A Priceless Tool for Writers: Dictionary.com

A dictionary and a thesaurus are among a writer’s most treasured tools. Dictionary.com offers both of these tools, and many more features online, free of charge.

Flipping through a reference book takes time. When you’re working on a computer, you can access these tools quickly and easily. Just go to www.dictionary.com and enter the word you’re looking for. Once you’ve queried a word in the dictionary, just one click takes to you to thesaurus entry for that same word. You can even click to check the listing in an encyclopedia, or click on all reference, which searches all of these resources and shows all the search results. You can even search the entire web — all from one web site, and one search form.

From the home page, you can also check out the Word of the Day, read feature articles, access daily puzzles and word games, and quickly find a number of language resources. From Reference.com, which is the encyclopedia component of the service, you can also view what happened on this day throughout history, and access additional tools such as an almanac, atlas, and genealogy information.

For a small fee, you can sign up for premium content which gives you ad-free access, audio pronunciations, and additional content both fun and useful.

I use Dictionary.com on a daily basis. Mostly, I access the thesaurus, which is one of my most-visited sites on the Web. It’s actually one of the sites that my browser opens automatically upon startup, and I cannot recommend it enough - especially since it’s completely free.

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Writing Resources - Wikipedia

Wikipedia is one of the most useful writing resources available on the web, especially for any writer looking to get a quick fix on some solid information. If you can think of it, it’s in the wiki. And if it’s not, then you can add it.

According to itself, Wikipedia is “a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project.”

To date, over 75,000 volunteer contributors write and edit a staggering number of entries - over five million articles are available at Wikipedia, and over two million of those are English language articles. Entries can be found for topics ranging from pop culture to intricate scientific studies.

Launched in 2001, Wikipedia has grown into one of the most-used online research tools, with approximately 6-7% of global internet users visiting the site daily.

Taking Care with Writing Resources

Since Wikipedia is written and edited by the public, the biggest concern for researchers is its accuracy. For this reason, Wikipedia is often not an acceptable writing resource in formal research projects. However, the content is regularly monitored and edited by Wikipedians, members who write and peer review the content, and.

From the Wikipedia FAQ:

“As anyone can edit any article, it is of course possible for biased, out of date, or incorrect information to be posted. However, because there are so many other people reading the articles and monitoring contributions using the Recent Changes page, incorrect information is usually corrected quickly. Thus, the overall accuracy of the encyclopedia is improving all the time as it attracts more and more contributors.”

I have used Wikipedia in a number of ways. Often I use it to look up music and artists, especially when I need to find out what year a song or album was released. Just the other day I had a little debate with my dad about whether salt is considered a chemical (it is) and I turned to Wikipedia to settle the argument.

Of course, I use it regularly for articles like the one you’re reading now! You can find biographies, historical data, and general explanations of just about everything under the sun. And if that wasn’t enough, WikiMedia, the foundation that runs Wikipedia, has offered up a host of additional Wikis: Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikinews, and more!

While you may not want to use Wikipedia as one of your official writing resources, it sure is an excellent starting point. Because anyone can add or update the content on the site, it shouldn’t be used in an academic or professional bibliography but it does often provide sources for its articles, and those are often valid for more official references if you need them.

The Magic of Hyperlinks

Because Wikipedia provides additional resources, and because all of the articles are peppered with links to other related topics and articles, it’s easy to navigate and dig deeply into any subject.

Perhaps the most wonderful aspect of Wikipedia is its community. Anyone can create an account and start contributing, either by writing or editing entries. And Wikipedia openly invites the public by actively encouraging participation in this incredible, ongoing, massive project.

Do you have Wikipedia in your list of writing resources? Next time you need to do a little research, check in and see if you can find the information you need there. And if you have any information to add, then you can become a Wikipedian and tell the Wiki!

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The Writing Show (Review) - Interviews with Writers

The Writing Show is a weekly podcast that features interviews with writers, publishers, editors, agents, and other professionals who work in the literary and publishing industries.

The show explores every aspect of writing, from generating ideas to collecting royalties. Host Paula B. delivers original, entertaining, and informative content that is designed to help writers better understand writing as a profession.

A Better Understanding of What it Means to Be a Writer

Whether you’re just starting out as a writer or already an established professional, The Writing Show will provide you with news, information, and insight that you simply can’t get anywhere else. Paula B. leaves no stone unturned, and gives attention to a wide range of writerly topics:

• Freelance and web writing
• Novelists and poets
• Agents, editors, and publishers
• Business management and royalty collections
• Every genre imaginable from greeting cards to comic books

Paula and her guests explore writing challenges and how to overcome them, the ins and outs of the publishing world, and writing within a genre. On any given episode, the guest might be an agent, a professional copywriter or editor, or ambitious young writer who tackled NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).

After listening to almost every episode of The Writing Show, I realized that interviews with writers are incredibly educational as well as fascinating. I’ve gained more insight from this podcast in just a few weeks than I have from all the writing books and websites I’ve read combined.

Interviews with Writers

While The Writing Show offers a wealth of advice and information for writers, it’s also a great source for inspiration and writing tips. Guest Paula Paul, author of Crazy Quilt: A Novel and 22 other books, mentioned that in order to gain greater understanding of her more elusive characters, she often engages in conversations with them to learn more about their personalities. She simply opens a text editor and starts up a chat, typing for both herself and the character. I put that into practice immediately and found it to be an creative and revealing way to connect with my own characters.

Listening to the trials and tribulations that other writers endure has been a source of comfort ever since I discovered The Writing Show. I’ve always struggled with creative distraction. A few months into a novel I’ll come up with an even better cast of characters and story arc. It’s irresistible, so I put the first project on the back burner and dive into the newer, more exciting project. The result is a stove top full of back burners and one ever-revolving front burner.

What a welcome surprise it was to learn that I’m not the only writer who suffers from this affliction! Mark Putnam of Plotastic fell prey to his own bigger and better story ideas until he finally decided to do something about it - he developed an interactive website where an audience could make decisions about the characters and story. He established a deadline for finishing his novel and committed to his readers. This has proven to be a successful endeavor for Mark, and to this day, he’s finally realizing his dream of completing an entire novel.

Paula B also features a series called “Getting Published,” which follows the process of a writer attempting to get work published through traditional publishing houses. Imagine a publisher sitting on your manuscript for almost a year! That’s what happened to writer Jean Tennant. Or deciding to self-publish a single copy of a children’s book as a birthday present. Mark Leslie did just that.

All of the interviews with writers open new doors to ideas for writing and getting your work out there - in print, online, or through self-publishing.

Listen Up

One of the best things about The Writing Show is that it’s a podcast, which means it’s published in audio format. You can listen to it anytime, and if you own an mp3 player, you can download and listen to it in your car, at work, or at the gym. That’s what I call convenient!

Check out The Writing Show’s interviews with writers online at www.writingshow.com or download directly from

And keep on writing!

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