8 replies to this topic

[Shadowhawke]

Just doing some housecleaning and adding some extra links here. : ). Many thanks to Jolyth who organized this before.

A note to all as well. Feel free to PM me if you wish to add anything cool you've seen to this list!

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RESOURCE LINKS FOR YOUR WRITING NEEDS
Provided by Morning Glory

This is an on-going list and everyone has a favorite that they have found particularly helpful. If you don?t see it here, and want to share it, please PM Jolyth and I will add it to the list. Please note in your PM if it is ESL, or EFL. ESLs are especially welcome! Also, if you find at some point a particular link/site is not operational, would appreciate a note so that I may update. And, as always, many, many thanks to our many generous contributors.


http://dictionary.reference.com/

http://www.m-w.com/home.htm

http://textant.colos...book/title/html

http://www.visualthe...line/index.html

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/

http://www.usingengl...m/glossary.html

http://www.wsu.edu:8...ors.html#errors

http://dir.yahoo.com...age__and_Style/


Grammar Links Listing: http://www.gl.umbc.e...y1/grammar1.htm


ESL: http://grammar.englishclub.com

http://www.bbc.co.uk...ish/index.shtml

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A very special thank you to Bob Tokyo for so graciously contributing the following article to the on-going reference collection.


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A Perspective on Writing Fiction
Contributed by Bob Tokyo


The pain was too great to ignore, and nausea nearly drew him into darkness, but Koguchi clung to his briefcase and steered the golf-cart onto the interstate.

I?ve received a lot of advice about writing. Some of it has been good, some of it has been applicable, and much of it has been worthless. The approach I?ve settled on for writing fiction is different from the approach I use when writing an academic paper or a quarterly report, and it won?t be right for every writer. I hope that there will be something in it that will be useful for you.

Her name was Cai Jing-Jing, and she hated cats.

The grabber is often the first thing I think about when I start writing a piece of fiction. It draws the reader into your world, and sets up the point of view of at least the first part of your story. It should leave both you and the reader wanting more. In heroic or adventure fiction grabbers are often melodramatic, formulaic, or both. That?s not always a bad thing. It prepares the reader for the type of story you hope to share.

Now consider the tale of the Dragon and the Dog.

Once I have a grabber that interests me, I can get on with writing the rest of the story. ?Interests me? is the key here. If I?m not interested in what I?m writing, it is much harder to keep the attention of the reader. I sometimes try to write what I think others want to hear instead of what I want to say; that rarely works. Until you achieve a fairly high level of skill, you must be your own primary audience.

Some are born marked for greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. Or, in the case of Verdant Vander, poured.

The audience outside of my own head is important to me as well. I?ve written fiction for middle aged Japanese business men, American chemists, power-lifting engineers in their thirties, Chinese college students, and gamers who come in a mix of ages, professions and national origins that would take another paragraph to describe (and none of us want that, really). The audience does make a difference. Jokes that the power-lifters think are hilarious will leave the Chinese students blinking and the Japanese businessmen angry. Stories that my Nihonjin friends find poignant will leave my German coworkers waiting for the punch-line. When I can, I try to write for the specific audience that I expect to read the piece.

Disaraneesh Disaraprong was tall and lean, more the athlete than the waif, and more the laborer than either. Her large hands were not a source of pride for Disaraneesh, skilled though they were with knife or mallet. Disaraneesh?s pride came out of her sure and certain knowledge that she was, at all times and in all places, Right.

The last tip I?ll share here is the most important, and it?s one that many of you have heard (many times) before. Writing is rewriting. The first draft of any story or essay can almost always be improved by a cut here, an addition there, and word choice changes all over. I try to put down anything I write and come back to it later, then read it under my breath. I picture my audience sitting in front of me, and anything that I?m not comfortable saying in front of them gets changed or cut. If I have the time and energy I might do two or more quick drafts before submitting a short, just-for-fun piece of fiction to a newsgroup or web board. When writing for payment or a class I?ll do many more, and pass the story around to people I trust for feedback before submitting the ?finished? draft. The danger here is that perfectionist voice in all of us, that voice that tells us ?It?s not good enough, it will never be good enough.? If you like it, and if you had fun writing it, it?s good enough.

Or at least it?s good enough for now.

-30-

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The following has been graciously contributed by Plasmocat, who should feel right at home in the Temple of Ohgma, as she is a librarian as well as a writing enthusiast. Thank you, Plasmocat. A very worthy addition to our thread!


Select Sites for Writers' References

Contributed by Plasmocat


Overcoming Writer?s Block

http://webster.commn...storm_block.htm

Tips & tricks to overcome this dread condition.

