Writers use lot of tricks, we listen to tips, we craft our
own little ticks, spells, rituals, and habits, but every once in a while it’s
fun to take a peek into another authors bag of goodies.
Thanks to a Facebook post by Phoebe Chase I’ve found a fun
little tool to play around with and it is helpful. It can all be found on
author Shawntelle Madison’s
website.
First up is the GMC wizard, I have a blast playing around on
this. It helps you lay out your characters goals, motivation, and conflicts. It’s
everything you probably already have in your head but you enter it in and the
wizard lays it out nice and neat for you. I’ve used it repeatedly. Also if you
can pick up GMC:
Goal, Motivation, and Conflict by Debra Dixon, I highly recommend it (I
mean really, an author can never have too many resource books)
There is also a Royalty Calculator, I haven’t played too
much with it, but give it a go while you are there.
My next go-to in my goodie bag (my bag is pretty small, but
it will grow over time) is the Emotional
Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi. This book is invaluable.
Seriously. It helps cut down on flat characters and repetitive words.
I suppose the last little thing in my bag is when it comes
to names. The list of name sites I have bookmarked is ridiculous but here’s a
run down of some: (also, beware, I don’t know if these sites are safe, I use
them but that doesn’t mean that the next person who goes there might not run
into some trouble with popups or other unsavory issues)
(yes, if you haven’t figured it out by now baby name
books/sites are an excellent resource for pinning down that hard to find name
for your characters)
What are your tips, tricks, or tools that help you with your
craft? Let us know, we’d love to hear about it!
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