studyblr writers

hey babes! writing is one of my biggest passions. i love poetry, essays, stories, lab reports, journalism, and any other writing style you can think of probably so i thought i’d just put together some resources to help myself and most importantly, you guys out.

essays

for ap lang & lit

guide to an academic paper

write a kick ass essay in an hour

writing an actual essay in an actual nutshell

write a kick ass essay w half the stress

structuring an essay

tips on writing a thesis statement

free bibliography and citation generator (2)

masterpost on writing essays

lab reports

phrase bank for discussing findings

very basic thing on science reports

writing lab reports and scientific papers (a lil more in depth than the link above)

creative writing

10 things writers don’t seem to know about the woods

when you get stuck in the middle of a scene

on including a theme/symbolism/underlying meaning

character names

unblocking writers block

masterpost of writing resources

journalism

how to write an article

writing a lead

how to write a news story

how to write an editorial (MY FAV THING THIS IS WHAT I LOVE)((i can totally make my own post all about editorials i love them))

the news manual (u know what u can find everything on here)

ok so there are so many types of articles and ways to organize them so if you really want to know about those, just ask me, yeah? 

words

tone vocab list

substitutes for ‘therefore’

substitutes for ‘but’

character personality traits

describe someone’s voice

annoying word things that a lot of people do

synonyms for words that students use a lot

100 sat words

emotions

more sites

type in the meaning and get the word

find the word that’s on the tip of your tongue

find rhymes!!

find synonyms

just this blog in general

60 awesome search engines for serious writers

writing advice

50 best sites for writers

find the right words

hemmingway editor (app that makes your writing bold and clear)

hope this is helpful!!

Carefully planned to set the pieces for a later plot development

Totally accidental, “whoops haha look at that, I’m a genius.”

“He kidnaps, she screams”: words associated with gender in Wikipedia plot descriptions

Just the other day I was emailed by a relatively new indie journal looking for writers. They made it very clear that they did not pay writers for their work, so I figured I’d probably be passing, but I took a look at their Copyright policy out of curiosity and it was a nightmare. They wanted “non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license and right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Work on the internet and on or in any medium” (that’s copy and pasted btw) and that was the first of 10 sections on their Copyright agreement page. Yikes. That’s exactly the type of publishing nightmare you don’t want to be trapped in. 

Most journals will ask for “First North American Rights” or a variation on “First Rights” which operate under the assumption that all right revert back to you and they only have the right to be the first publishers of the work. That is what you need to be looking for because you do want to retain all the rights to your work. 

You want all rights to revert back to you upon publication in case you, say, want to publish it again in the future or use it for a bookmark or post it on your blog, or anything else you might want to do with the writing you worked hard on. Any time a publisher wants more than that, be very suspicious. Anyone who wants to own your work forever and be able to do whatever they want with it without your permission is not to be trusted. Anyone who wants all that and wants you to sign away your right to ever be paid for your work is running a scam.

What if the publisher goes defunct? What if they get bought by another publisher who doesn’t care to promote or publish your work? You still can’t to anything with it, you don’t own it anymore!

For a thorough overview of what you should be aware of regarding your intellectual property and publishing rights, please read through this collection of post [https://kriswrites.com/business-musings/contracts-and-dealbreakers/] by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. 

No matter what I put my characters through, they make it. They get to make it to the end of the story and have everything work out and be ok.

So you have a set of characters ready for the curtain to rise and the story to begin. But how do they get along with each other? Do they even get along at all?

Character relationships are REALLY hard to do. But character webs have helped me keep track of how everybody relates to one another. They’re a way to visually connect characters to help you remember what they think of each other.

They end up looking something like this:

And honestly? They’re just as cool as they look. Let’s go through a quick rundown of how they work.

Yesssssssssssssss someone finally asked it!!!

I’ve been waiting for the perfect opportunity to explain this and show everybody my inverted pyramid :D :D :D

I present, The Inverted Pyramid of Revising a Book

Now I’ll explain each section of the inverted pyramid:

THE FIRST DRAFT

This should be self-explanatory. You write the first draft. For novels, 75-150,000+ words of the world inside your head.

PLOT, CONTENT, SCENES, AND MAJOR CHARACTERS

Go back and fix it all up. Did you tell the story you wanted to tell? Did you include scenes and events that add up to the conclusion you present?

