Useful tools for writers part 2

Hello guys ;)

Before I start, I wanted to apologize for being late again for blog Thursday. I don’t even know myself why I can’t manage to stick to my own schedule, but I guess I just lacked inspiration and ideas for a thoughtful post.

Anyway, as you probably know my last post was about useful writing tools and I already introduced you to a few of my favorite. However, there are a lot more of similar resources that I collected over the last few years and that I wanted to share with the writers among you.

If you like to write fiction like I do you have probably already encountered this type of problem at some point, at least I do all the time. You have this great idea about a character and most likely have planned all the important details out perfectly but still one thing is missing - his or her name. Of course you need to feel comfortable with the name and you want it to have an appropriate meaning connected to your characters traits or even flaws. So in order to find the perfect one there are some helpful websites out there on the internet:

The first and most important one to me is the random name generator on http://www.behindthename.com/random/. It looks like this:

Basically, you can get a random name without selecting any of the categories given and just try your luck or you can narrow down your search. Apart from the gender and origin of the name you can also select whether or not you want to get a full name including a middle name as well or a first name plus surname or simply a first name.

If you just need a common American last name this page is perfect for you:

It’s called mongabay.com and lists their names by frequency.

Here is the link: http://names.mongabay.com/most_common_surnames.htm

In addition, this website also lists typical male and female first names of the US. You can simply reach them by clicking the link on the top over the chart of surnames.

Another type of name you might search for is for a location or city where your story takes place. If you choose to develop your storyline in a fictional universe at a made up place there is a website that helps you find a name for it.

To find it just click this link: http://www.namegenerator.biz/place-name-generator.php

This page is really easy to use, you just need to press the button generate place names in the middle of the site.

I have one last useful website about character names that I want to show you and then I’ll go on to another important aspect of creating your character.

If you care a lot about the meaning of your personality’s name here is the address to a valuable website: http://www.meaning-of-names.com/

It does not only give you the meaning if you type in a name but also tells you a short history of it such as where it comes from. In addition, you can also find a name through it’s meaning which is especially useful if you want to choose a name after character traits.

As mentioned above I want to give you some help with another important aspect of developing your protagonist: knowing all about him or her such as his or her likes/dislikes, traits/weaknesses, background and so on.

For a chart that includes all the necessary features you should keep in mind when creating your character have a look at this link: http://www.epiguide.com/ep101/writing/charchart.html

Concerning writing about emotions, this chart includes some valuable expressions to best describe the feelings of your protagonist:

I even came across a compilation of useful writing resources on this website:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/28/50-free-resources-that-will-improve-your-writing-skills/

They are all free and help you improve your grammar as well as your general writing skills and lend you a hand to avoid common mistakes when writing.

I could probably ramble on about this topic for hours but I don’t want to bore you or annoy you with a too long post so I’m going to stop now.

Just one last thing for all the ones of you who’d like some advice on writing: here is a short video from an English-born author and journalist who gives a few tips on writing in general:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTyxpaXOAIE

Useful writing tools

Hey guys, I know it’s not Thursday but I just found some really cool websites that I wanted to share with you. If you are a writer you will find those sites very useful and for everyone else these links could help you improve your paragraph writing skills or whatever piece of writing you want to polish.

So without further ado, here is the first website:

It’s called Thesaurus and you can easily access it over the following link: http://thesaurus.com/

To give you an idea how the website looks here is a screenshot of my last search on it:

For all of you who have no idea what a thesaurus is, I’ll shortly explain its concept and functions to you: Well first of all, a thesaurus is a collection of synonyms and connected words. The website itself is pretty easy to use – you just type in a word and then you get a list of other terms with a similar meaning. Further down there are also listed words with the opposite meaning and on the right hand side you get a little bit of information about the words origin.

The next ones are both tools which I especially was looking for a very long time because it happens to me all the time that I’m searching a word which I can perfectly describe but I just can’t recall it. This phenomenon is also called tip of the tongue syndrome and so is the first website that helps you conquer it.

Here is the link and an image:

http://chir.ag/projects/tip-of-my-tongue/

The page is divided into four blocks with three search fields each. If you know which letter the word you’re searching starts with type it in the first box and so on. Other search categories include ending letter, containing letters as well as letters which are definitely not in the word and a scrambled version of it. You can also type the meaning of the word and its length in those fields. Afterwards your results appear on the right side of the page.

