A secret stash of helpful links for writers.

The Grimace Project: Minute facial detail for the cardinal emotions. Great for figuring out an expression for anger, disgust, joy, etc.

Specialty Dictionaries: Need to know more about a specific subject like boats, wine, music, Oil and Gas, mythology, etc?

ISBN: Looking for a book and want to know who published it? Is your book similar to something on the market and you want to see what other books are published on the same topic? Want to look up a publisher or imprint to get an idea of what they currently publish? Great way to research!

Glossary of Space Weather Terms: Thought I’d forget about my Sci-Fi friends, did you? I might not write it, but this resource can’t be beat for terminology for all things to do with space conditions and weather patterns. Heliosphere, Plasma, Solar Flares, Solar Winds, Radiation Belts… Credible terminology = credible writing.

Titanic Phobia List: Remember those quirks, fears and tics that make our characters unique and interesting? Waiting here is a treasure trove of flaws and conflict pressure points for your character. Bogyphobia (Fear of bogeys or the bogeyman). Or maybe you want to go for something a bit more juiced up, like Geniophobia (Fear of chins), Hylophobia (Fear of forests) or Pupaphobia (Fear of puppets).

Life in Ancient Egypt: A popular setting for books, this will tell you everything you need to known to insert realism into your writing. Clothing, food, metals, currency, beliefs, work, slavery…you’ll find a trove of good content for this culture.

Senses Word Pack  & More Senses Word Packs: Here’s two neat little list of words for Taste, Smell, Sounds, Textures and Sight. It might help you brainstorm an exact match for your character’s experience.

Character Archtypes: A list of 140 different archtypes. I know–140? This is probably the most complete list I’ve ever found.

Food, Past and Present: This is so much more that a simple Food Timeline. If you are writing about any point in history and want to know exactly what crops were available, what people in different countries ate and how it was prepared then this is the place.

Pirate Dictionary: Because Pirates are awesome.

Written Sound: Just like it sounds (har har) this one is the A to Z list of all those onomatopoeia words.

Snopes: This is THE place for Urban Legends, Myths and Rumors, which can be great fodder for plots and story lines. If you look in the sidebar, you’ll see different topic classifications from the benign to the downright disturbing. In true Zombie Fashion, the page displayed is labelled ‘Horror.’

Confusing Words: Death to Homophones! Affect or Effect? Complement or compliment? Or maybe you just get stuck on those words that are difficult to pin down a meaning for. All you do is type in a word and it helps you with the meaning. Quick and easy!

Regency and Romance: Again, not a genre I write, but this is equal opportunity linkage. Here are a few places that looked pretty good if you write in these genres. This one here is all about Kissing (and if you read the entire series, it spans all aspects of the romantical from the First Touch to the Big Finale) helping with terminology and creating realism in those romance scenes.
Nonverbal Dictionary: Know all those non-verbal gestures (a blush, a bobbing Adam’s apple, a chin jut or crossed arms, etc) that slip our minds when we need them most? Well this dictionary has got you covered. All the possible human gestures are explained and many shown, which makes it an excellent companion to the Emotion Thesaurus (in sidebar).

Synonyms for Commonly Used Words: Here’s some alternatives for those bland or overused words we sometimes dump into our MSs like Bad, Get, Go, Have, Look, Move, Put, Take, Show, etc. Great for that final polish.

OneLook Reverse Dictionary: I love how I can search for a word or idea that is kinda-sorta-ish what I need and then get a huge host of other words that are related to it. I use this often for my Thesaurus Posts, for example, because I can type in the subject I’m focusing on and often get a slew of content that is directly related to it.

World Building: If you’re worried your WB might not be in depth enough, Holy Zombies is this the resource for you. This covers all aspects of building a world for the writer to pick and choose which components will round out their setting and society. Just scroll down for different areas like architecture, animals, clothing, language, laws, etc.

Canadianisms: Why? Because I’m Canadian and I KNOW you all want to know more about us Canucks.

Detecting Lies: Great breakdown of how Liars manipulate and have physical ‘tells’. Perfect for your lying, thieving, no-good antagonist.

 

Links gathered from thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.ca