itotoro's in progress superIndex of writing resources
Last updated: 11 March 2024
As promised: A post introducing my free writing resources google drive folder!
Those who've known me for a while know that I'm a huge fan of sharing writing tips. I've been collecting (and making) writing resources into this google drive since 2020 and since then, it's become a little big.
Hence the index!
*Opens chest* What do we have here?
The contents of this folder can be divided into four kinds of media: Writing advice, writing tools, and fanfiction with commentary!
As titled, this is In Progress. A month from now this will either have more descriptions of the things inside the folder, or there will be more things inside the folder. I haven't actually read everything cover to cover yet, but I can at least give you the gist! Feel free to comment anything you want to see or any links that aren't working.
(Anything marked with ✨ has my express recommendation)
Writing Advice
Whenever I feel like I'm losing my writing sense of self, I always look for a writing book to read for some reason. Most of these are books I got from various places, some of which I will not mention even at gunpoint. One is a compilation of my curiouscat in 2021.
- 100 Ways to Improve your Writing - by Gary Provost. My best friend got my this for Christmas and I still have it on my shelf for whenever I need to go back to basics.
- Aspects of the Novel - by E.M. Forster. Got this from Making Shapely Fiction; yet to read
- Economical Writing - by Deirdre McCloskey. A slay from a double PHD in Economics and Philosophy who is also a trans woman. I know this is about economics but she's very fun and gets it right!!!
- itotoro's curiouscat 2021 - a pdf compilation of my curiouscat answers. thanks soph. also i feel like i'm a completely different person now so when I read the stuff here i'm in awe of myself
- Keep Going - by Austin Kleon. Lovingly gifted to me by MK when I was going through writing hell. Has good advice about letting yourself be creative when you don't think you can.
- ✨Making Shapely Fiction - by Jerome Stern. book was mentioned by the ficwip twitter on their Level Up! notion. I went around reading it a day after writing this post and decided to bump it up to recommends; it's that good, especially for new writers. super practical with very appropriate examples while also having this very caring charm about it.
- On Writing - by Stephen King. Classic first book people look for when they want to improve their writing, but I had trouble getting through it even if I enjoyed it. More of an autobiography than practical advice, but definitely a worthwhile read.
- On Writing Well - by William Zinsser. Got this from Making Shapely Fiction; yet to read
- One Stop For Writers Various Resources - by Angela Ackerman & Becca Puglisi. Super Writing Thesaurus. Served me well when I was struggling to flesh out characters at the early stage of my writing, and is still a great reference for possible themes and conflicts to include in a story
- Character Traits (Positive and Negative)
- Emotions Thesaurus
- Emotional Wound Thesaurus
- Bonus: Folders are PDFs of various Thesauruses. Thesauruseses?
- Revising Fiction - by David Madden. Got this while looking for another book from Making Shapely Fiction; yet to read
- Romancing the Beat - by Gwen Hayes. Thanks to Roy for this file! It is Save the Cat Story Structure made for Kissing Books. Even has a PDF!
- Save the Cat! - by Blake Snyder. I don't think it's the last book on screenwriting you'll ever need though. Discusses the Save the Cat story structure in depth.
- ✨ Secret Sauce of Great Writing - by Shani Raja. Made by a newspaper editor but this is so good for honing your prose and making your writing more You. The wordcount to improvement ratio on this thing is off the charts.
- Steering the Craft - by Ursula K. Le Guin. also mentioned by ficwip. what's not to love?
- Story Genius - by Lisa Cron. was featured on a Ted Talk, I think? A fun new way to look at the art of storytelling, especially if you don't know what's going wrong with your WIP
- The Art of Fiction - by John Gardner. Got this from Making Shapely Fiction; yet to read
- The Craft of Writing - by William Sloane. Got this from Making Shapely Fiction; yet to read
- ✨ The Elements of Style - by William Strunk jr. and EB White. Older than your ancestors but still relevant today, searched for this at the recommendation of Lynn once upon a time. Jump to page 66 for how to find your writing style (which i was obsessed with circa 2020). I have a picture book version at home.
- The Writing Life - by Anne Dillard. I have no idea where I saw this mentioned but someone somewhere said it was very good so of course I have a copy.
- ✨ Writing Down the Bones - by Natalie Goldberg. Very practical book and one of the only books on this list I read cover to cover. worth a read especially for building a habit of writing! For a glance, check out the excerpt "The Rules for Writing Practice" which was how I found her.
- Writing Fiction - by Janet Burroway. Got this from Making Shapely Fiction; yet to read
- Writing the Natural Way - by Gabriele Lusser Rico. Got this from Making Shapely Fiction; yet to read
- Young Person's Guide to Lichtenbergianism - by Dale Lyles. Lichtenbergianism is this really interesting concept of procrastinating forward, or procrastinating from a creative work by doing another creative work. I found this while wondering if I had ADHD. If you have the normal version of this book please let me know!!!
Writing Tools
Made with varying levels of professionalism (*coughs* borrowed pdf skills). These are meant to help more directly with the crafting of the story itself, and some of these are fun to print out.
- Ⅎ˥ the book - I got this from a reddit post. It's basically an all-in fillable guide to everything you'll ever need to make a story, made especially for fantasy writers or writers of very long and complex stories. fun to look at!
- Fabula Digital Pack - in hindsight, probably not worth the money I paid for it. But basically a really cool printable version of the hero's journey, which I used to plan out some of my earlier fics.
- ✨ Guided Reading Questions - sent to me by u/paragon_falcon when I asked a question on fanfic writer reddit about how to grow my writing skill. SOOOOOOO good like this should be part of the english curriculum
- ✨ Itotoro's story structure cheat sheet 1.0 - homemade fillable PDF template of various easy-to-use story structures. thank you so much roy for adding the blanks!
- Pamphlet of Pantheons - Guide to Creating Fantasy Myths and Religions by James Holloway. I found it I think in a humble bundle. Never got to use it yet but it's definitely relevant somewhere!
- R.L. Stine's Writing Program - yes this is for grades 3 to 8, but I swear I learned so much from reading through this. An insightful writing program with fun and practical exercises
- Various Writing Templates - by Ibdati Malika. I actually have no idea where I got this. Reddit? Instagram? Basically templates for the 3 elements of a story: Plot, Setting, and Character.
- Way With Worlds, V1 and V2 - Got this from an itch.io humble bundle, super comprehensive guide to world-building.
Fanfic with Commentary
You heard that right, I have a folder full of fic commentaries waiting to be opened! As long as you don't accidentally edit anything.
I would love to make commentaries but I have no idea what interests people these days...do people even read these things...
Fics, in alphabetical order:
- a heart in callous hands; the ocean
- Circles
- Con-you Be Mine? with english and commentary
- even the dust on stars are breathing
- Grief is inevitable, and so is the end
- Hold me in your memory (never let me go)
- i held on, is that alright?
- Sunlight Crew
- "You tell me"
Literally anything could be there. Scholarly RPF articles. A copy of TIHYLTTW. Loona's 2022 Season's Greetings. Who knows?