The other website that deals with a similar concept is called OneLook. It may not have as many features as the previously mentioned site but I still like it because it is somehow easier to use and comes with a manual on how to get the best out of your search. Additionally, it looks very organized and refers you to the definitions of the results from reliable online dictionaries.

Here is the link and another screenshot:

http://onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml

I also discovered a link to a page that gives you tips on how to start off your story in a better way. This page is part of the website writersdigest.com which is in general very helpful if you want to improve your writing skills.

Here is the link to the article I was talking about: http://www.writersdigest.com/writing-articles/by-writing-goal/write-first-chapter-get-started/10-ways-to-start-your-story-better

If you have other questions about writing or you are curious how to write a special genre of story there are quite a few useful links on the top beneath the title.

If you want to write a story but you have no idea where to begin with, what you want it to be about or which title to give it writing exercises is the right place for you. Like its name already suggests this website provides you with a lot of different exercises to practice writing. From plot generators and character generators to random names and dialogues you can find pretty much everything to inspire you and helps you kick off your story.

You can reach the website here: http://writingexercises.co.uk/index.php

Another source that mainly focuses on improving your writing skills and gives your stories more authenticity is writers write blog. This website can help you in many ways but the most practical information I came across is the compilation of characters and their archetypes. This section lists 12 archetypes with their traits, weaknesses and goals and makes your characters more relatable and believable.

To access the collection of personalities click this link: http://writers-write-creative-blog.posthaven.com/the-12-common-archetypes

For other material from writers write blog just click on the link to the main blog on the left side of the page.

The last one, I want to introduce appeals more to the poets and songwriters among you since it mainly focuses on detecting rhymes. However, you can also look up synonyms, antonyms, definitions and similar sounding words with this tool.

Here is the link: http://www.rhymezone.com/

As I like to write myself when time allows it, I can highly recommend all of the websites mentioned above because they really helped me out a great deal.

Video games old vs new

Hello guys and welcome to blog Thursday. Today I want to tell you a little bit about a few video games I am currently obsessed with and compare them altogether.

To start off, most video games I play right now are retro games from the 90s such as the Commander Keen series. However, I also like some newer ones especially those adventure games where you can make your own decisions and they can influence certain aspects of the outcome of the story.

So let’s talk a little bit about them individually:

The first one, I want to introduce to you is called Commander Keen and consist of six official games, one lost episode and another six fan-made games of which three are already release and another three are yet to come. Like every great video game it also has an amazing plot. In general it focuses on the adventures of Billy Blaze, an eight year old boy who travels through space as Commander Keen. The game itself is a typical jump and run game consisting of different levels and in the end of the last part of the first trilogy you need to fight a final boss.

Another game from the 90s is called Cosmo’s Cosmic Adventure and consists of three parts. Concerning the type of game it is a side-scrolling platform game with different levels that are divided by bonus stages in which you can recharge your health level. The story revolves around an alien boy who wants to go to Disneyland with his parents for his birthday but their spaceship is hit by a comet and they are forced to land on an unknown planet. Somehow he loses his parents and therefore he tries to find them and save them from whatever danger they are in.

To talk about a new video game I really like, I want to bring up the video game adaptation of the TV show and comic series The Walking Dead. Not only do I love the TV show itself for its amazing plot and the presence of zombies but I also really enjoy games where you can make your own decisions. So this game is literally perfect for me. The game itself is an episodic graphic adventure and takes place in the same fictional world as the comic and the TV show, occurring shortly after a zombie apocalypse in Georgia. The characters, however, are mostly original and very important for the game since it focuses mainly on character development.

Last but not least, I’d like to put the game Portal forward. It is a two-parted game series in which you are a test subject for Glados, a giant evil computer, in the research facility, Aperture Science. To carry out the tests you use the portal gun, a device created by this company that can create two portals linked with each other. The game itself revolves around puzzles and solving them, although you can also die attempting to do so. Compared to the first edition the second one is much longer and has a more developed storyline.

So now it’s time to compare them:

The two retro games which need the DOSbox application, an operating system from old computers, are way more difficult in general because there is no health bar (Commander Keen) or only a tiny one (Cosmo) and there are many enemies who can easily kill you. In addition, you have to start over from the beginning of the level and do all the tasks over again if you die. The two new games have many more save points and also save files which helps enjoy them more and get less frustrated. The game experience is also very different considering the interactive decision you can make instead of simply trying to reach the end of the level.  

Of course the quality of the graphics and the sound of the newer games is superior compared to the older ones but in my opinion that is no problem at all and I love all of them equally.

Sources: my own experiences in playing them and my video game obsessed brother ;)