Are there any unnecessary scenes you could delete, or scenes that are redundant to other scenes? Get rid of them. If this means entire chapters have to go, wave bye-bye.

Do your main characters have believable back stories and arcs, and do they act appropriately in character at all times?

Is there any point in time when your characters do something that they literally WOULD NOT DO? Change that up.

WORLD-BUILDING, CHARACTERIZATION, HONING IN PLOT POINTS

Now pay attention to the deeper aspects of the story. Delve into the world your characters live in. Do they react appropriately? Does any part of society influence them more than others?

What does your world look like? Delve into the setting. The cultures, the technology, the history.

Work with your secondary characters and how they interact with your main characters. What role do they serve overall? Does the main character’s journey affect them at all, or vice versa?

Tighten up plot points. Stay concise if possible.

SENTENCE STRUCTURE, FLOW AND PACING OF SCENES

Now that the major parts of your story have been patted down, you can begin focusing on the technical stuff. Start broad.

Do you have redundant sentences? Do you start multiple sentences the same way?

Throw in short sentences.

Drop the pronoun from the beginning of a sentence every now and then.

Use commas instead of ‘and’ if you find you use ‘and’ a lot.

Does the flow of sentences and paragraphs fit with the tone of the scene?

Chop sentences apart. Use quick, sharp words.

Or combine sentences and flowery language and soft words.

BETA READER CRITIQUES AND SUGGESTIONS

Now that you’ve really patted this thing down, find people willing to read your work (hopefully for free).

Ask them to point out inconsistencies. Are they confused by anything?

Beta readers can tell you when things are boring or exciting. They’ll laugh. They’ll fangirl. They’ll beg you for more chapters.

Your brain is soft from so much revising. Beta readers are fresh, and will pick out things you’ve glossed over from seeing it so many times.

Shake things up and host a video chat for you and your betas! It’s a great way to make friends :)

PUNCTUATION AND MISSING WORDS

NOWWWWW you’ve finished all the major revisions and your story makes sense!!! All that’s left to do is get the broom and sweep it up (or the vacuum cleaner, or generate a black hole from the Large Hadron Collider to suck out all the errors because that’s super-effective**).

This is the nitty gritty stuff, and I highly recommend either forcing yourself to read really, really slow, or better yet, read your book out loud, start to finish.

You’ll trip up over misplaced commas and periods.

You’ll literally hear when a sentence is awkward.

Your brain will get confused when there’s a missing word.

Fill in the gaps, hammer down the boards, tidy up the place like you’ve got guests coming over.

THE FINAL DRAFT

OMG

OMG

OMG

OMG IT’S FINISHED AND YOU CAN SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD AND BUY PHYSICAL COPIES THAT YOU CAN HOLD AND SMELL AND RUB ALL OVER YOUR FACE AND DRAW IN AND DOG-EAR AND TOTE AROUND TO SHOW PEOPLE AND SIGN AUTOGRAPHS AND BECOME YOUR OWN LITTLE CELEBRITY!!!

Email the newspaper (I’ve appeared multiple times).

Email the local TV station (I’ve appeared on live TV).

Email book talk radio shows (I’ve had a Q&A for an hour on live radio).

……..Marketing is hard.

I hope that helps!

– Not everyone should love the hero.

– The more antagonists you have the more conflicts you create.

– Real life should happen to the characters, even if they are saving the world they have jobs and responsibilities.

– Give the character interests and friends outside of work.

– Multiple point of views aren’t a bad thing if you know how to juggle them.

– It all needs to come together at the end.

– Not every antagonist needs to be vanquished at the end.

– – Give us more than one character to love– (from Diantha)

— Make each and every character count — (from Diantha)

This is an updated re-post of a guide originally posted at the old version of WQA.

Writing about a place you’ve never been to can seem daunting, but with the right research, you can pull it off. Here are some tips:

Real, Present-Day Locations

1) Use Google to locate a visitor’s guide to your location. These are a great introduction to the location filled with general information such as climate, geography, local attractions, and maps. Most locations have on-line visitor’s guides, and some have guides that can be downloaded or sent away for at no charge. Example: New York Visitor Guide. Also, most towns and cities have web sites which provide information for tourists and residents. Just be sure not to make your character seem too touristy.

2) Do a search for “moving to [location]” or “I just moved to [location]” and see what comes up. Often you’ll find guides geared toward potential residents rather than tourists. You might also find articles about things potential residents should know before moving to the area, forum threads about moving to the location, and how-to guides. Example: search “Moving to New York,” or “I just moved to New York.”

