So as a writer I find myself relying on numerous sources for information. I need to know how to write a cohesive, well written sentence, but I also need facts, and I need to know what to look out for. We all make errors when writing and goodness knows I will never be perfect, but I do have some reference sites I use to make my writing better.

I thought I would share those with you and ask that you share sites that have been helpful to you as you navigate the world of writing fiction.

I’m not going to include a dictionary or thesaurus in my list, as I feel they are a given. I would recommend if  you have access to a smartphone to ask Siri for spelling, definitions and synonyms. She can find the information and give it to you in a matter of seconds. I keep her next to me while I write.

Other tools that I use include:

• Emotion Thesaurus – Look up the emotion you are trying to express and you get a list of actions, facial expressions, and sounds commonly associated with the emotion. Example:  Shock/Surprise-  small gasp, heavy feel in the stomach, reaching hand up to lightly clasp throat, flayed hands across chest, a shaky voice-soft-halting-unbelieving.

I found a free emotion thesaurus online but was unable to locate more than excerpts while writing this blog. They aren’t expensive and can be purchased on line and saved to your laptop for easy access.

• grammar.about.com-200 common redundancies – is another great site for writers. I was amazed at how often I added redundancies to my writing. Examples: (brief) moment, circulate (around), (current) incumbent, disappear (from sight)-I think you get the gist.

You can find this one online for free. It gives an extensive list and gets you to think about what you are writing. Are you using redundant words?

• worldatlas.com – get the facts about the countries your characters are moving through. You want to pull your readers in and make the settings believable. The world atlas provides information such as weather, language, currency, time zones, religious beliefs.

My main character spends a brief period of time in Afghanistan. The world atlas along with other research, provided information I needed to make that chapter believable.

• wsu.edu/brians/errors/errors.html- is another great site that provides common errors made in English writing.

Hope these sites are helpful to you. I have visited and used them all. The only caution I would give is with the ‘world atlas’ site. I get a lot of pop-ups and advertisements while navigating through for information. I’m not sure if it’s just my computer or if it’s common to this site.

-Jan R