Jami Gold recently interviewed Elizabeth here, and it's fascinating to read about the process Elizabeth went through to (1) realize that we as writers need a dedicated knowledge base, and (2) put one together. For free, and in her own time too!!! As she says:
"[W]riters need different information at different times. When they’re writing a first draft, they need plotting help. When writers hit a wall, they want inspirational posts. When they revise, they’d like editing tips. When they’re querying…well, you get the idea.I don't know about you, but just as Elizabeth says in that interview, I've collected hundreds of bookmarked posts. So I was pretty chuffed (do you use that word in the US?) to find this amazing resource, and I thought I would share it with you. Happy researching!
These writing links needed to be searchable. It was crazy for writers to have a thousand bookmarked sites—and bookmarks for information that they don’t currently even need."
How about you: Do you know about the Writer's Knowledge Base? Do you use it? Are there any other writing resources you know of/use regularly that you'd like to share with us all?
31 comments:
Great resource!
No, we don't say "chuffed" too often in the US unless we've seen it somewhere and the dang word leaks into our subconscious. :P
Sounds helpful! Thanks for sharing!
I had not heard of it, but I will certainly use it now. Thanks so much for sharing this link!
I've never in my life used the word "chuff"
I sure do! I have the banner in my sidebar, too.
Great link! I've never heard of it.
I've used it quite a bit and it is really great of her to put it together!
But I've never before heard the word "chuffed" and only guessed it's meaning from context.
erica
Thanks for this Rach! Very helpful...btw, we don't say 'chuffed' in Canada either...I've seen it used on this site before by UK bloggers, and I wasn't sure if it was a good feeling or a bad one....it's good right?
Thanks again and have a great week!
Haven't heard of this. Will need to look into it.
I hadn't heard of this site, so thanks for letting us know. I'd have to say I'm a Dictionary.com junkie because I'm always looking to see if a term was used during the era I'm using it.
It's a really terrific site - so nice of them to do it!
We use chuffed too - but my folks were both born in Scotland. Most of my friends/family look at me funny when I say it :)
I haven't come across this resource before but it looks AWESOME. Thanks for sharing it!
And I use chuffed quite frequently, but as a fellow Aussie, that's probably not surprising! ;-)
Thanks for spreading the word about the WKB! I'm glad that folks find it useful.
If anyone has any ideas for how to make it better just let me know.
Thanks again.
Hey guys, thanks for all your comments :)
No problems at all Mike, it's an awesome database! I know you have "characters", "settings", "plot", "getting published", "random", and "popular" links, but have you thought about having a more extended "browse" function, with links we can click on to find articles about different topics? Eg, querying, agents, revising, "show not tell", critiquing, etc etc (in addition to the ones you already have)?
Also, is there any way we can narrow down search parameters to help us find particular posts (eg by year written, "search within search results", etc)?
Hugs,
Rach
Rach,
Thanks for ideas.
The Characters, Settings, etc., links are just examples. You can search for anything in the textbox just like Google.
That said, I have been contemplating ways of categorizing what's in the database such that I could present a list of writing concepts and their associated links. Hmm...
Searching for posts within a year is do-able -- I'll make a note of that.
Search within search can be done, I think, by adding more search terms to your query. Is that what you mean?
Hey Mike, no probs :)
Yeah, categorizing what's in the database is what I meant when I was talking about the "browse" function (maybe I used the wrong term, if so my apologies :)). That would be very handy - if we're querying, for example, we could click on the "querying" link and see what posts you have on querying, then choose the one we most want to read (whereas now we just get, say, 1,000+ results for querying, and we have to scroll through and search each one manually). I guess the categorizing would work best if it's used with sub-categories as well, eg query letters.
Re search within search, it wasn't exactly what I meant, though you're right, adding extra search terms at the start would do the same job :)
LOL, just had another idea - is there a way readers can click on a "recommended" button or something, which would mean that post would pop up to the top of the pile when next someone did a search for posts on that subject?
You're doing a great job with this!
Hugs,
Rach
Neat! I'd never heard of this, but I'm glad you posted about it. It sounds really useful, so I'll be sure to check it out.
We don't use "chuffed," but a lot of us know what it means. ;-)
Hadn't used this site before but will definitely check it out.
And my recommendation of a resource:
http://www.writingtips.com.au/
It's a free online writer's guide 145 pages long, particularly suitable for genre fiction writers. And there are versions tailored to UK, US and Australian writers.
Hope others find this as useful as I did!
Rach, you're on a roll! Keep 'em coming!
When you do a search the results are ranked starting with the best match. For example, if you search for "character" your results will be all over the place on the subject of characters. If you wanted to know more about Harry Potter characterization you might search for "character Harry Potter." Then, the results start to take a laser focus.
Does that help? Sorry if I'm being dense about what you're asking.
Are you familiar with word clouds that show you the relative frequency of words within a blog post? Seems like that would speak to the categorization aspect and maybe help with the "search within search" idea.
Recommendations. Yes, I've been wanting to do something like that. I was thinking of a Five Stars kinda thing. That or a single "Like" button would cause the recommendations to be fed into the scoring algorithm and I could show that info in the list.
You're right on target with the kinds of resources we want depending on what stage of writing we're in. I often put blinders on with my reading, too. E.g. If I'm writing in the first person or writing historical fiction, then I look for those kinds of books.
Thanks for the great info! I really look forward to your blogs.
I use it and follow her helpful tweet, too. I also use some sources like http://www.aztekera.com/tools/tobeverbs.php to catch my "to be" verbs when writing. Another go to blog is Writer Unboxed.com. They have useful posts from multiple book and debut authors.
I think I heard of the site when she first started gathering info, but I will definitely have to hop over there and bookmark it now!! Thanks for the reminder.
Have not checked it out yet, but will do so posthaste! I've been hearing murmuring about it, so perhaps it'd be worthwhile to go crazy over there.
Some people in the US say "chuffed" but only if we often read non-US writers and/or wish we weren't American.
Hey Mike,
Yep, I see what you're saying about the laser focus.
Ooh, love the idea of word clouds, though I'm not sure how you'd apply that idea practically (I'll leave that to you computer experts :D)
Yeah, 5 star recommendations or Likes would work (Obviously you'd get better rankings from the 5 star system I suspect).
Sounds like there's some exciting things happening with it!
Hugs,
Rach
I just found this website a few weeks ago, and I was super syced! Especially since my goal for the month was to learn about writing. It's like Google for writers. Love it! :D
Hi, Rach,
I'm SO glad I popped in today. This is AWESOME. WOOT! ONe site with thousands of links at our fingertips.
THANK YOU, ELIZABETH.... and thanks to you Rach for sharing it with us.
Ooh ooh! Awesome! Thanks so much for sharing this link. I'm heading over right now. Incidentally, we use "chuffed" in South Africa too. :-)
This looks like an amazing resource. I hadn't come across it before. Thank you!
I have to counter Eve up there who says Canadians don't say "chuffed." I do. But in trying to think through where I picked it up, I think it was in university. I had a school chum who said it all the time. She was Canadian, but had spent time in South Africa. Maybe she picked it up from Misha?
It's the kind of word that, in context, people know what you mean. I think we should all use it wantonly.
Hello Rach
Thanks for ideas.
Love your blog, great work!
I totally didn't know about it, but am so delighted by it. I've been saying for the past six months....if only I knew this or this was all in one place. So valuable.
Post a Comment