3) Take a virtual tour of your location using Google Earth or Instant Google street view. You can also do a Google Image Search to find pictures of the location or look for video tours and “drone” footage of your location on YouTube. Example: “New York City drone footage.”

4) Look for blogs written by residents of your location by doing searches like “living in [location] blog” or “life in [location] blog.” Even reading a handful of random entries can give you a glimpse into what it’s really like to live in that place. Example: Tracy’s New York Life.

5) Look for webcams in the location. If you choose a few really good ones and monitor them at different times of day for several days or weeks, you can learn a little bit about weather, traffic, how many people are around, etc. Example: New York City webcams.

6) Take a look at local TV news and newspaper web sites. These can tell you a lot about life in a particular location. You can also learn about local businesses, politics, weather, and events. Example: New York TV News WABC

7) Look for books, movies, and TV shows that take place in your location. If you can find travelogues, even better. Example: List of Films Set in New York City

8) Watch a documentary about your location. These can sometimes be found on Netflix or Hulu, as well as on YouTube and Vimeo. Even just everday videos posted by regular people can be useful. Example: New York documentaries on Vimeo, “My Trip to New York City” videos on YouTube.

9) Use sites like Yelp, Google Reviews, or Citysearch to find places for your character to dine, shop, or hang out. Look for activities that are popular with the locals by searching Google for “what to do for fun in [city]” or “[city] night life.” You can also search for more specific things like, “best places to run in [city]” or “best places to go dancing in [city].”  

10) Learn about local real estate or find your character a home by using sites like Zillow and Realtor.com. Just don’t use the address or specific details of a real home in your story. Use what you find as inspiration instead.

11) Learn about the weather and climate using web sites like weather.com and Weather Underground. You can also look at the typical weather during months when your story takes place by looking at historic data. On Weather Underground, you can find it here:

Real, Historic Locations

1) Articles and other information about your location can be found with a quick Google search. For example: “Life in 1800s New York City.” 2) Videos, images, and documentaries are also available on sites like YouTube and Google, and you can also try Netflix and Hulu. For example: Youtube - “Life in 1800s New York City.”

3) Try the library or historical society. Most libraries should have history books pertaining to well known locations, but for more obscure locations, you might need to look for the area’s historical society and see if they have any book recommendations listed on their site. Your library might also be able to borrow books from a library in your setting’s location, so be sure to ask a librarian for help.

Imaginary Locations, Any Time Period

If you’re making up a location, sometimes it helps to choose a real location to model it after. For example, you might choose to base your fantasy novel’s setting on the Costa Rican rain forest. Just research that location, choose the details you want in your setting, and make up the rest. If you’re using a real setting like New York state, you can create a fictional city or town for your story’s setting. This allows you to make up the local details while preserving realistic regional details. Author Stephenie Meyer did this in New Moon, using several real Italian villages as a model for fictional Volterra. This gave her setting a realistic feel while allowing her the freedom to create other details that worked with her story.

The second-best is this:

Specifically for fiction oriented feedback, but with concepts worthwhile for all areas of critiquing.

Originally requested by @ephirae.

The Devil is in the Details.

If you signed up to give feedback on a manuscript, be prepared to do two things:

1. For every opinion you give, explain why. 

What lead you to the conclusion you reached? If you don’t know this, you may need to reread a few times until you figure it out.

2. For every specific situation, concept, or relationship the writer asks about, describe your interpretation back to them. 

Give a short summary, whether its of what you believe happened, or how you think that piece of world building works, or why you believe those characters came to that conclusion, or why the PoV character is feeling these emotions. 

Often problems appearing toward the end of a manuscript are caused by misunderstandings in earlier segments. If you tell the writer your interpretation of the key events as you go, they can identity the root of those problems much easier.

Negative Critique: Courtesy Is Key.

Unless you are either (a) a professional editor who’s being paid to whip the manuscript into shape or (b) a long time critique partner with a strong relationship with the author, always be as kind and gentle with negative critique as you can. If a writer trusts you enough to let you look at something they poured their soul into, it’s your responsibility to be honest but also courteous.

Try to avoid:

Sarcasm; “Like that would ever happen.”

Absolutes; “This would NEVER happen.”

Abruptness; “Bad. Change.”

Arrogance; “This wouldn’t happen. [My way] would. Do it instead.”

