Sunday, May 19, 2013

5 Useful Resources for Writers

By: William Snesrud

Any person who wants to write will eventually click into the internet and type into a search engine looking for the best websites for writers.

            If you, like I have been, are a writer wanting to take a love or gift of putting words together and make it into a part or full time income, then you will need some place to start boosting your output potential.

            Yes, I have been there.  But this time I am going to come from the angle that maybe you are that newer writer and may be looking for a place to get an edge, a start.  These are what I call 5 of the more useful websites for writers, especially newer freelance writers.

I have found and used these 5 useful websites, each because of the potential they offer to help you increase your writing production, quality and marketability.

If you are looking for help with writing ideas (like story starters and poetry prompts), information on the craft of writing (how to on 6 styles of writing) plus a writer’s shop – then it is a must to check out www.creative-writing-now.com.  One bonus I found with the set up here is they also have a free 3-day writer’s course, great way to get the mind and words flowing.

            Now www.freelancewriting.com is a place that will take your writing up another notch.  I know my time clock can get lost on this website with the articles, tutorials and reading material, so be careful.  Plus here you start finding writing contests to enter and listings for freelance writing jobs.  Notch it up.

            One of the first websites I turned to when I started taking the craft seriously was www.writing.com.  This is a great spot to build a portfolio of your writing.  Not only can you share and build that portfolio, other members of the website have the opportunity to give you feedback – great way to learn and improve.  You also can review other writers and earn points to save on cost of membership upgrades and writing materials.

            Poet and Writers magazine has a website, www.pw.org, which also gives a person the opportunity to gain insights to writing, researching and marketing.  Their section “tools for writers” is unbelievable in the amount of information you can find on a wide variety of topics. Poet and Writers magazine has been around a long time, they know the ins and outs of the writing craft.

            The final of my top 5 is www.writersweekly.com. New information weekly, usually on Wednesdays, it will include a list of quality markets looking for writers and a liberal list of job openings.  Not as fancy as some of the others, but I find the information they share very reliable and sometimes great for the newbie.

            So there you go.  Where you go with this is totally up to you and your incentive to grow both in your writing craft as well as a marketable writer. 

            I will throw in two old time standard websites, simply because they have been around it seems like forever either in print or internet form, and still give writers a massive amount of information.  For the old reliable you should always have bookmarked click on www.writersmarket.com and www.writersdigest.com.

            So now you have it, websites to spend the next few days looking over, trying out and signing on.  From here it is up to you and your initiative to follow the stepping stones in building your craft. 

            Good luck and happy writing.

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