Patreon || Ko-Fi || Masterlist || Work In Progress
Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : High Middle Ages & Renaissance
Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1600s
Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1700s
Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1800s
Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1900-1939
Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1940-1969
Resources For Writing (Global) Period Pieces : 1970-1999
Resources For Writing Royalty
Resources For Crime/Mystery/Thriller Writers
Resources For Writing Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Stories
Resources For Writing Sketchy Topics
Resources For Writing The Mafia
Resources For Writing Injuries
Resources For Fantasy/Mythology Writers
Resources For Writing Science Fiction
Resources For Romance Writers
Resources For Plot Development
Resources For Describing Physical Things
Resources For Describing Characters
Resources For Creating Characters
Resources For Worldbuilding
Resources For Describing Emotion
Masterlist | WIP Blog
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hey do you have a tumblr
no sorry
Not every writer wants to post their work online, however there are positives to doing so. If you seek feedback and advice from readers and writers, you might consider posting a draft or two. Even a few chapters or a poem can be uploaded online to get a little audience feedback.
Fictionpress | Original fiction only | Covers Opt. — Has a docs feature so you can save works onsite without posting them, plus moderately detailed analytics to show you individual story traffic. With plenty of keen writers/readers willing to learn and help, written feedback is not uncommon here. Quiet and comfortable, but if you don’t update very often readership grows stagnant. It’s also worth noting that you cannot delete reviews or your account. — Adult Material Prohibited.
Major Demographics: All genders, All ages.*
Popular Genres: sci-fi, contemporary, fantasy*
Fanfiction.net | Fanfiction only | Covers Opt. — Sister site to Fictionpress, thus it has all the same features and drawbacks. However, it gets much more traffic than the original fiction site. When it comes to categorizing your story though it can get tricky, and if you have questions or complaints for the administrators, don’t expect a response email soon…or ever. — Adult Material Prohibited.
Major Demographics: Female, All ages.
Popular Genres: epic dramas, fluff, angst, whump
Archive Of Our Own (AO3) | Fanfiction only** | No covers — Invite only, but getting in isn’t hard. High viewership, well organized, and ad-free. Some written feedback, especially if you ask for some, but the “kudos” button is open to the public so anyone can leave their mark of approval. You can also set individual stories to “users only” along with other useful privacy options.
Crossover friendly, so you can finally post that multi-fandom fic and tag each property for search. Ships, subject material, and trigger warnings are also taggable for search (or to weed out in the case of tws). Lets you group individual stories into a series, and has various features for sharing/gifting your work with others. Overall the best place for fanfiction, hands down. — Adult Material Allowed
Major Demographics: Female, All ages.
Popular Genres: smut, epic dramas, fluff/angst, whump
Wattpad | Original & fan fiction | Covers Req. — Wattpad has been steadily improving its features and policies in the five years I’ve been using it. Here, some writers receive tons of feedback and appreciation, but most receive very little. A few authors have gotten published thanks to this site, others have followers in the hundreds of thousands, and still others become site administrators to support the bustling community.
They’ve recently rebranded, and have also introduced a feature to earn writers money. It is currently in beta and being tested with select authors only.
Unlike other sites, this one has very clear international groups and a high ethnic diversity among its writers. There’s an emphasis on supporting foreign authors and their stories in any language. Contests are set up by the site, but also smaller niche ones can be run by individual users.
It’s very fun to use and if the site chooses to feature one of your works you can get a lot of traffic. For the most part however, you have to practice marketing yourself, and/or develop a group of writer friends and read/promote each other’s work. — Adult Material allowed, but along strict guidelines (lots of kids use this site!).
Major Demographics: Female, Teens.
Popular Genres: romance, young adult, supernatural, celeb fic, fantasy
Royal Road | Original & fan fiction | Covers Opt. — This was suggested in the replies, so I did some research. Haven’t used it myself, looks nice, but here are the main points interested writers should know:
Site does not claim ownership of your work, copyright stays with you.