Better ways to approach negative critique:

Make it clear that you understand the problem might not be in the writer’s ideas, but your interpretation of them. Don’t harp on a writer’s creativity– guide them towards explaining their awesome concepts better!

Respect the time and effort that’s already gone into the writing by demonstrating that this work as valuable, even if major changes are still needed. Example: ”You have a lot of great concepts here, like [this and this], but I think they would hit home a lot harder if you rewrote the chapter [like this], while still including [the good aspects of the current chapter].”

Your personal writing style is unique to you. Pick out incidences of passive voice, filter words, and bulky or awkward sentences, but don’t try to rewrite sentences to fit your personal preferences unless you’ve already talked it over with the writer in length.

All your critiques are only your opinion, and they aren’t necessarily the same opinions of this writer’s future publisher. Mention when a writer’s use or breakage of a “writing rule” throws you off, but don’t claim your preferred way is the correct way.

Good examples of courteous negative critique:

General:

The Five-Paragraph Essay

Using Punctuation Marks

Deadly Sins Checklist

Formatting Your Paper

Writing About Literature

Basic Essay

Revision Checklist

Planning and Organization

Editing and Proofreading

Latin Terms

Essay Structure

Tips on Introducing Quotes

Academic Writing Tips

Introductions:

Introductory Paragraphs

Introductions

Writing an Introduction

Preparing to Write an Introduction

Introduction Strategies

The Introductory Paragraph

Writing Effective Introductions

In The Beginning

Introductions and Conclusions

The Introductory Paragraph

Writing Introductory Paragraphs

How to Write an Intro

Body Paragraphs:

Paragraph Development and Topic Sentences

Transitions

Transitions

Transitions

Four Components of an Effective Body Paragraph

Writing Paragraphs

Paragraph Development

Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Strong Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Writing Body Paragraphs

How to Write Body Paragraphs

Writing the Body

Writing Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs

Body Paragraphs that Defend a Thesis

How to Write Body Paragraphs

The Perfect Paragraph

Topic Sentences:

Topic Sentences

Writing Topic Sentences

Topic Sentences

Topic Sentences

The Topic Sentence

Paragraphs and Topic Sentences

The Topic Sentence

Topics, Main Ideas, and Topic Sentences

Writing a Good Topic Sentence

Good Topic Sentences

Conclusions:

Writing Effective Conclusions

Introductions and Conclusions

Conclusion Paragraphs

Conclusion Strategies

Conclusions

Tips for a Strong Conclusion

The Concluding Paragraph

Ending the Essay

Types of Conclusions

Writing a Strong Conclusion

How to Write a Conclusion

Writing Conclusions

Guide to Conclusions

Thesis Statements:

The Thesis Statement

Thesis Statements

Writing a Thesis Statement

Thesis Statement

Tips and Examples

Writing a Thesis

Writing the Thesis

How to Write Your Thesis

The Thesis

Thesis Statements

Guidelines for Writing a Thesis

Thesis Statements

Thesis

Thesis Statements

The Thesis

Create a Strong Thesis

How to Write a Thesis

Developing a Thesis

Guide to Writing Thesis Statements

Thesis Statements

Citing:

When to Cite

APA Documentation

MLA Documentation

Suggestions for Citing Sources

Research and Citation Resources

Citation Information

MLA Guidelines for Citing Poetry

MLA Style for Poetry

How to Format Your Paper

Argumentative Essays:

Argumentative Essays

Argument

Argumentative Essays

Persuasive or Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essay

Argument/Argumentative

Argumentative Essays

How to Write a Good Argument

How to Write an Argumentative Essay

Writing Conclusions to Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essay

Persuasive Essay Writing

Writing Concluding Paragraphs

Constructing the Argumentative Essay

Writing About Poetry:

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poetry Q & A

Poetry Explications

Writing About Poetry

Writing About Poems

Explicating a Poem

Writing About Poetry

Writing a Thesis Paper About a Poem

How to Start a Poetry Introduction

Poetry Essay Structure

Poetry Explication

Expository Essays:

Structure of a General Expository Essay

Expository Essay Examples

Sample Expository Essay

Expository Writing

Expository Essay Model

Elements of Expository Essays

Expository Writing Information

Expository Essays

Writing Expository Essays

How to Write an Expository Essay

Tips on Writing an Expository Essay

Expository Essays

Essay Map

Writing Expository Essays

How to Create a Strong Expository Essay

Expository Essay Writing

The Expository Essay

Research Papers:

