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By Gary, August 30, 2009

Maybe I’m coming late to the parade on this one, but I just ran onto “wikiHow — The How-to-Manual That You Can Edit,” and it looks like a very useful site for writers and researchers. It’s one of those great places like Wikipedia, where you can get caught up and spend hours of your time, if you aren’t careful. Or, maybe that’s just me. One of the best memories of my childhood was reading through five or six volumes called
“Junior Classics” that my parents brought home from a rummage sale when I was a small kid.

If you like “how-to” articles, wikihow is a good place for you. I’m one of those would-be/should-be handyman homeowners. My dad was an excellent carpenter and handyman, but I was a rebellious little kid and unwilling student. Consequently, I need a good how-to manual if I’m going to, say, replace a light bulb. No, just kidding on the light bulb. (But there’s a couple of boxes upstairs filled with tiles that will attest to my need for a good how-to on how to install porcelain tile.)

So take a look. I think it’s a useful site. Be careful, as always, to verify anything you find there before assuming it’s true and using it in your writing (or your home repair work). Remember that it’s a user-contribution sort of site. Don’t assume it’s all accurate.

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By Gary, June 14, 2009

It’s been called the “information Superhighway,” but I’ll bet that most of us barely scratch the surface of information and research tools available online when we do our writing. I invite you to share your favorites with all of us.

I had a conversation awhile back with a young woman who admitted that she rarely went on the Internet except just enough to take care of what her job requires — that her husband was quite a “techie” at using the Web, but she was frightened and frustrated about the whole thing.

Her job was banking, not writing, but her attitude is probably just as common among many writers.

At a minimum, writers ought to have one or two good reference tools bookmarked or saved as a favorite in their browsers. I would personally recommend Merriam-Webster Online as an excellent dictionary site, for starters. And another a very interesting site that offers a ton of links to good resources is Reference Desk. I think Reference Desk used to be much better in its free version, having become somewhat cluttered with ads these days. Another very good location for reference links to about anything you might need as a writer is LibrarySpot.com.

Check these out. Perhaps you already have good online reference and research sites, but these might be of interest to you.

I wish you happy and successful writing for the new year. Now get busy and write something to make us all proud.

Technorati Tags: online resources, online dictionary, online reference tools, writing tips at garyspeer.com

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By Gary, June 2, 2009

(Editor’s Note: This is another “recycled” post, one of the “golden oldies” of the blog which I’m bringing back to the top of the blog to feature their content again for those who haven’t been around here too long. Enjoy.)

I won’t pretend to know of all the writing web sites out there, many of which are high-quality and run by professional writers, and many of which are amateur efforts either with or without real merit.

The important rule of thumb when you’re looking at a writing web site is the same as with any other web site: This is the Internet, and everything you read on it is NOT true, good, or even real. Of course you know that, and I know that, but there are still scoundrels out there doing their best to take advantage of us. So always keep this in mind: Question everything you see, hear, and read on the Internet. (Or elsewhere for that matter.)

But one of the sites I have recommended in the past and would highly recommend to you again now that I’m recovering the posts in this blog is The Copyblogger, a site that you must bookmark and check regularly if you do any writing online. Their site tagline is “Copywriting tips for online marketing success,” but the tips you’ll pick up there are invaluable no matter what you’re doing as a writer, online or off.

I really appreciate the tips I pick up there myself. I like Brian Clark’s writing style and pretty much everything I find on the site. You owe it to yourself as a writer to check it out regularly.

Now get out there, get busy, and write something to make us all proud of you.

Technorati Tags: The Copyblogger, copywriting, writing, online marketing, Internet writing, writing tips at garyspeer.com