Resources and links for aspiring writers

[umopapisdn]

(I'll ask a mod to sticky this. Feel free to add useful links and advice of your own!)

The best place on the web to look for pretty much anything writing-related is the Absolute Write forums - lots of good advice, genre-specific subforums, lists of markets, lists of scam agents and publishers and you can post your work for advice and feedback. The people there know what they're talking about and people who pretend to know what they're talking about but don't, trolls and rude idiots get the boot very rapidly. Very recommended.

[Starkers]

Thanks that looks useful! If nothing else it might be a good place to go for all the grammatical queries I stumble across!

[umopapisdn]

Grammatical queries are good. Here's an answer to one!

How to Use a Semicolon.

Also:

List of writing competitions; check the closing dates though, some are expired (thanks to Abi).

[kahless]

For aspiring screenwriters here's Scripped free web based scriptwriting software. I've been using this site for over a year, its easy to use, has all the controls you need to format your script, saves scene headings & character names and once you've finished you can download the script as a PDF file.

[umopapisdn]

And while we're on writing software I prefer yWriter for the PC to Word for writing stories and novels; it's much easier to organise and reorder scenes in, has listings for characters and such, timelining and what-all else. and it's free.

Mac users I know rave about Scrivener - 30-day trial, and their website has a handy list of useful sites for writers and writing software for Macs and PC.

[Rising Flame]

triggerstreet.com for screenwriters (though it's now expanded into short films, novels, comics etc. Good for feedback.
Software wise I use final draft. I think you can get a download version for free, but I bought the paid one a while ago, it's handy if you're writing a spec script for a show as it has the formats for loads of tv shows both American and English.

[umopapisdn]

Having trouble coming up with a plot? Try the Electro-Plasmic Hydrocephalic Genre-Fiction Generator 2000!

(Even better, here's a website that can automatically generate a plot from that for you.)

[Skip]

Great post. I'm embarrassed I haven't come across any of these before. Ywriter and Absolute Write look very interesting to me.

I haven't used it for awhile but Celtx for script writing is pretty handy. Free and has a linux version.

[umopapisdn]

Rise! RISE! RIIISSSEEE!!!

[Skip]

I was going create a post to ask if anyone had tried Script Frenzy anyway but realised it has some decent looking resource pages so will include it here http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/eng/overview

I haven't had time to go through it much, but so far it looks ok. If I change my opinion I'll let everyone know.

But back to the original question, has anyone tried the competition before? It looks like that Nanothingie except its 100 pages of a script.