Popular stories receive much feedback and viewership in the millions.
You cannot remove reviews on your own stories, and you must submit a ticket to remove your story or delete your account.
From their FAQ: “All new submissions are manually checked for appropriate tagging and plagiarism, so expect it to take 12-24 hrs for a submission to be approved.” Also, stories with low-quality spelling and grammar will be removed by moderators.
Keeping a steady update schedule of “polished” drafts seems to be mandatory, and reviewers sound entitled.
One-shots seem to be out of the question, this is a site for novels.
Premium and free options exist for both readers and writers.
Site is affilated with Amazon, has been running for six years, and is based in Israel.
Fantasy, supernatural, epic dramas.
Adult Material Allowed
Smashbook, Livejournal, Inkspired, and Booknet are sites I am aware of, but have too little knowledge of to review. Likewise Wordpress, Blogger, or right here on Tumblr you can regularly post stories or novels and receive feedback. However, for those sites you do have to figure out a blogging system for yourself.
While researching good sites for this post, I found this user’s comments insightful. She suggested Writer’s Digest and Absolute Write as good places to seek professional feedback on your work. They don’t appear to be sites where you post work, but rather they provide tips and resources to help improve your work.
There are dozens of other places online where you can post your original fiction, non-fiction, and fan fiction. Things to keep in mind when site shopping:
READ THEIR SUBMISSION POLICIES & GUIDELINES FIRST
Search for reviews of the site by individuals who’ve actually used the site and are not affilated with the site.
See what the site’s policy is on deleting works & accounts. You don’t want to get your name and work trapped on a site with a bad reputation.
If “popular” stories have very little feedback on them, this means the majority of stories on that site get none.
If most users haven’t updated in months/years, this means the site is practically dead and may soon shut down. RED FLAG: the site does not date anything.
If the “feedback” on users’ pages and stories are “Like my work!” or “Read for read?” and other self-promotional messages, don’t sign up.
If a site looks cool to you but you’re still unsure, make an account with a junk email and post something you don’t care too much about just to test the waters. Good/bad doesn’t matter much right now, what’s important is figuring out how traffic works and what readers there are interested in.
Inkitt—spam/shifty; claims it’s the #1 site for online publishing, but this is misleading. Their idea of getting users is to send copy/paste “invitations” to pre-existing online accounts (often dead accounts), and lie about how good one’s writing is even though they’ve never read it. Signing up with them also gets you endless emails about their pathetic contests.
Dreame—spam/scam; similar deceptive invitation tactic, except they are relentless (they’ve “invited” me five six times on two different sites). Their gimmick is to offer you pennies for 5yr rights to your work (and their site is trashy with very little reader feedback).
FicFun—same as Dreame, both are owned by their Singaporean parent company Stary PTE Ltd. (who personally sent me my 5th “invite”).
+ If you have a question, please review my Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you!
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+ HEY, Writers! other social media: Wattpad - AO3 - Pinterest - Goodreads
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*Based on what I see as receiving the most traffic and feedback on each site. These are not accurate statistics, merely observations.
