Jill Williamson is a chocolate loving, daydreaming, creator of kingdoms. She writes weird books for teens in lots of weird genres like, fantasy (Blood of Kings trilogy), science fiction (Replication), and dystopian (The Safe Lands trilogy). Find Jill on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or on her author website.
Since tomorrow I'm headed out on a week-long trip of back-to-back writer's conferences, I've decided to do something simple for this week's blog post. I'm going to share with you some of my very favorite links that I use when writing. I hope you will find some of these useful.
http://www.thesaurus.com/
I use this nearly every day. All too often my brain can't quite pull up the word I want. I have a physical thesaurus on my shelf, but I hardly every touch the thing.
http://etymonline.com/
I use this often when I type a word into a fantasy novel and it just feels like the wrong era. This is a fabulous tool.
https://www.google.com/maps
I am often searching the globe for who knows what.
http://biblehub.com/hebrew/7700.htm
Since I'm back in the world in which Er'Rets is, I'm also back to my Hebrew dictionaries. This one often helps me find words.
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/climate.htm
This is a fascinating website on the different biomes on earth. Good stuff for world building.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_nautical_terms
I've been writing a story that takes place on boats, so this has been handy.
http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html
I found some slang on this list that I used in the Safe Lands series. This is just fun to read.
http://chicagotheroarin20s.tripod.com/the1920s.html
I also found slang here that I used in the Safe Lands books. Valentine was one of them. *wink*
http://www.fleurdelis.com/meanings.htm
I spend a lot of time on this site, looking at the meanings of different symbols when I design flags or insignias for different families in my fantasy novels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_(emblem)
Here are more symbols, but these are from Japan.
http://www.chinet.com/~laura/html/titles12.html
This is one of the BEST quick references for correct forms of address in the Regency era. I use it for my medieval fantasy stories too.
https://janeaustensworld.wordpress.com/social-customs-and-the-regency-world/
Another Regency site. Fun, fun, fun.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDZwYLuFAsL0PTvPETJpOXH9yMZU6MgDoEC-CY0X79hCtPROwI5arRZUkO2AfFXNVB49kJsqsZKXm8Id1dHKo0AjFeDDooiBPYcXFdKiAo_T7X36yPXKKAf2AmVYSjIRaziEVsvztdjI8m/s1600/Windsor+plan.jpg
Sometimes I just really want to look at a castle, and this one has a floor plan, plus I can Google the names of the rooms and see inside that way. Someday, folks. I will go here.
http://www.aramaic-dem.org/English/politik/112.htm
An article on different writing materials in ancient times.
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab83
Creation stories from around the globe.
http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm
Medieval demographics made easy. This is a fascinating article.
http://www.lostkingdom.net/fantasy-world-economics-101-introduction/
Economics for a fantasy world. Interesting stuff for world builders.
http://www.celebritytypes.com/personality-tests.php
A very helpful website for all things Myers-Briggs.
http://www.writingexcuses.com/
I just love these guys SO MUCH! *fangirls*
http://print-a-calendar.com/april-2015
I use this often to print blank calendars so I can track the days in my story and make sure everything makes sense.
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=+1860&country=1
This lets me type in any year and get a calendar. Handy for historical fiction writers.
http://www.mythicalcreatureslist.com/
And finally, a sweet site with many mythical creatures.
How about you guys? Share some of your frequently visited urls in the comments and tell us why you tend to go back there again and again.
Hooray! Links galore! I'm gonna have some fun checking these out. I myself don't have many sites I visit regularly, but back when I was researching the Norse pantheon for my story, I found norse-mythology.org very helpful. My next story is probably going to be sci-fi, and it's been my dream to write a scientifically accurate science fiction story for a long time, because, well, there aren't too many out there. I'm a bit of a nerd like that ;). Anyways, I'm pretty good at science, but I'll DEFINITELY have to do a lot of research anyway. Here's hoping I don't go too overboard.
ReplyDeleteWow, this is great! I'm looking forward to clicking through the list. Here are some links that help me:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eplans.com/
(House floor plans galore! You can even select the number of bathrooms, bedrooms, etc. and get a "customized" floor plan. This is an awesome site.)
http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/
(K.M. Weiland has tons of awesome posts for writers.)
http://carissa-taylor.blogspot.com/2013/01/contest-madness.html
(This is a nearly-comprehensive list of online pitching contests--including the infamous PitchWars.)
http://carissa-taylor.blogspot.com/2012/05/agency-list-who-reps-ya-fantasy-sci-fi.html
(Here is another list from Ms. Taylor. A spreadsheet of over 200 agents who rep either fantasy or sci-fi.)
http://gorussia.about.com/od/food_and_drink_in_russia/a/
(This might not be helpful to anyone, but there was a brief trip to Russia in my last book. Of course my charries had to eat. ;) )
http://www.earthcam.com/
(Oh, EarthCam, how I love you!! When my characters would travel around, I'd check to see if there was a webcam at or near their location. It helps if you can watch the locals and what they do when they're on the street and such. Also, if your location is in the US, try looking up [Name of the Town/City] Department of Transportation and see if they have traffic webcams.)
Thanks for the list, Mrs. Williamson, and have fun at the conferences!
Oh! This will be so much fun to go through! I can't wait! I, myself, don't really have any sites I visit, besides a few blogs
ReplyDeletehttp://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/
http://ofbattlesdragonsandswordsofadamant.blogspot.com/
http://www.shesnovel.com/
I've used a few of those places. Mostly I use these sites:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.babynames.com/
http://www.behindthename.com/
http://oldandbusted.drwicked.com/
http://www.writedeck.com/
http://soundfuel.blogspot.com/p/the-directory.html
And Swagbucks search. :-P
I also use this a lot: http://www.namegenerator.biz/last-name-generator.php
DeleteI use this site all of the time! It's a thesaurus, but it's also a translator, you can use it to find rhyming words... All kinds of stuff!!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wordhippo.com/
Wellll..... for an obvious one, here. Love you guys!!!!!! :D
ReplyDeleteEtymonline is my favorite! I use it all the time!
ReplyDeleteI use thesaurus.com literally everyday! lol
ReplyDeleteWow, really, that's where Valentine came from? Cool! *runs to check out the links*
Alexa
thessalexa.blogspot.com
verbositybookreviews.wordpress.com
It totally did!
DeleteThanks so much, everyone, for sharing your links. This is fun to see what you all really like.
ReplyDelete