Nate, I confess, this started all because I wanted to prank you. I saw that one thread in the mod forum (you know the one) and instead of being a nice human being and comforting you, I had the craziest urge to give you the biggest prank that I think YWS has ever seen. The [...]

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For the last few days, I’ve been busy putting together a poetry database over at The Writers Society, and yes, it is the best poetry database on the web!  If you don’t believe me, check it out.
Currently, there are 505 poems & 122 poets, and both Snoink and Incandescence have helped in adding the poems [...]

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The Writers Society (TWS) is a new writing community for writers ages 18+ that I’m starting. The site is quite similar to the Young Writers Society in that it’s forum based, and oriented around a strong sense of community. It’s just getting off the ground, but if you got the time, check it [...]

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Working on a story?  Having trouble with the first line?  The opening line is often the beginning of the hook, and thus very important.  You don’t want a common line, of course…that’s boring right away.  But do you want something short?  Something long?  Something awkward or elusive? 
Check out these 100 Best First Novel Lines.  Here [...]

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Although this generator is not as fun and random as the YWS generator…it has some pretty good ideas!

 The story starts when your protagonist hires a lawyer.
Another character is a meterologist who is sensitive to others’ auras.
Try it out here: Plot Scenario Generator

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I’ve decided to start a blog about web development seeing as how I spend a lot of time coding and reading up on web development nowadays. I’ll be talking about YWS a lot, so if you care to check it out, visit: http://blog.nathancaldwell.com.

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A lot of these look really good, so if you’re interested in taking a free creative writing course online visit Diploma Guide.
A few of them are even offered by institutions such as MIT and Yale.

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Questionaut is a flash game recently developed for the BBC, and while it’s slanted toward the elementary school demographic, I still had fun with it and you might too. It has eight stages, and each stage has to do with a subject area. The first and last stage both deal with writing, so [...]

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1. The heroes will lose every battle, but win the war.
2. It will only rain when the heroes are exhausted and running out of food.
3. The heroes will only have horses if they are going to climb a mountain, where they won’t be able to ride the horses anyway.
4. The enemies will be killed by [...]

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Definr

Not only is the mascot for the site super cute, but this is that fastest dictionary I’ve seen! All you do is start typing in a word, and below it gives you words that you might be trying to find! This could be great for those moments where you have a word stuck on [...]

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Can anyone do this?

You’re supposed to see it in 3D by doing this:

Cross your eyes so that you see 4 images
Relax your eyes so that the images come together and you see 3
Look in the center.  Should be 3D.

I’ve been trying this for ten minutes, and I can’t.  Then again, I could never do Magic [...]

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Sounds interesting:
Working Writer newsletter offers solid information with a good dose of humor
and a spirit of writing camaraderie. Published bimonthly, WW is filled with
articles on promotion, publishing, freelancing, different genres, how-to, and
how-not-to, written by readers across the country.
*To receive a FREE copy (no obligation) by e-mail ,
send a request to workingwriters [at] aol [...]

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Via’s post (right below this one) reminded me of an old web site where a guy was asking web users if they say coke, soda, or pop (the results are the map above). Doesn’t look like it’s been updated since 2002, but still interesting.
The Pop vs. Soda Page 

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Alright, so calling it ‘new’ is a bit like the Europeans calling the Americas the ‘new world,’ but hey, I just discovered this blog and thus it’s new to me.
Anyways, the Behler Blog actually goes back to October 2006, but I only recently discovered it, and I’m really liking it.  The blog is by Lynn [...]

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I always see people on the forum asking about publication, so I thought I would share my “secret”. I found this web site, and I am not entirely sure how. Duotrope’s Digest is a large collection of publishers of poetry, short storys, and novels. It is a search-able index, and it is incredebly useful. This [...]

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 You know what would be funny?  To leave tons of comments to a default test comment over at a new blog put up by our sister site, Inspired Writers.
So go here and leave a comment! It’ll be HI-larious!
http://inspiredwriters.wordpress.com/

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Check out this article called “The Lazy Man’s Definitive Guide to Writing an “A” Paper” (rated PG13 for a small bit of language).  Personally, I love to read…I really do.  But, there are definitely those books I would prefer be locked in a closet never to rear their ugly heads with a professional backer behind them [...]

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Click here to read the Top 10 Blogs for Writers as chosen by Michael Stelzner of Writing White Papers.
Next year, we’ll be on that list!  Well… we’ll see…

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Wouldn’t you like to know?  I certainly would.
The Independent has a great article explaining the “behind the scenes” story to some of the greatest, well-known books of all time.  Some of these books include Catch-22, Hamlet, My Man Jeeves, The Great Gatsby, 1984, Lolita and Moby-Dick. 
I really recommend checking this site out, there are some [...]

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XKCD is a webcomic about “romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”  So, basically everyone on this site should beable to find something they like about it! 
I was poking around the comics today and personally I think it’s about 50/50.  It’s funny, but sometimes it’s just stupid (like all good comics, I suppose). 
Check it out here.

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…on the Writer’s Strike?
 Check out Chad Gervich’s Scriptwriting Blog for all the information! 
Apparently the writers are going back to the negotiating table tomorrow.

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Chances are that if you’re writing a fantasy story or novel, then you have a castle, palace, redoubt, fortification, or some other huge building.  In that case, it’s usually a good idea to do one of two things: (1) Draw a picture of the building to get a full sense of it, or (2) base [...]

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All of the sites listed here are very much bookmark worthy. If you’re interested in writing, then you’ll want to visit these sites over and over and over.
The Writers Society: The emerging YWS sister site for YWS members who grow old.
Bookyards: Their goal is “to be a library to the world.” Other sites [...]

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Since the invention of the internet, snail mail hasn’t been that important for anything besides bills, and college advertisements. If you want to talk to your friend in Europe, you email him. If you want to tell your Grandmother you’re going to be in town, but you can’t call her because X,Y, Z, you email [...]

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Found this beauty today. It’s a generator where you can type in one of your favorite books or authors and it gives you a list of books you would like.
“Enter a book you like and the site will analyse our database of real readers’
favourite books (over 32,000 and growing) to suggest what you could read [...]

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I love numbers; I love crunching them, finding correlations where I didn’t think correlations existed, and making future predictions based on past data.  Fortunately, YWS provides me with ample opportunity to do this, but I love data everywhere.
And so, I found a great site with so many statistics on publishing that it’s mind-boggling.  Check it [...]

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You can watch the sun set:

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Inkthinker has a post up about a new writing blog, Writer’s Frump, that will send you guffawing until your belly explodes.

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That’s right.  There is a website where some guy writes a blog as Geoffrey Chaucer if he lived today (but still spoke in Middle English).  He talks about the issues of today (including Britney Spears and things of the like) all in Middle English.

 Despite my severe hatred for Middle English and the fact that I think [...]

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I don’t know why, but for some reason I spent more time at this site today than reading Drudge.  You click the horses to make them sing; entirely and utterly pointless, but oddly entertaining!
Click here to play.

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