** “Is AO3 really just for fanfic?” (tl;dr—YES)
me jumping between my WIPs without actually finishing any of them
I had a sweet Nonny the other day asking how to get started, and honestly posts like this are a great way. I know games go kinda fallow during school and events like NaNo, but we can get this one circulating and building up a list of folks to tag when were ready to get back to it :)
This May I want to get back into writing. I’m not at all consistent. I’m at a point where I don’t feel like I can work on bigger things, because I can’t guarantee myself to keep working on it in a week from now. So I will take this month as a training month to get back into the habit of writing. I will do this by writing (or trying to write) 200 words every day. Topic is irrelevant. How great my writing is that day is irrelevant. Just 200 words written down. A habit taking 21 days to form was debunked, it does take a lot longer, but 31 days are a start I would say. These are already 140 words, so 200 words every day are hopefully manageable. You're more than welcome to join me if you like 😊
Find the right place to write your novel…
Nature
Arctic ocean
Blizzard in village
Blizzard in pine forest
Blizzard from cave
Blizzard in road
Beach
Cave
Ocean storm
Ocean rocks with rain
River campfire
Forest in the morning
Forest at night
Forest creek
Rainforest creek
Rain on roof window
Rain on tarp tent
Rain on metal roof
Rain on window
Rain on pool
Rain on car at night
Seaside storm
Swamp at night
Sandstorm
Thunderstorm
Underwater
Wasteland
Winter creek
Winter wind
Winter wind in forest
Howling wind
Places
Barn with rain
Coffee shop
Restaurant with customers
Restaurant with few customers
Factory
Highway
Garden
Garden with pond and waterfall
Fireplace in log living room
Office
Call center
Street market
Study room from victorian house with rain
Trailer with rain
Tent with rain
Jacuzzi with rain
Temple
Temple in afternoon
Server room
Fishing dock
Windmill
War
Fictional places
Chloe’s room (Life is Strange)
Blackwell dorm (Life is Strange)
Two Whales Diner (Life is Strange)
Star Wars apartment (Star Wars)
Star Wars penthouse (Star Wars)
Tatooine (Star Wars)
Coruscant with rain (Star Wars)
Yoda’s hut with rain ( Star Wars)
Luke’s home (Star Wars)
Death Star hangar (Star wars)
Blade Runner city (Blade Runner)
Azkaban prison (Harry Potter)
Hogwarts library with rain (Harry Potter)
Ravenclaw common room (Harry Potter)
Hufflepuff common room (Harry Potter)
Slytherin common room (Harry Potter)
Gryffindor common room (Harry Potter)
Hagrid’s hut (Harry Potter)
Hobbit-hole house (The Hobbit)
Diamond City (Fallout 4)
Cloud City beach (Bioshock)
Founding Fathers Garden (Bioshock)
Things
Dishwasher
Washing machine
Fireplace
Transportation
Boat engine room
Cruising boat
Train ride
Train ride in the rain
Train station
Plane trip
Private jet cabin
Airplane cabin
Airport lobby
First class jet
Sailboat
Submarine
Historical
Fireplace in medieval tavern
Medieval town
Medieval docks
Medieval city
Pirate ship in tropical port
Ship on rough sea
Ship cabin
Ship sleeping quarter
Titanic first class dining room
Old west saloon
Sci-fi
Spaceship bedroom
Space station
Cyberpunk tearoom
Cyberpunk street with rain
Futuristic server room
Futuristic apartment with typing
Futuristic rooftop garden
Steampunk balcony rain
Post-apocalyptic
Harbor with rain
City with rain
City ruins turned swamp
Rusty sewers
Train station
Lighthouse
Horror
Haunted mansion
Haunted road to tavern
Halloween
Stormy night
Asylum
Creepy forest
Cornfield
World
New York
Paris
Paris bistro
Tokyo street
Chinese hotel lobby
Asian street at nightfall
Asian night market
Cantonese restaurant
Coffee shop in Japan
Coffee shop in Paris
Coffee shop in Korea
British library
Trips, rides and walkings
Trondheim - Bodø
Amsterdam - Brussels
Glasgow - Edinburgh
Oxford - Marylebone
Seoul - Busan
Gangneung - Yeongju
Hiroshima
Tokyo metro
Osaka - Kyoto
Osaka - Kobe
London
São Paulo
Seoul
Tokyo
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh (Saigon)
Alps
New York
Hong Kong
Taipei
Something I find incredibly cool is that they’ve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldn’t figure out what they were for for the life of them.
Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and said “Oh yeah sure that’s a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.”
“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”
“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”
It’s just.
50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, we’ve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply haven’t found anything better to do the job.