Writing Resources

This page features resources that will significantly help a role player (collaborative writer) to be successful in a group or in their own fiction writing. Please review the list below and follow the directions at the end of the page.

Downloads
When writing in a PBeM group, it is important to observe certain courtesies. Give your fellow players adequate time to respond to a post, create posts that are full bodied with detail, dialogue and setting, and also make sure they are able to understand your writing. Unless you are an English college professor, you likely need a program that can catch things like incomplete sentences and misspellings. Open Office is free software that you can download and install. College courses designed to introduce users to computers use this to instruct on word processing and other software, so it is an up to date, acceptable set of programs. If you do not have a word processor program on your computer, please download Open office at the link below and compose your posts in it. By composing posts in word processing programs, it allows you to catch some common errors and will make it easier on your fellow writers.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Helpful Websites
In addition to Open Office software or another word processor, it is also helpful to have at least a working knowledge of grammar, punctuation and spelling. Below is a list of websites that can assist with this. I’ve put a few words with each to help find a website that works best for you. Please note that everyone needs a refresher occasionally, no matter how much or little we write.

http://www.grammarbook.com/english_rules.asp This website is great and written in easy-to-understand language. In the ‘Grammar Rules’ category, there are quizzes at the bottom of the page. Taking the quiz and scoring highly on it would be a great way to comprehend what you’re studying and feel more confident about writing.

http://niemanstoryboard.us/1998/01/01/building-character-what-the-fiction-writers-say/

This is a comprehensive article on creating a character for fiction writing. Since I like to refer to role playing as collaborative writing, in a way we are all authors participating to make a giant tapestry. Each character is a strand, each shape is a plot and all of it contributes to tell an intricate story on fabric. To make this ‘tapestry’ as vivid as possible, creating characters that are complex and fleshed out is important. Please review this article and keep the highlights featured in it in mind as it will greatly assist you in creating the best possible characters.

Now that you've read about some helpful downloads and sites, please send a quick message to the group you are pending in stating what the following image is of. While this measure seems inconvenient, it is helpful in making sure that writers are serious about participating in the story. So, just take a look at the image below and in full sentences or just a few words, describe what it is of in some sort of message to the admins of your pending group. Thank you!