Behind the Name

Explains the meanings & histories of names from a variety of cultures. Can be very inspiring when trying to create fantasy names as well.

http://www.behindthename.com/


Encyclopedia Mythica

An encyclopedia of myth, folklore, and legends from around the world. Even has genealogy charts and pronunciation guides. Expect to be here for a while.

http://www.pantheon.org/


How Stuff Works

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Great for details, seems simple until you realize that it?s just so well-written that it will help you understand rather complicated things in an accessible way.

The Internet Public Library

http://www.ipl.org/

Informational crack. For example, this is their page on the subject sci-fi/fantasy (books)

http://www.ipl.org/d...se/ent10.80.00/


Bartleby.com

http://www.bartleby.com/

Online access to reference, literature, and information. For example, you could look up the poetry of Yates, the works of Shakespeare, or any verse of the Bible (in several versions). Includes Bartlett?s quotations, many ?Oxford book of?s? and all 70 vols. of Harvard?s Classics series.


One of our very talented contributors (who is, btw, also the Fanfic Moderator at G3,) Bri, very generously shared the following link with me, and I thought everyone here might find it well worth a read as well. Thanks, Bri for a valuable addition to the Temple. It is most appreciated!..


http://www.sfwa.org/writing/thud.htm

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Extra sites I?ve found that are all very handy. . Hope they help everyone in their fanfiction writing needs!

20,000 names from all over the world (with meanings!)

Character Building Workshop

Introduction to creative writing

Good and Evil Characters

Creative Writing Site

Imagination Prompts (to get rid of that nasty writer?s block )

Writing Tips (short list)


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These two sites have been contributed by WeeRLegion. . They're great, detailed sites on armour and fighting tactics and techniques for anyone who wants to get down, dirty and realistic in not only their fight scenes, but perhaps smithing scenes as well.

Armour Archive

Bellatrix Fighting School

Edited by Shadowhawke, 29 April 2006 - 06:02 AM.

[TC Dale]

A humble plea, O Oghma, Lord of Wisdom.

Is there a walkthrough or such of Baldur's Gate 2 somewhere that includes the *exact* dialog that takes place? (Specifically, for the Underdark section?) I'd save me the trouble of replaying the game to get to the Underdark and recording it by hand Even more specifically, I need Phaere's and Soulafein's dialogs both for a male and female protagonist (male, if there's no option for both).

If not, I'll reinstall and re-play, but I was really hoping to be able to do the whole BG1 > TOSC > BG2 route at leisure.

[vilkacis]

I think they had something like that at sorcerers.net, but it's probably only one of the possible paths in each conversation.

The easiest way to do this is to use utilities like Infinity Explorer and check the actual dialogue files (though this requires you to have the game installed). That way you can read every possible path in every conversation without having to replay it with a character that fits a specific requirement (male/female, etc). The relevant files in this case should be "udphae01" and "udsola01".

You can also extract dialogue files in somewhat readable format with weidu. It's a lot more troublesome to read them that way, but since you don't have the game installed, I've extracted mine so you can have a look:

 UDSOLA01.txt   72.04K   952 downloads
 UDPHAE01.txt   78.76K   1049 downloads

Mind, I have like 4378 random mods installed, so there may be things in there that aren't present in the original. (For instance, anything that has a global starting with RE_ comes from the romantic encounters mod. ) The original pc/sola and pc/phaere stuff is probably intact, though.

[TC Dale]

Thankee! Much appreciated for doing the dirty work for me I shall remember you when I am promoted to godhood and you shall receive ample reward.

[Orthodoxia]

I was wondering, is there a place or a way to find the names of all people (monks, guards, wizards and people Charname would know living there), or at least those important ones in Candlekeep? In the prologue as well later when you return in the game?

[vilkacis]

You should be able to see all the NPCs normally present on a map by looking at the area in any editor. If you look at the area script, you should be able to see if there are any that will spawn in on certain conditions as well.

I can't check my install from here, but Candlekeep should be AR2600 in the original game, and anything with AR26xx is likely a sub-map (houses and such).

[Orthodoxia]

I guess that editor might help but the problem is I don't have the game with me, which is why I asked here. Are you sure there isn't a place where I might find this info?

[Tieflingz]

This oughta improve my English skills!

But first and foremost.... How do you pronounce Oghma? Og-Ma? Ohg-Ma? He's my 3rd favorite deity in Forgotten Realms just behind Mask and Umberlee...

Edit: Instead of posting another and spam, I'm just going to notify in this post

Thanks Chev, now that my confusion is cleared up, you may live for another day! Jokes, probably somewhat immune to backstab due to knight's shiny armor and such ah ha ha..... sigh

Edited by Tieflingz, 14 December 2009 - 06:50 AM.

[Chevalier]

But first and foremost.... How do you pronounce Oghma? Og-Ma? Ohg-Ma?

OGG-mah