Just Write 2020

Writing Resources You Should Have

Hi New Writers
Welcome to the first New Writer Awards master class. Not that this is a master class, but you get what we mean. We would also like to warn you we have the tendency to be a little sarcastic at times - we do not mean it as mean, we are trying to keep things light and easy. Please also don't think we are ever attacking you, your story or you any similarities are things our team has picked up a lot of, have done themselves in the past or wanted to point out. The intent of this guide book is not to be malicious or call out writers on their mistakes (that is never our intention) but rather to help you grow and become a stronger writer. So take the sarcasm and bad humour with a pinch of salt and hopefully you smile along with us.

We want to say straight away that: no we do not know everything about writing. We believe that no one does, but we will do our best to give you good sound advice in order to help you improve and grow as a writer.

So our first step in this is to give you some tools to help you grow your writing and help you grow your audience here on Wattpad. We will give you some links to external means of improving your writing and some people here on Wattpad to help you grow and develop.

So first off - external links

If you need help with editing:

Grammarly: You've probably seen the add a million times on YouTube but Grammarly (www.grammarly.com) is one of the better spell and grammar checks. They give you a lot more with the pro version but even with the free version you can integrate it into Wattpad and write while keeping your work spelling and grammar errors free. We highly recommend it for writers whose first language is not English.

ProWritingAid: There is no better writing tool out there, in order to integrate this as a chrome extension you have to pay for it but you can use the free browser to copy and paste your chapters into and then edit them with the tool and then copy and paste back into Wattpad. If you have the money and you are taking writing seriously, then it's worth the buy.

If you need to stop getting distracted:

PC - FocusWriter: It creates a format for you to write in which you can't see your desktop so there is no lure from google chrome to watch another funny cat video on YouTube - we see you. Also, it's free! Yay! We love free stuff. 

For Phones - Forest: Now this won't stop you from exiting your writing app while writing on your phone, but it will prevent you from using your phone when you should be writing. You grow little trees that die if you exit the app and you can set the timer. You can also plant real trees with the app - we all know we should take better care of the environment and this way you can write your book while doing it.

If you're hopeless at keeping track of your stories:

Scrivener: There is only the best with this one - there is only one. Unfortunately, it costs quite a bit, but this is more of a future thing than all you budding writers reading this. But you can afford it, there is nothing better. Literally, there is nothing better than scrivener for planning characters, plots and chapters and then actually writing them.

If you're looking for inspiration:

Writing Prompts (writing-prompt-s) on Tumblr: There are tons of prompts out there but none that make us smile quite as much or think quite as hard as writing-prompt-s on Tumblr. They do come up with the weirdest and wildest prompt ideas and we highly recommend that you look into them if you're stuck for ideas or need a little inspiration to get those creative juices flowing. They are also on Instagram if you don't have Tumblr.

Get your facts straight:

Here are just some exceptional resources for injuries, comas - we know romance and fanfic writers on Wattpad LOVE to pull this card so here's how to get your facts straight - and just some interesting things that might come in handy:

Injuries: www.forensicpathologyonline.com/E-Book/injuries (Warning: there are graphic photos of injuries)

Death/dying/murder: www.springhole.net/Writing/things-about-death-dying-and-murder-writers-need-to-know.htm

Comas: www.science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/coma.htm

What getting stabbed feeling like provided by @THEWRITERHEAD254: https://www.ranker.com/list/what-being-jabbed-is-like/kellen-perry

That's just some excellent ones - we will keep adding as we find more.

Now for the internal resources:

If you offer cover shop services, comment here.

If you offer editing services, comment here.

If you are looking for a co-writer, comment here.

If you want to be a beta reader, comment here.

All right, kiddos - that's all there is. For now, we will keep adding to this chapter as we find more resources. You are more than welcome to recommend a few resources that you use or like - sharing is caring. As always, feel free to ask questions.

We also wanted to know if you would be interested in non-writing related things. Like the created of the new writer awards and their journey, some funny writing stories from published writers and maybe some funny judging stories too. Let us know.

Until next time
We look forward to reading your stories
The New Writer Awards Team