Thursday, April 18, 2002
http://esu.lt/andrius/10/ - one of the best there's-no-content-here Macromedia Flash Player applications I've seen.
To shut down the app, drag your cursor to the upper right corner and click on the [x]. That closes the window.
Not destined for http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
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Scott Gaertner's ASL Fingerspelling site
http://where.com/scott.net/asl/
Scott Gaertner's ASL Fingerspelling site includes a dictionary, converter, a page with the alphabet (including the moving handsigns for Z and J).
This link can be found in the Reference|Assorted Information subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
3:33 PM|
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Locate a real live reference resource
The m.w pickable brains list is out of date (through no fault of the Web maven) and hard to find: http://www.scalar.com/mw/pages/pick1.html
In lieu The Virtual Reference Desk provides AskA+ Locator:
http://www.vrd.org/locator/subject.shtml
AskA+ Locator: By Subject
"The AskA+ Locator is a database of high-quality "AskA" services designed to link students, teachers, parents and other K-12 community members with experts on the Internet. Profiles of each AskA service include identification information (e.g., publisher, e-mail address, contact person, links to services’ home pages), scope, target audience, and a general description of the service. Some of the Web sites linked from AskA+ service profiles provide additional resources such as on-line reference, archives of previously asked questions, and links to related sites. Information in the Locator, including links to AskA services, is accessible through the following search options."
This link can be found in the Reference|Assorted Information subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
3:01 PM|
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ISBN information
Trying to help a soon-to-be self-published author track down someone who will broker her a single ISBN. Couldn't find such an animal, but I did find the following links if she's willing to spring for a block of 10 ($225 - $300 for priority handling):
http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/isbnqa.asp - Frequently Asked Questions about the ISBN
http://www.isbn.org/standards/home/isbn/us/secureapp.asp - Online Application for an ISBN Publisher Prefix
These links can be found in the Business|Self-Publishing subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
2:24 PM|
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Literary Lynching
Whatever you may think of Pat Holt's "Holt Uncensored" newsletter, stop on by and check out her site and newsletter for information about and the ongoing publication of Dorothy Bryant's wip: LITERARY LYNCHING: When Readers Censor Writers.
http://www.holtuncensored.com/literary_lynching/index.html
TOC
INTRODUCTION: What is a Literary Lynching?
1.CREATOR OF TERRORISTS?:
Ivan Turgenev and Fathers and Sons
2.JUDE THE OBSCENE:
Thomas Hardy and Jude the Obscure
3.A MISSING LINK:
Kate Chopin and The Awakening
4.THAT QUIET, LEVEL VOICE:
George Orwell and Homage to Catalonia
5.BANALITY, JUSTICE, AND TRUTH:
Hannah Arendt and Eichmann in Jerusalem
6.LITERARY JIM CROW:
William Styron and The Confessions of Nat Turner
7.IN FRONT OF OUR NOSES:
Dorothy Bryant and A Day in San Francisco
8.CONCLUSION
So far, the introduction and first two chapters are online.
This link will not be added to http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
1:28 PM|
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Wielding the Scalpel: What to Cut From Your Story
http://www.writersdigest.com/articles/column/kress/wielding_scalpel.asp
Nancy Kress' excellent article "Wielding the Scalpel: What to Cut From Your Story" can be found at the newly-revamped Writer's Digest Web site.
Kress gives examples of cutting for pace, cutting redundancy, cutting over explanation and more. The article ends with "Two final caveats
First, none of these guidelines for cutting applies to dialogue. Dialogue characterizes as much by form as by content. If your character is a repetitious person who over explains, perhaps from pomposity or insecurity or loneliness, let her dialogue remain uncut.
Second—this must be said, however reluctantly—some very successful books are badly padded."
This link can be found in the HodgePodge|Writers on Writing subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
12:33 PM|
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Writing Conferences
http://writing.shawguides.com/
The Shaw Guides Directory is the motherload for information on writers conferences by month, by focus and by location.
This link can be found in the Networking & Connections|Conferences subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
12:05 PM|
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Royalty Calculations in Book Contracts
http://www.ivanhoffman.com/royalties.html
Ivan Hoffman's article covers gross vs. net, retail vs. wholesale, reserves against returns and other factors that will have an effect on the amount of royalties owed. Get it clear in the contract and avoid the lawsuits.
This link can be found in the Business|Legal & Taxes subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
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Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Writerly Words of Wisdom
http://www.writesite.org/ - The Write Site - is "an interactive language arts and journalism project for middle schools developed by ThinkTVNetwork, Dayton, OH."
