefit from their responses. All editors expect to receive queries and manuscripts after a conference. They welcome the opportunity to discover new authors and material. But there isn't an editor alive who likes to be accosted immediately after a presentation or during a lunch break. Several editors have likened this onslaught to a "feeding frenzy." They say that some writers even foist manuscripts or portfolios on them. As Melanie Donovan of HarperCollins says the ambush "is more likely to hurt rather than help an author's chances of getting published and manuscripts stand more chance of being mislaid than if they were submitted via the usual means."
Internet Public Library: Literature A free database for researching whether a book has been translated into another It provides advice for writers, links to literature for kids on the net, http://www.ipl.org/div/subject/browse/hum60.00.00/
OWL At Purdue University: Evaluating Internet Sources person on the Internet Directory of Published writers (http//www.writers.net). you are researching prominently placed or used with great frequency. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_evalsource4.html
Extractions: Internet sources can be very timely and very useful, but they should not be your sole source of information because there are also books, journals, government publications, brochures, newspapers, etc. to read, and knowledgeable people to interview. Be sure to document what you find on the Internet in such a way that others can locate what you found. This is most easily done when you accessed the data. Include the date you accessed the material since it can be changed or updated later on. Be sure to browse around on the Web site to be sure you know who the author is, what the sponsoring organization is, and so on so that you can cite the source fully and so that you can evaluate it properly before including it in your paper. -What can you find out about the author?
Frauen While researching in the net during their SEnet activities, these women have noticed, that German women writers and other important female personalities are http://www.uni-ulm.de/LiLL/3.0/D/frauen/ersteE.htm
Extractions: The objective of the group is to document with the aid of short biographies, relevant links to existing web pages and literature references the life and work of these women and to point out in the background texts the political and social conditions of their time, which officially excluded these women from social participation. The focus of their work is currently "Women in the 19th /beginning of the 20th century".
Authors On The Web - Fantasy Writers Roundtable -- Childrens' Authors so I appreciate the instant gratification of the net. Ideas really start to take off when I m researching a particular field of interest. http://www.authorsontheweb.com/features/0111-fantasy-kids/0111-fantasy-kids-q2.a
Extractions: 2. AOTW: Where do your ideas come from? Do you rely on traditional mythology or folklore as a foundation for your books? If so, how do you research those subjects? Does the Internet ever come in handy? Tamora Pierce: Ah, the idea question. I can certainly see where a lot of mine come from when I list the books and writers that stand out in my mind, those to which I returned repeatedly, prior to my discovery of fantasy: Thor Heyerdahl's KON-TIKI, an encyclopedia of fairy tales (including the unexpurgated Grimm stories, with doves pecking out Cinderella's stepsisters' eyes), Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books, Louisa May Alcott's entire oeuvre for girls, Zane Grey, Mark Twain, Howard Pyle's renditions of the King Arthur and Robin Hood adventures, Dumas' The Three Musketeers and sequels, Robert Graves' versions of the Greek myths and legends (*much* more instructive than Hamilton's or Bulfinch's), The Iliad The Odyssey , Eloise McGraw's Mara: Daughter of the Nile , Brink's Caddie Woodlawn , Forbes' Johnny Tremaine , Stevenson's Treasure Island (with one of the best casts of villains in all fiction) . . . For the most part, I read adventure for boys (and moved on to even more adventure and swashbuckling as well as fantasy and science fiction as a teenager), and saw no reason why girls shouldn't be doing these things, too.
Documentation, Part II Students should ask the following questions when researching on the net. The fifth edition of the MLA Handbook for writers of Research Papers has been http://www.boisestate.edu/wcenter/ww107.htm
Extractions: The first part of this article (#106, November 2000) dealt with general issues of documentation in the four leading styles: APA, CBE, CMS, and MLA. In this second part, we focus on the documentation of online sources. As any teacher knows who requires documented papers, students are relying more and more on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web, for source material for their papers. Indeed, many students will use nothing but web sources if they are not specifically required to include print sources. This trend raises two issues: how to evaluate the worth and reliability of web sources, and how to document them in a paper. It is easy for students to use a search engine and type in keywords that ultimately point them to the info they are looking for. In fact, students like to treat the web as a replacement for the library. However, the way in which information is found in the library requires students to evaluate the sources. For instance, while researching in the library, students will look in specific directories and read abstracts in order to decide if the source is useful prior to reading the source. Researching on the web is not as intensive. A key word search can lead straight to an article. Therefore, students need to think about more than just finding information when they use the net. The Internet is not any different from other sources in this respect. The excitement of finding something useful for a paper often overwhelms students, and they forget to look for author and title as well as other important things, like the last time the source was updated.
