Best Writing Resources

This is half for my own reference... But I have a ton of writing resources I use all the time, so I thought I'd share, and see if any of you have some favorite resources of your own to recommend! Let me know, and I can add to the list.

Outlining:

The Snowflake Method - Explains how to build an outline from the inciting idea, up. Useful for: assuaging the look of terror upon your face as you stare at your blank word document and wonder how the hell to start your new project.

LOCK System - Summary of the LOCK (Lead, Objective, Confrontation and Knockout) system of editing from Ghenet, paraphrased from James Scott Bell's speech at the 2011 Writer's Digest Conference. Useful for: figuring out the basic ingredients of your story. The main character, his/her goal, what stands in the way, and how it all goes down in the end.

Writing:

The Emotion Thesaurus - Gives you a page-long list of descriptions related to emotions like anger, grief or happiness. Useful for: those moments when you look back at your last 3 scenes and realize your character's reaction to EVERYTHING is to smile/grin/smirk.

Google Documents - Google's online document storage service. Useful for: Writing first drafts on multiple computers. Save yourself the hassle of carrying around a USB stick or constantly emailing yourself updated drafts. Just log into your Google account, write in the word document (which looks just like word and saves automatically as you type). No need to worry about backing up your story -- it's accessible from anywhere you are.

Scrivener - Writing software designed specifically for storytellers. Useful for: organizing scenes/chapters/sections in your initial draft, keeping track of which characters appear in what scenes, and my personal favorite, outlining the scenes on shift-able note cards for a birds-eye view of your novel. Also, full-screen mode is your friend.

Freedom - Internet-blocking software for Windows or Macs. Useful for: when you just can't resist the lure of checking your email, Facebook page, Twitter and blog all in quick succession, instead of writing your next chapter. Just tell the timer how long you want to write for (five minutes, an hour, two hours?) and bam. Self-control problem solved. You can no longer access the internet for that length of time.

Write or Die - Set yourself a word or time goal, and either reach it or suffer the consequences. Useful for: beating down that inner editor to power through your first draft. If you don't write fast enough (you set your own pace), the application punishes you by starting to delete what you've already written. So keep the words flowing! Worry about how good they actually are later.

NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month (November). Useful for: whenever you need to know that thousands and thousands of other people around the world are suffering as they try to reach the same goal as you. Cheer each other on, have contests, swear to beat all the other writers in your region to the finish line... However you like to NaNo, this month is all about GETTING WORDS ON THE PAGE.

Editing:

Dan Wells on Story Structure (Parts 1-5) - Breaks down plot structure into its most basic 7 elements. Useful for: your first terrifying foray into editing that shiny novel you just finished. Also quite helpful for outlining.

Revision Spreadsheet - Guide to creating a scene spreadsheet to help editing. Useful for: getting down to the scene-by-scene nitty-gritty, so you can figure out exactly where your plot needs some electroshock therapy to keep the reader hooked from beginning to end.

Fluidity - My personal take on exactly why editing a novel is so hard, and how I think a plot outline should really look. Useful for: when you're trying to play connect-the-dots with elements that appeared in the first half of your story and vanished, or problems that don't crop up until Act III.

Plotting Along - Keli Gwyn explains her good old-fashioned pen-and-paper approach to honing in on her plot. Useful for: when you feel completely overwhelmed by the size of your novel, and you just wish you could shrink it to a single page in your head and stare at it until you figure out what's wrong.

Querying:

QueryShark - Agent Extraordinaire Janet Reid critiques queries that readers send in for her to publicly devour. Useful for: reading before you try to tackle the daunting task of summarizing your magnum opus in 300 words or less. It gives great examples of what NOT to do, and what a successful query looks like.

Query Letter Hell - sub-feature of the AbsoluteWrite forums, the query veterans of this den of squirrels are eager to rip apart all the problems in your poor excuse for a query... And help you put it back together again. Useful for: Revising drafts 1-40 of your query.