The "Features Desk" section covers journalism history in the US, profiles, links to news organizations. The "Research Beat" helps with research with tips, links.
The "Style" section includes a brief article on keeping a journal and also "Learning from Voices of Experience: Writers’ Thoughts on Writing" http://www.writesite.org/html/voices.html
Things like:
"The main thing I try to do is write as clearly as I can. Because I have the greatest respect for the reader, and if he's going to the trouble of reading what I've written . . . why, the least I can do is make it as easy as possible for him to find out what I'm trying to say, trying to get at. I rewrite a good deal to make it clear." — E. B. White
Here's another good one:
"The first moments are critical. You can sit there, tense and worried, freezing the creative energies, or you can start writing something, perhaps something silly. It simply doesn't matter what you write; it only matters that you write. In five or ten minutes the imagination will heat, the tightness will fade, and a certain spirit and rhythm will take over." — Leonard Bernstein
Or this, which reminds me a bit of Nora Roberts' "I believe writing is a discipline. I write every day. Even if I'm not writing well, I write through it. I can fix a bad page. I can't fix a blank one."
"The idea is to get the pencil moving quickly. . . . Once you've got some words looking back at you, you can take two or three -- throw them away and look for others." - Bernard Malamud
This link can be found in the HodgePodge|Writers on Writing subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
5:20 PM|
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Thirty-Six (plus one) Plots
http://www.sff.net/people/Julia.West/CALLIHOO/ideagen2.htm - CALLIHOO The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations from Julia West's Web site.
CALLIHOO is a writers group in Utah. This idea generator takes The Thirty-six (plus one) Dramatic Situations and breaks out the elements necessary for each plot type.
Check out the rest of the site. West has a number of random idea generators to kickstart your creativity, if your creativity needs a kick.
This link can be found in the Fiction|Fiction subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
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More quotes from writers
http://ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quotes/quotes_frames.htm - Eminent Quotables: What Writers Say About Writing
This quotation collection only uses writerly quotes -- about 200 of them.
You can either grab a random quote or scroll through the list of authors and grab (one at a time) quotes from a given author.
This link can be found in both the HodgePodge|Writers on Writing subsection and the Word Stuff|Quotations subsection of http://www.internet-resources.com/writers
5:05 PM|
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WELCOME and first blog item:
http://www.internet-resources.com/writers began back in the summer of 2001 when I was taken to task in the Usenet newsgroup misc.writing by a couple of people, complaining that I was "flooding" the newsgroup with my (average: three-a-day) posts describing what I thought were cool writing-related sites.
Thanks to Patricia D. Netzley, prolific writer, who thought all the [URL]distinct-URL-related-subject labeled posts were part of the same thread and flustered because she just couldn't get her theads to thread, poor dear, and to Wayne Lutz, who blusters with the best of them and said that my (gasp!) writing-related [URL] threads posted to a writing newsgroup bordered on nuisance flooding, http://www.internet-resources.com/writers exists.
As part of the dustup in misc.writing I realized my stash of URLs wasn't getting much visibility if the URLs were just posted to misc.writing. Even people on misc.writing who were aware of them would lose sight when my posts fell off their newsfeed and they'd need to search those posts out with Google News.
Writers who don't read misc.writing (and that's most writers on the 'net) who wanted an intro site on screenwriting, f'rex, would never know I'd recommended a really cool site five months past.
And so, the site was created and grew and grew and grew. Most URLs I mention in misc.writing are added as I mention them. Many, many sites are added without a mention in misc.writing.
Since I started keeping track in October 2001, over 3000 people other than me have come to the site and picked through its links.
http://www.internet-resources.com/writers has over 1500 links that are checked for deadwood regularly. The links are sorted into nine major groups and almost one hundred subgroups. The site has been mentioned favorably in writers newsletters, on writers' sites, on mailing lists and in newsgroups and is visited by writers from all corners of the world.
I have another blog <http://www.towse.com/blogger/blog.htm> which I have been less than conscientious about updating, which covers my professional writing, URLs I'm collecting on given subjects and my ongoing battles with such dark, sinister forces of the wired world as ATTBI which cannot seem to get their Usenet setup straightened out.
This blog, though, is dedicated to all links writerly. I plan to use this site to pop up descriptions of some of the links I'm adding to http://www.internet-resources.com/writers and descriptions of some of the links that are already there.
Think of this blog as a means of getting a look at what's new at http://www.internet-resources.com/writers and a tour of what's there.
At the bottom of each item that has a link from http://www.internet-resources.com/writers, I'll add a reference to where on the site you can find that link and others like it. The reference will be xxx|yyy, meaning you can find the link in yyy subgroup of the xxx group.
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