Helpful Links
Tips & Articles for the Writer
In no particular order…we have tried to group by subject.
NTRWA does not endorse or benefit in any way from the purchase of any material. The resource materials have been collected by members, and our contest judges and contestants to help writers improve their craft.
BOOKS
- The Chicago Manual of Style
- Scene and Sequel by Jack Bickham
- The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass
- Goal, Motivation, Conflict by Debra Dixon
- The Power of Point of View by Alicia Rasley
- The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them) by Jack M. Bickham
- The Lie That Tells a Truth by John Dufresne
- Elements of Fiction Writing: Scene and Structure – by Jack M. Bickham
- Elements of Fiction Writing: Conflict, Action & Suspense by William Noble
- Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne and Dave King
- The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to Character Expression – by Angela Ackeerman and Becca Puglish
- A sample of the book can be found here.
ON-LINE RESOURCES
- The Editor’s Blog (super resource)
- Fiction University
- Writer’s Digest
- Seekersville (archives on lower right-hand side)
- Romance University
- The Editor’s Blog (Full Archives)
- Purdue On-Line Writing Lab
- Editor Rent (list of subjects in lower right corner)
- Writers Helping Writers
- Romance Tropes by Mindy Klasky
- Writing 4 Success by Marg McAllister
- Writers Helping Writers Thesaurus Collections
- Writer’s Tools ~ free downloads available for example:
FORMATTING
SCENES & SETTING
- Master scene types for Page-Turning Plots
- Unforgettable Writing All 5 Senses
- Setting Thesaurus
- Hooking Your Reader by Cami Tang
- Secrets of Story Structure by K.M. Weiland
- Dealing with passage of time by Janice Hardy
AUTHOR INTRUSION
- Author Intrusion Pitfalls by RITA winner Roni Loren
- Author Intrusion — Writers.com
- Deep POV by Barbara Wallace
BACK STORY
- Back Story on Seekerville by Janet Dean
- Back Story by Jane Friedman
- Back story with a dump by Janice Hardy
- Early Hints of Backstory by Kathryn Craft
BASIC WRITING MISTAKES
- 8 Basic Writing Blunders by Jerry B. Jenkins
CHARACTERS
- Introducing Characters
- Whose Story Is It? by Marg McAllister
- Unforgettable Writing All 5 Senses
DESCRIPTION
- Setting Thesaurus
- Helping or hurting the story? by Janice Hardy
- Mapping Your Story’s Setting by Sara Letourneau
DIALOGUE, DIALOGUE TAGS / ATTRIBUTIONS
- Dialogue
- Use & Misuse
- Another Take on Dialogue Tags
- Common Writing Mistakes
- Don’t Explain
- Using Italics to Show Thoughts by Marg McAlister
- Dialogue and Tension | Bringing Scenes To Life by Marylee MacDonald
EDITING
- As,said and doing, knew, because, things started or began #2
- Debbie’sediting checks
- Take a book from good to sold
- Master scene types for Page-Turning Plots
FILTER WORDS & WORD CHOICE
- An Introduction to Filtering by Michael R. Emmert
- Keep Readers Close To Action
- Grammar Slammer
- Names in fiction
- 1000 Strong Verbs
- Weak words
NON-VERBALS
POV
- Passive Voice
- Deep POV: What’s so Deep About It?
- Deep POV
- MalePOV
- Bring out emotion in first person POV
- Choosing a POV Character
- How to Choose POV
- Becoming Your POV Character
- Reading minds(as if, as though)
SHOW vs TELL
- Why show don’t tell is a myth
- Show and tell–Not just a Game we Play
- Show Don’t Tell
- Show (like Sherlock Holmes)
Character Arc Progression Tool (PDF)
Setting exercises (PDF)
Character Profile Questionnaire (PDF)
Helpful Links
Publishers
Harlequin ~ Silhouette / Spice / Mira / HQN / Kimani Press / Steeple Hill / Red Dress Ink / Luna / Worldwide Library
Hachette Book Group ~ Grand Central Publishing / Little, Brown & Company / Little Brown Books for Young Readers / Faith Words / Windblown Media / Orbit / Center Street / Yen Press
Kensington Books ~ Kensington / Brava / Zebra / Pinnacle
Scholastic Books for Children & Young Adults
Group Sites
Research Sites
Crime Scene Investigator Network
An Outline of American History ~ From Revolution to Reconstruction…and what happened afterwards
Federal Bureau of Investigation
All About Romance’s History & Travel
In Search of Scotland ~ The BBC’s Scottish History Page
Writing Help
refdesk.com ~ Fact Checker for the Internet
Writer’s Digest ~ Write Better – Get Published
Merriam-Webster Online ~ Dictionary, Thesaurus, Spanish-English, Medical
Dictionary.com ~ Sign up for Word of the Day!
GrammarBook.com ~ Sign up for the weekly newsletter.
Metroplex Interests
Billy Bob’s Texas ~ The World’s Largest Honky Tonk
Fort Worth ~ The City of Cowboys & Culture
RWA Special Interest Chapters
Celtic Hearts Romance Writers ~ Where love and legends come together.
Chick Lit Writers of the World ~ It’s all about the attitude.
Faith, Hope, & Love ~ The Inspirational Outreach Chapter of RWA®
From the Heart Romance Writers
Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter
The Golden Network ~ comprised of finalists and winners of the Golden Heart contest
Hearts Through History Romance Writers
The RWA® Kiss of Death Chapter ~ The place on the Web for the murderously inclined romantics.
Outreach International Romance Writers
Passionate Ink ~ Some Like it Hot
PASIC ~ The Published Authors’ Special Interest Chapter of RWA®
Heartbeat ~ An online RWA® chapter for Medical Romance Writers
RWA® Online ~ the first electronic chapter of RWA®
Texas RWA Chapters
Austin Romance Writers of America
East Texas Chapter Romance Writers of America