A list of writing resources
The best, easiest-to-understand guide to grammar, writing and spelling ever is The Scholastic Writer's Desk Reference. It's aimed at middle-schoolers, but is so thoughtfully put together that it won't insult the intelligence of adults.
An excellent general reference book about fiction writing is The Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing. Even if you are only writing fiction shorter than a novel, it's got some great advice on topics such as "The Right Way to Write About What You Know," writing good dialogue, writing believeable love scenes and other stuff you can really use.
Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is a very good book on the craft and process of writing. Guys may be somewhat put off by it because she's a very touchy-feely girly person, but hang in there. It's also laugh-out-loud funny.
Even if you don't like horror fiction, you'll probably like Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It's as much a memoir of his life as a book on what makes good writing, but that's okay. He's had an interesting life and it's been one in which he was pretty much driven to create from the time he could hold a pencil.
If, for whatever reason, you feel driven to use Victorian-age references in your writing -- or if you'd just like to understand what the heck Dickens was talking about -- read What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist -- the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England by Daniel Pool.
Sometimes an on-line dictionary just won't do the trick for you. A good print version is the American Heritage Dictionary. Ditto for Barlett's Familiar Quotations (which I think is on-line now) and Roget's Thesaurus.
Word origins are useful to know and slang is a tricky beast. These are good reference books for dealing with those: The New Dictionary of American Slang, edited by Robert L. Chapman; Partridge's Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English by Eric Partridge; and The QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson.
If there are any Brits wandering through your story and you yourself don't hail from those lovely isles, you'll need this British slang website.
The Fanfiction Glossary is a nice reference to demystify all the little abbreviations, shorthands, acronyms, and other usages peculiar to writers and readers of fanfic. There is also an LJ community connected with the glossary.
There are a million and one online dictionaries. A couple favorites are sites that look at other dictionaries. OneLook Dictionary Search searches a bunch of sources (including medical and other specialized dictionaries). It doesn't show the definitions, just links to the appropriate entry on the source pages, which can be either great or annoying, depending on your need. If you need another reason to love this site, try out the "reverse dictionary" feature, which is great for curing that tip-of-the-tongue feeling when you can't remember the precise word you want. Unlike OneLook, dictionary.com shows you the definition and a link to the source. Also has an extensive thesaurus.
An excellent general reference book about fiction writing is The Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing. Even if you are only writing fiction shorter than a novel, it's got some great advice on topics such as "The Right Way to Write About What You Know," writing good dialogue, writing believeable love scenes and other stuff you can really use.
Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life is a very good book on the craft and process of writing. Guys may be somewhat put off by it because she's a very touchy-feely girly person, but hang in there. It's also laugh-out-loud funny.
Even if you don't like horror fiction, you'll probably like Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. It's as much a memoir of his life as a book on what makes good writing, but that's okay. He's had an interesting life and it's been one in which he was pretty much driven to create from the time he could hold a pencil.
If, for whatever reason, you feel driven to use Victorian-age references in your writing -- or if you'd just like to understand what the heck Dickens was talking about -- read What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew: From Fox Hunting to Whist -- the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century England by Daniel Pool.
Sometimes an on-line dictionary just won't do the trick for you. A good print version is the American Heritage Dictionary. Ditto for Barlett's Familiar Quotations (which I think is on-line now) and Roget's Thesaurus.
Word origins are useful to know and slang is a tricky beast. These are good reference books for dealing with those: The New Dictionary of American Slang, edited by Robert L. Chapman; Partridge's Concise Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English by Eric Partridge; and The QPB Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson.
If there are any Brits wandering through your story and you yourself don't hail from those lovely isles, you'll need this British slang website.
The Fanfiction Glossary is a nice reference to demystify all the little abbreviations, shorthands, acronyms, and other usages peculiar to writers and readers of fanfic. There is also an LJ community connected with the glossary.
There are a million and one online dictionaries. A couple favorites are sites that look at other dictionaries. OneLook Dictionary Search searches a bunch of sources (including medical and other specialized dictionaries). It doesn't show the definitions, just links to the appropriate entry on the source pages, which can be either great or annoying, depending on your need. If you need another reason to love this site, try out the "reverse dictionary" feature, which is great for curing that tip-of-the-tongue feeling when you can't remember the precise word you want. Unlike OneLook, dictionary.com shows you the definition and a link to the source. Also has an extensive thesaurus.