Write a Blog Post Pt. 4 – Resources

The junk drawer of my writing world, this is a collection of all of my tricks, tools and resources, put together and made easy to understand with screenshots.

Each link is something I use on a regular basis (a few of them are links to places I think are cool or gain inspiration from).

All of them provide either useful information and / or services to writers and most should be helpful no matter what your skill level.

So use them wisely and don’t be greedy, share yours with me too.

Essential Resources

These are some of the tools that quickly earned themselves prime real estate on my bookmarks bar.

Word Count

I use this one all the time. When it comes down to it we get paid based on how many words we write, even crappy writers get paid for their words.

This tool is simple and there are tons of them out there. Cut and paste your text into the field and it will give you either a word count or a character count.

Eye Tracking

Thanks again to Mr. Nielson and his timeless content, we gain a greater understanding of how users / readers use websites.

Utilizing eye tracking, makes it possible to gauge what people actually read on web pages. This article breaks it down into much more depth, so it is important that you read and understand the concepts.

In a nutshell, when you look at a website, you look at it in an F pattern. Down the left hand side and across the top of the site in an “F” shape.

The articles are long, but worth a thorough read no matter what you do or how much time you spend online.

Thesaurus

We all need them; we should all use them, A thesaurus is as important as a dictionary to someone who wants to use words for a living.

I use this one because it is fairly reliable and combined with a dictionary and an encyclopedia.

Sometimes a thesaurus can open you up to a whole new way of saying what you want to say.

Research

Research Journals

Any good web writer has to also be a good web reader. Research is the defining line between someone who writes and someone who creates.

Where you find your information is as important as how you write it, so use credible sources like the Directory of Open Access Journals which offers access to both scientific and scholarly publications.

There is some pretty in-depth stuff in there, so for technical writing this is a good place to start.

Google News Services

With their plan intact to take over the world someday, Google is ahead of the game when it comes to instant delivery of information to its readers.

There are two different ways to do it

1. Sign up for their RSS reader and have all of your favorite sites’ RSS feeds delivered to one place and updated dynamically.

2. Use their Alert system to have news delivered to your email.

I say try the RSS; it is the fastest way to stay up on what is going on and it will continue to grow in popularity.

Wikipedia

The Wiki is an open source encyclopedia. By open source I mean anyone can edit it. If you see a line you know to be incorrect, you can change it. If there is a section that is missing information, you can add it.

I use the Wikipedia as a resource all the time, and it is a handy way to get a general overview of almost any topic out there.

Their information is usually complete, although as you can imagine their accuracy may be questionable. So don’t use them as your one-stop shop for information.

The Fun Stuff

Rhyme Thesaurus

This is one even those who don’t write can enjoy. Find that elusive word that rhymes with pickle for your masterpiece, (for pickle alone there were 45 results).

Don’t start at work, because this Rhyme Thesaurus will keep you writing silly poetry for hours.

Alphabetize

There may be those random times when you need a list of words alphabetized, and this is the tool that will help you do just that.

If you have long lists of items putting them in alphabetical order makes it much easier for people to get to the one they are looking for.

Cliche Finder

This one is a little strange, but I’ve included it just because you don’t realize how many cliches you use on a daily basis.

Enter a word / phrase and it will deliver all of the known cliches with that word / phrase in them. Just so we are all clear, that’s a big no on using cliches in any type of writing.

Name Anything

Need help naming something?

Whether you want help naming your next pharmaceutical venture, your next band or your next pseudonym these naming tools are a good place to get ideas.

My next band name is Who Da Chic, oh yeah.

Headline Templates

Headlines are often a source of frustration for writers; fewer words really are harder to write, (you can see how creative I was in titling these articles).

Sometimes the usual tricks to get past writers block just don’t work with the short and catchy expectations of the dreaded title.

I’m not saying use them, but here are 54 Proven Headline Templates That Sell to give you ideas.

Urban Dictionary

Another fun afternoon-long website is the Urban Dictionary, and while I don’t recommend using many of the words in your web copy it is a good giggle to pass around.

Convert Your Images to ASCII Art

This isn’t a writing tool, but it is a handy way to impress your friends. Convert your images into ASCII, or numbers, characters and letters.

For those of you who don’t know what ASAII art is, some of it can be beautiful and some of it is crap. Here is one of the former; this example from ASCII Art is simple and well done.

Online Reading

Online Library

If you enjoy reading online books there are plenty of resources, but here are the best two in my bookmarks for finding a wide variety of genres and titles.

This one is geared towards academics so Read Print has a great selection of classic authors to choose from.

More Reading

This is a fantastic site, FullBooks had lists and lists of titles to choose from, all organized alphabetically. I am particularly impressed with the speed this site loads, click and instantly you are on the next page. Very efficient.

Games

Practice Typing

This is a great typing exercise because it doesn’t actually use real words. They are close to real words, so it forces you to un-train your fingers from typing words and re-train them to type letters.

This is the coolest typing practice site I’ve ever seen and I give it to everyone that wants to learn to type faster.

Free Rice

Help people while you increase your vocabulary; it’s a win-win situation. For every correct word definition, they will donate 20 grains of rice to people who need it. Free Rice wants you to help people and get smarter all at the same time.

Word Games

Not only are word games beneficial for writers, they are also good for keeping your mind limber. If you don’t use your noggin, you lose it.

This site has several word games to choose from; these are the best kind of games to play because you take something (namely a strong brain) away with you.

Organizations

National Writers Union

Pretty self explanatory, the National Writers Union is dedicated to all writers, whether you write screenplays or Viagra brochures.

The dues are on a sliding scale based on your writing income, and they are reasonable no matter what you make. Those dues entitle members to support, jobs, help in filing grievances, and even health insurance.

Poets and Writers

This is a non-profit organization and they offer tools like lists of other literary organizations, writing contests, conferences and other important networking information for writers and poets alike.

Pen American Center

The Pen American Center is another resource for writers that includes freelance and web writers. It is a membership that will cost you, but 100 dollars a year may be chump change compared to the networking this site makes available to you.

BBC Learning English

If you want to learn English why not learn it from the BBC? After all, they bloody well invented the language.

They will teach you News English, or Business English, grammar and vocab; there is a little bit for every level of English speaker. Even those of us who have spoken it our whole lives have something to learn here.

Most of us know the BBC for their savvy reporting and snarky tone and this website offers that and some learning too.

Writers Resources

This is quite literally the biggest list of writers resources I have ever seen all in one place. It might take you ten years to get through all of them, but you’ll want to bookmark it and spend the next ten years trying.

What’s Next

This concludes this particular series of articles dedicated to writing a good blog post. Not only will these articles help you in your blogging, they will help you in all aspects of your writing career.

If you haven’t read the first three in the series, be sure to take a look at them too.

Pt. 1 – The Basics
Pt. 2 – Tips and Lingo
Pt. 3 – More Lingo

Don’t push away from the table just yet, make some space because there is so much more to learn.