Thread: Resrources

This is a list of links that I have currently. Click the titles and they will take you to the website.

Feel free to add on if you wish. I hope it helps.

Baby names:
20,000 Names
27,000 Baby Names
Baby Names
Behind the Name
Popular Baby Names
Pronounce Names

Misc.
Turkey City Lexicon
Theory and Practice of Titles
Stats About Cities
One Pass Manuscript Revision
NY State Penal Law Index

Information
Latin Quotes and Phrases
Internet Sacred Text Archive
Links for Writers
Odd Words Dictionary
Encyclopedia Mythica
Double Tongued Dictionary
The World Fact Book
World Wide Words

Grammar
Contractions, and How Not to Abuse'Em
Cliche Finder
Lynch, Guide to Grammar and Style
Purdue Online Writing Lab
WebGrammar

I enjoyed reading the above all sites. I admiring time and effort you put in your post, because it is obviously one great place where I can find lot of useful informations.
Grammar site.., I especially found it interesting. For this matter, once I discussed with one of my friends, not only about the content you talked about, but also to how to improve and develop, but no results. So I am deeply moved by what you said here..
And also i found here lot of baby names. This is very nice one and gives in depth information babies names. Thanks for this nice post...
This post is valuable information for all. I will recommend my friends to read this for sure. Thank you for your posting..

I recently published a name generator application called "essa" made especially for writers. What is special about essa is that it works by analyzing thousands of real names and using the patterns it finds to create new names that are both unique and believable. No other name generator to my knowledge is as capable of inventing names that still sound like real names. I hope that you may find it helpful and would greatly appreciate your feedback. The first 5 people to ask here get a code for a free copy.

essa is available for iPhone and iPod Touch.
In the App Store
On the iTunes website
On my webpage

Cheers,
Tobey

PS. I think Roy Peter Clark's 20 writing tips is has some really good suggestions for writing.

I think I might stick to making up names if I need to, I think it is fun, but your link to Roy Peter Clark's writing tips is a good one, as are many of those in the op.

PS You might try selling your original names to pop star parents, less imagination and more money than writers.

It's amazing. Roy Peter Clark says the things I believe in, but if I suggest them I get booed off the stage. The 20 points he lists could be an outline for one of my writing workshops.

It must be the way you tell them garza.

No doubt you are correct, but the way I tell them seems to work fine in a live workshop. Perhaps that is because there is an immediate back and forth discussion and extended point by point explanation to clear up any misunderstanding. Here I'm often accused of saying things I never said and any attempt to straighten that out just leads to argument around what someone said I said instead of what I actually said.

The reason Roy Peter Clark and I have the same ideas is this - they come from the same source. When you are a practising journalist and at least some of your writing is published locally and frequently you have the advantage of immediate, daily, feedback from readers and editors. Over time you learn what works and what does not work. You can fine tune your writing and develop your own personal set of 'rules' based on experience.

This does not happen overnight. I started having my articles published when I was 14 and developed my style of writing over the next ten years before I felt comfortable about saying with any certainty what works and what does not work. The first few years I was in face to face contact on a regular basis with editors at local newspapers and news magazines. There was feedback as well from neighbours who read what I wrote and told me to my face whether I had done a proper job of telling the story. I also started writing news reports for a local radio station and after a short while figured out that a good newspaper story made a rotten radio story; that writing for the ear requires a whole different set of 'rules'.

These personal 'rules' that I apply to my own writing are not absolutes. They are guides developed over the years based on feedback from readers, listeners, and editors. Their value lies in the fact that when applied, they work. That does not mean that other 'rules' may not work just as well.