Pace University Library - Researching An Author American writers A Collection of Literary Biographies Birnbaum Ref PS129 . Literary Resources on the net http//andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/ http://www.pace.edu/library/pages/instruct/birnbaum/author.html
Need Writers Market Help? Go To WRELIEF.COM Services for writers, including researching markets, requesting guidelines, preparing cover letters, tracking submissions, proofreading, and promoting. http://www.wrelief.com/writers_market.htm
Extractions: web page proofing This freelance writing short story market writers publishing. writing, books, writers, poetry, freelance, fiction, authors, author, write, horror, market, publish, nonfiction, marketing, science fiction freelancing, journalism, guidelines, fantasy, romance, published, book, editing, business, screenwriting, bookstore, publishers, agents, story, search what and of the free in for or to new can where can I find writers market. writers market: providing the most comprehensive and always up-to-date market contact info available WRITERS MARKET.COM
The Hellenic Cultural Society Of San Diego, California The Hellenic Cultural Society is a notfor-profit corporation dedicated to researching, preserving and promoting the great work of the philosophers, historians, mathematicians, scientists, writers, artists and other minds of Greek origin. http://www.hellenic-culture.org/
Facts In Fiction: Researching Mystery Short Stories Mississippi writer John Floyd (jfloyd at teclink.net) has sold more than 500 Since you re writing (and researching) mystery stories, here are a few http://www.writing-world.com/mystery/research.shtml
Extractions: HOME GETTING STARTED AUTHOR'S BOOKSHELF WRITERS WANTED ... Contact Us Mississippi writer John Floyd (jfloyd "at" teclink.net) has sold more than 500 short stories and fillers to 100+ publications, including Strand Magazine, Grit, Woman's World, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. His stories have been nominated for both the Pushcart Prize and the Derringer Award. Sign up now for John Floyd's summer class, Writing and Selling Mystery Short Stories! The most important thing I can say about research is this: You DON'T always have to "write what you know." You should write what you like to read, and what you feel comfortable writing. Simple as that. It may or may not be what you know. I've written and sold lots of stories about murder and deceit, but I've never killed anybody or robbed a bank or even cheated on my taxes, and I don't plan to. According to mystery author Les Roberts, "Look up the job description of a novelist and you'll find it says: 'Makes things up.'" That's what fiction means. You don't have to be an expert, and the subject of your story doesn't have to be your job, or your sport, or your hobby. BUT (you knew there would have to be a "but," right?) you must be believable, you must get your details correct, and you must CHECK YOUR FACTS. After all, you don't want to have your historical-mystery hero use a device that hasn't been invented yet, or have your detective shoot a revolver equipped with a silencer (silencers only work on automatics), or have your private eye belong to some kind of law enforcement agency (they don't), or have your heroine comment on the lovely gold color of the Golden Gate Bridge (it's actually red).
Extractions: Award-winning children's author Wendelin Van Draanen has always given her all to everything she does. For years, she was a high school computer science teacher in central California, where she taught computer programming. She also coordinated the yearbook and managed the school newspaper. She is also a wife and a mother of two boys. She recently retired from teaching to write full-time. Although she loved teaching, she always knew that she wanted to be a writer. Determined to get in some writing time, she would rise every morning at 5 a.m. and write for as much time as she could before she left for school. For ten years, she honed her craft and endured rejections for her work, which were adult novels. But her hard work and discipline paid off. One day she decided to change her viewpoint, and to write with the voice of a 12 year-old. The result was How I Survived Being a Girl (HarperCollins), which was a critical and commercial success.
Thomson Nelson - Canadian Writer's Pocket Guide, Second Edition Before computers, writers typed (and retyped) their essays on manual typewriters; researching on the Internet can be both fascinating and fun. http://www.canadianwriterspocketguide2e.nelson.com/resources.html
Extractions: Bookstores Authors ... Canadian Writer's Pocket Guide, Second Edition The guidelines and checklists in this section are designed to help you improve your study skills. Why work on study skills? Study skills help us organize our time and give us strategies for approaching new and difficult tasks, thereby reducing our anxiety, improving our work, and making studying and writing more enjoyable. Take a look at the study tips offered here and choose a couple to try. Don't try to make too many changes at once. If one strategy doesn't work for you, don't be discouraged. Not every study tip works for every student. Test out the ones that appeal to or might work for you. And remember that these suggestions are not set in stone. You can adapt them to fit your needs. Strategies for Managing Your Time
Creating Comics: Writing Resources The resource source of information for writers, artists, selfpublishers and anyone A good site for researching through the Internet is The Comic Book http://www.members.shaw.ca/creatingcomics/writers.html
Extractions: You can check out various articles that I have written on comic book writing at Suite101.com's Writing Comic Books/Strips Marc Fleury's Writing for Comics has a number of essays he has written about writing, comics, including various essays on script writing among others. The site also has all sorts of other information of interest to writers. This is a excellent place for anyone interested in writing comics. Here's some short pieces written by some well known writers on how to break into writing comics: Dan Chichester Peter David Mark Evanier Steve Lieber , and Len Strazewski Peter David also wrote an essay on "How I Write a Story" Another essay on writing comics is John Ostrander's Another interesting article is Kurt Busiek's On Writing for Comics , which he wrote to give primarily prose style writers an idea of how to write for comics.