Agent Spotlight - Series of literary agent descriptions, including (but not limited to) interview links, Publisher's Marketplace descriptions, agency websites, blurbs on the agent's reading preferences, and a copy of their submission guidelines. Useful for: Narrowing in on the handful of agents who would be absolutely perfect to query with your middle grade space opera with dystopian elements.

QueryTracker - Free Database of Literary Agents. Useful for: keeping track of the 700 agents you just sent draft #41 of your query letter to. Trust me, you will forget who all you emailed, and searching your inbox to find out will quickly become the worst thing ever.

AgentQuery - Another free literary agent database. Useful for: Researching agents who might not appear on Query Tracker (note: this website does not have the same tracking functions as QT, however, so make sure to note who you query here in a word document/spreadsheet/chiseled slab of granite, or via whatever note-taking method you find most easy to reference).

When You Get the Offer - Hannah Moskowitz's guide to professionally landing your agent. Useful for: when that distant, unimaginable, dream-come-true day arrives and the fantastic agent you queried calls to offer to represent you... What do you do?!

Networking:

AbsoluteWrite Forums - Not only the home of Query Letter Hell, but also a haven for ambitious writers like you, where you can find like-minded people to kvetch about the publishing process with. Useful for: Getting advice from people who have been there, chatting with other writers in your age group/genre, meeting real live (well, online) authors who made it to the wonderful world of published-ness, finding beta readers, getting critiques on your first page/synopsis/query... The list just goes on and on!

SCBWI - The Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. Useful for: anyone who writes in any genre from picture books up to young adult. Yes, the membership is paid. Best $70 a year I spend on my career. SCBWI critique group match found me my current writer's group. The New York SCBWI Winter Conference's agent panels are how I found the first 10 agents I queried, 9 of whom asked for partials because I attended the SCBWI conference and listened to them (and trust me, that first query was nothing spectacular). The NY conference is also how I met my beloved crit-partner-in-crime. And when she and I attended a local SCBWI mixer, we met and abducted the newest member of our writer's group, the lovely Ghenet. I cannot tell you how much help SCBWI has given me in getting started writing and connecting to other people doing the same thing. Plus, if you're a full-time writer, they have insurance programs, member benefits and all kinds of nifty stuff like that.

The Author's Guild - society for the published writer. Useful for: once your first book picks up, and you're wondering, WHAT THE HELL DO I DO NOW!? This society also offers insurance programs, member benefits, and the best part: advocacy on the part of authors. This is a powerful thing. When Harlequin tried to open a vanity press under the guise of pretending to give rejected writers a chance to still publish under their name (without mentioning that oh yeah, the writers need to PAY to be published, print their books, advertise for them, etc., etc.), the Romance Writers of America Guild made a huge statement by banning Harlequin from their annual conference and threatening to remove Harlequin-published authors from their guild, since the guild has a "no vanity publishers" clause. Harlequin admitted its issue pretty fast. Harlequin quickly yielded, changing the name of the vanity press to disassociate it from Harlequin's main umbrella corporation. It's good to have a guild at your back when sticky situations like that arise.

WriteOnCon - Free online writer's conference held every summer. Useful for: if you don't have the dough to attend a conference in person (or if you just want to attend every conference you can!). WriteOnCon offers all the benefits of a writer's conference -- talented speakers, agents scouring the attendees for potential clients, video presentations, interactive chats with agents and editors -- all without the cost of conference fees or travel expenses!

Miscellaneous Inspiration:

Elizabeth Gilbert on Creativity - Author of Eat, Pray, Love's (brilliant) TED Talk on the creative struggle. What is genius? Where does it come from? Who's to blame when we can't find inspiration? Useful for: when come down with a bad case of the dreaded writer's block. Or when you just want to procrastinate and listen to a really interesting speech.

Stories Save Lives - Shameless self promotion. But for real. A story saved my brother's life. Useful for: anytime you're wondering whether telling your story is worth all this pain. Trust me. It is.