How to Write a Research Paper in Literature

Writing a Research Paper

The Research Paper

How to Write a Research Paper

Five Paragraph Research Paper

Sample Research Paper

Writing a Research Paper

Tips for a Research Paper

How to Write a Research Paper

Writing a Scientific Research Paper

Writing Research Papers

Research and Writing

Research Papers that Rock

How to Write an Effective Research Paper

College Application Essays:

Application Essay Tips

Application Essays

Tips

10 Tips

Application Essays

How to Write a College Application Essay

Tips for an Effective Essay

Do’s and Don’t’s

College Application Essay

How to Write a College Application Essay

Narrative Essays:

Narrative and Descriptive

Narrative Essay Writing

The Personal Essay

Narrative Essays

Narrative Essays

Writing Narrative Essays

Narrative/Descriptive

Narrative Essay

Writing a Narrative Essay

hey everyone! so, after creating a studyblr, i have found so many essay writing resources and since writing (whether or not it’s for academic purposes) is something i and several others struggle with on a daily basis, i decided to put together a bunch of excellent resources in this little masterpost. hope you enjoy (bc writing can be very fun when you feel like you actually know what you’re doing) and hope this helps!

I. ESSAY WRITING

+ where do i start?

how to: brainstorming

how to write an outline

essay checklist

writing an essay, in a nutshell

write a university-level essay

how to write a great essay

how to write a great essay pt. ii

a great ppt by a true lifesaver

+ how do i connect my ideas?

writing transitions

masterpost of transition words

transition words for different purposes

+ different types of essays

narrative essay

expository essay

descriptive essay

literary analysis essay

college application essay

descriptive narrative essay

argumentative/discursive essay

+ tips and advice

general advice

avoiding cliches

for: history essays

for: literature essays

writing ur best college essay

+ even more college essay tips

II. OTHER ACADEMIC WRITING

formatting ur papers

general academic writing tips

planning + writing literature papers

III. RESUME WRITING

+ where do i start?

resume template

guide to writing a good resume

writing a resume when u have 0 xp

+ tips and advice

44 tips

25 tips

IV. WRITING ESSENTIALS

+ tips and advice [for writing in general]

funny little guide to writing well

improve ur writing habits asap

create mind maps to organize ur ideas

+ resources for research

refdesk

webMD

wolfram alpha

google scholar

state health facts

u.s. census bureau

internet public library

the library of congress

the old farmer’s almanac

finding data on the internet

+ grammar/vocab/spelling essentials

the owl [grammar resources from the purdue uni]

tip of my tongue [find a word u can’t remember properly]

hypergrammar 

grammar girl

+ revising and editing

hemingway [checks the readability of ur essay]

paperrater [rates ur essays and papers]

autocrit [checks grammatical errors + more]

editing checklist [by grammar girl]

+ citations

citation guide

create a bibliography

citation machine

google cite!!!

+ fun stuff

freerice [donate rice while testing ur vocabulary]

rainymood [listen to the rain]

coffitivity [listen to coffee shop sounds]

rainycafe [combination of rainymood + coffitivity]

find out which author u write like

+ my other masterposts

a complete guide to studying (well)

note-taking

more to come soon!

1. A journalism professor once asked me why I didn’t get a specific piece of information and I said “They didn’t tell me about it.” She said ” No, you didn’t ask.” I’ll never ever forget this: If you don’t ask, they won’t tell you.

2. Try and say yes to all kinds of story assignments. You never know what you might learn or who you might meet.

3. Keep rewriting your questions. Make them better and more open-ended. You want your subject to talk about things they weren’t planning on talking about. The more questions you ask, the more unique information you have for your story/article.

4. When interviewing someone, some longer pauses in conversations are okay. They’ll feel like they need to fill the silence so they’ll continue to speak. Just listen.

5. Notice everything. What they’re drinking, eating, wearing, their gestures, their speech patterns. No detail is too small.

6. I hate when professors tell me there’s stories all around me but it’s true. I just have to stop being lazy and actually pay attention. Be in the know! Sign up for local newsletters, read local blogs, read flyers on cork boards at the coffee shop, read everything you come across.

7. If you don’t write for the school paper, even once or twice, you’ll have nothing to use for when you’re applying to internships and jobs. So please, get some clips in while you can.